Support for truce, Palestinian civilians focus of Johnstown forum on Gaza war

Dec. 23—JOHNSTOWN, Pa. — The history and complexity of the ongoing Hamas-Israeli war were put on display on Friday at the Cambria County Library community room for residents and visitors to inspect and discuss.

The Party for Socialism and Liberation Westmoreland organized an educational forum to help people understand the conflict and come together to talk about ways to support Palestinian civilians who are disproportionately affected by the battles, organizers said.

"We need to be in connection with each other and discuss what we need to do here to help them," PSL member and Johnstown native Madeline Burrows said.

The group wasn't there to memorize dates or to learn how to win arguments online, she added, but to network so that they can spread education, urge elected officials to support a ceasefire, and aid Palestinian refugees in Gaza and the West Bank.

Burrows said that it's important to provide these type of events in rural areas, such as Johnstown, that are often forgotten about when organizers hold gatherings in large cities.

"In a small town like Johnstown, to see this happening here is amazing," said Omar Khraim.

Khraim is a native of Jordan, which borders Israel, who moved to the United States last year for graduate school in Iowa. He was in the area this week visiting family, and when he heard about the forum, he made a point to attend.

"I would attend anything that supported Palestine," he said.

Khraim said he has a personal connection as a Jordanian to the war. He said his grandfather was a Palestinian native expelled from the country during what Palestinians refer to as the "Nakba" — the mass displacement of Palestinians leading up to, during and after the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. Nakba is Arabic for "catastrophe."

He also said his childhood was embroiled in the intifada, a term that refers to uprisings of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza aimed at ending Israel's occupation of those territories, the most recent having taken place in 2000.

Organizers started the forum with a definition of Zionism and description of the movement's history. Presenters said that Zionism dates back to the 1880s and argued that it started as a political project to establish a Jewish state on the historical land of Palestine through European- and American-style settler-colonialism.

They stressed that they were not targeting Judaism or Jewish people, arguing that anti-Zionism is often misconstrued as antisemitism.

Brief descriptions of popular Zionist figures through history and their thoughts on the movement's objectives were provided.

Presenters also discussed how, they said, the Revisionist faction gained control of the movement and acted as a predecessor to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing nationalist Likud party, as well as the numerous conflicts between Arabic countries and Israel since the Jewish country's creation after World War II.

Other topics ranged from the Oslo Accords, which were meant as peace agreements between Palestine and Israel in the 1990s; how Israel took land from Palestinian natives through force and settlement since 1948, according to presenters; and the rise of Arab nationalism.

As the complex history was covered, some audience members nodded in agreement, while others chimed in with more context on the issues.

Israel launched the current war in the Gaza Strip after an Oct. 7 terrorist attack against Israel by Hamas militants that killed more than 1,000 people.

PSL organizer Nick Marco told the members of the audience that they have to ask themselves what was happening in that region before Oct. 7. He said the forum came about because the party felt a need to educate people "after the genocide in Gaza following the events of Oct. 7."

Eliza and Patrick Link attended to learn more about Israeli-Palestinian history. The pair are teachers in New Jersey visiting family in Johnstown for the holidays.

Eliza Link, a Johnstown native, spoke about the importance of being educated on the subject and learning how to help her students understand the war.

"We want to think about how to support our Jewish and Muslim students as we work through this," Eliza Link said. "This is everyone's job to care about this and be educated on this."