Palestine supporters decorate Fresno Downtown’s Christmas tree with photos of dead
FRESNO, Calif. (KSEE/KGPE) – In a quiet, emotional display from Palestinian supporters in the City of Fresno Friday morning, around a dozen people came out to hang photos on the Christmas tree in front of Fresno City Hall.
Photos that showed 140 faces of Palestinian people killed in the Israel-Hamas war.
“These are doctors, lawyers, artists, healthcare workers, children. And so, this is a way to bring it here to Fresno,” said Layla Darwish, chair of the Palestine Freedom Project.
Darwish was one of the many there to put up the photos, but one of those people, originally from Norway, says the idea came from her home country.
“What we are opposing is what Israel is doing on both the West Bank and in Gaza. And so, some of my friends in Norway had done this outside of the city hall in Oslo, and when I saw that I asked if we could just use their templates there to do the same thing here,” said Linda Renland, a co-organizer of the event.
Those in attendance say the display was planned days in advance, but it came one day after Fresno Mayor Jerry Dyer held a closed press conference at city hall, to state the city stands with all who want peace in the Middle East.
Darwish says she found out about the event at city hall when she went to pick up her group’s flags, which were originally raised earlier in the month at Eaton Plaza, following the raising of the Israeli flag there in October.
However, she says she was not allowed to speak or even enter the room.
“One member came out after they went into the mayor’s office and told me to come in. When he did that, there was a rebuttal and people were telling him, ‘She’s not invited. She’s not welcome.’ They dehumanized me at that point,” she said.
City officials did not respond to our request for comment on the hanging of the photos.
Darwish says she hopes the display will help change minds to help pass a ceasefire resolution in the city, and also asks that the mayor do a better job representing her and her people.
“Maybe they’ll see, they’ll put faces to names and numbers, because these are not just numbers, as I said, these are human beings,” said Darwish. “These are doctors, lawyers, and that’s what we want to do is humanize us, because the mayor hasn’t done a good job at doing that.”
The group says they may have additional displays over the Christmas weekend to try and draw additional attention.
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