Carmit Harari, rabbi for Shir Tikvah in Homewood, said she was born and raised in Israel and a lot of her family members live in Israel. On Saturday, Harari said she felt shock, horror and fear watching the news of the Hamas attack.
“We have never seen an attack of this magnitude on Israel. This is just unprecedented violence and horrific violence at that,” Harari said. “This particular attack was unprovoked. Nothing specific was done.”
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Tarek Khalil, education coordinator with American Muslims for Palestine and a board member of its Chicago chapter, said the Hamas attack was a result of 75 years of Israeli oppression of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
“What happened Oct. 7 was an expression of their situation on the ground, an expression of lack of resources, lack of freedom, lack of dignity. This was not an aggression from the people of Gaza against the state of Israel. This was an act of resistance to occupation,” Khalil said. “It was absolutely provoked. It was not unprovoked at all given that context.”
The outbreak of war has apparently led to cancellations this week of various events.
The Southwest Interfaith Team canceled a forum this past Sunday, though officials from the group did not give a reason and did not return phone calls. The program, “1 God — 3 Faiths All is Good,” was to be held at St. George Church in Tinley Park and include Jewish, Christian and Muslim perspectives.
Oak Lawn High School postponed its Palestinian Culture Night, which was scheduled for Oct. 13, because of the violent events unfolding in the region.
“Due to the serious nature of the conflict and out of respect for the loss and suffering felt by those involved, we feel it is appropriate to postpone the event,” said assistant principal Marcus Wargin.
Hamas militants stormed from the blockaded Gaza Strip Saturday in a surprise air and land attack on Israel during the Jewish holiday Simhat Torah. Hamas killed dozens and took Israeli hostages into the Gaza strip.
Israel launched airstrikes in Gaza and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the country is now at war. Israel said Tuesday it had regained control over its southern region and the border with the Gaza strip.
Deanna Othman, a board member of the American Muslims for Palestine Chicago chapter, said when the state of Israel was established in 1948 it created a Palestinian refugee crisis as 750,000 Palestinians were uprooted from their homes.
Othman, who lives in Oak Lawn, said Palestinians in Gaza were placed there after the creation of Israel and many live in refugee camps. About two-thirds of the population in Gaza consists of Palestinian refugees, said Khalil, who lives in Bridgeview.
While over the years there has been resistance movements, Othman said the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip have been under Israeli military occupation for the past 75 years.
In the last 16 years, the Palestinians in Gaza have been under siege, Othman said, where they can’t travel and there’s limited supplies, food and electricity to the area. The siege included building a fence around Gaza, Khalil said, which is why Human Rights Watch declared that Palestinians in Gaza have been living in an open-air prison.
“All of those conditions, compounded with the occupation, which has been ongoing, has made Gaza virtually unlivable for the people there,” Othman said. “We’re seeing the repercussions of all of this come to ahead.”
Hamas is a terrorist organization, Harari said, saying when it was founded it stated part of its mission is to destroy the state of Israel and kill Jewish people, which “should speak for itself.”
“It is incredibly heartbreaking, horrifying and deplorable that they would take elderly people and children hostage and use them as human shields in this war,” Harari said. “It is very awful that Hamas, because it’s a terrorist organization, also uses Palestinian civilians as human shields as well.”
Blaming Hamas, which has been the governing authority of the Gaza Strip since 2007, for the attacks “is detracting from the problem at hand and deflecting from the root cause which is the occupation,” Othman said.
Hamas is a political movement established in response to Israel’s occupation of Gaza, Khalil said.
“Everything else from flows from that. If we don’t get down to the fundamental nature of the problem and we start focusing on the symptom rather than the disease, we’ll never cure it,” Khalil said.
Othman said she’d like the war to end would be an end to the occupation and lift the siege on Gaza so that all people can “live with freedom and dignity in their land.” Othman said she also hopes the U.S. will stop supporting Israel financially.
“The most ideal outcome would be an end to the siege, an end to the blockade, an end to the military occupation, the restoration of the rights of the Palestinian people and full equality for all of those who live in all of historic Palestine from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea,” Khalil said. “Where Jews and Palestinians live as equals in that country.”
Harari said she’d like to see the war end swiftly and with the least amount of deaths on both sides.
“The majority would love to see this end as safely as it can, considering, with the least number of additional lives lost, with hostages returned safely to their families and with peace as soon as possible,” Harari said.
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