Colorado Palestinians call for peace and dignity: "It's not helping Israeli citizens. It's not helping the Palestinian citizens"
Palestinians gathered Wednesday on the Auraria Campus in Denver to show solidarity with their friends and family in Gaza. They say they are not celebrating the attacks by Hamas on Israel, they just want their voices heard.
"Palestinians are humans," said Reema Wahdan, director of the Colorado Palestinian Club.
She says her people in Gaza are suffering alongside Israelis.
"Can you imagine 2 million people living in just a suburb of Denver and then having to be subjected to aerial raids and bombardment?" asked Wahdan.
In addition to not allowing Palestinians to leave Gaza through their borders, in retaliation for this weekend's attacks, the Israeli Defense Force is now cutting off water and fuel to Gaza. Wahdan says innocent Palestinians are being killed.
"I've had three close friends from Gaza who have lost several family members and I want to preface that this is unheard of," said Wahdan.
One of those people is Abdullah Elagha, who lives in Colorado. He just learned ten of his family members were killed, three of them children aged 15, 2 and 1 year old. He says they were good people who didn't deserve to die.
"They were in their family home and they were hit with an Israeli airstrike," said Elagha. "I'm still trying to process that an entire branch of my family tree has been clipped off."
He also says killing and depriving Palestinians of basic human rights like food and water must stop.
"This is ongoing. This is the day-to-day life of Palestinians it is brutal," said Elagha.
He and everyone at Wednesday's rally want Colorado leaders to listen to his people's pleas for help and cries for peace so no Palestinian or Israeli has to suffer a loss like Abdullah has ever again.
"The Colorado community is of the mindset that we can co-exist with one another. Because perpetuating this war and cycle and violence is not helping. It's not helping Israeli citizens. It's not helping the Palestinian citizens," said Wahdan.
