About 200 rally in St. John's in support of Palestinians, including sisters hoping to reunite family
Saturday was 12th rally supporting Palestinians since war began
For Marilyn Kasken, the weekly pro-Palestine protests in St. John's have an especially personal meaning.
"I'm from Gaza and my family are in Gaza," Kasken said. "I only have my sister here."
However, Kasken hopes to change that soon, as she's raising money to bring her brothers to Newfoundland.
"My two brothers made it to the south," she said. "They are evacuating in a tent in the south in Rafah."
A GoFundMe with a goal of $50,000 has been set up to raise funds for the lengthy and expensive process that would be necessary for the brothers to come to Canada.
"The government is not covering the travel expenses," Kasken said.
"The money is raised to cover their residency in Egypt while they're waiting for the biometrics and the visa to be issued and their flight tickets to Canada and to Newfoundland, and their first year settling in here in Newfoundland."
As of Saturday, just under $16,000 had been raised.
"This is the only thing that we can do," Kasken said. "It was going good, but we need so much more and I hope that people help us … so we can bring them here safely as soon as possible."
However, there are only a limited number of visas available to Palestinians. John Harris, media liaison for the St. John's Palestine Action Committee, says that puts a lot of people in tough positions.
"Canada is only giving 1,000 visas for temporary visits from people in Gaza and it's only for family reunification," Harris explained. That's not enough, he said.
"We have families competing against other families for these visas, and it really is hurtful when you know that if you bring your brothers over then maybe other families might not get to bring their family over. So it's putting Palestinians in a very tough situation when all they're trying to do is to seek safety, seek help and be reunified with their families."
Harris hopes some politicians will support the Kasken family in their efforts and said the federal government could be doing more.
"Our country can be doing more for calling for peace. It can be doing more to help those reunify with their families. And so far, we've seen a lot of inaction," he said.
Saturday's rally was the 12th in St. John's since the latest iteration of the Israel-Hamas war began. Israeli officials said 1,200 people were killed when Hamas militants attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7. Since then, Israeli forces have killed more than 23,000 Palestinians, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza.
"That's why we're protesting every week," Harris said.
"This is so important that we have peace and stop the invasion of Gaza and the bombardment of civilians.… It is a horrific, horrific scenario for anyone's family to be in. That's why we need a permanent ceasefire now."
Focus on journalists
This week's protest was focused on the number of journalists who have been killed in the conflict. Rhea Rollman, a journalist for the Independent, was among this week's speakers. She said Western media have not focused enough on the deaths of journalists.
"It's important for journalists around the world, especially Western journalists, to speak up about that, to point out the threat against press freedom, the threats against their colleagues who are reporting in Gaza," she said.
Rollman said many journalists have been afraid to speak for fear of repercussions, such as losing their job.
"Journalists need to know they're gonna be protected when they call it like it is, when they the world know what they're seeing and provide the analysis to understand what's going on," she said.
"And media agencies need to protect journalists when they're doing that."
For people like Kasken, the war is much more than just a headline. Kasken said she has lost contact with family members who are stuck in the northern Gaza.
"I can't describe how it feels, because since Oct. 7, we've been feeling so frustrated, tired, angry," she said. "We have so much rage because this is not fair. This is not supposed to be."
"People are being punished just for being Palestinians from Gaza, and it's so draining for us," Kasken said.
"Every minute passing without having a permanent ceasefire, we are losing another chance of saving them."
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With files from Sarah Blackmore