A more detailed write up.

Vancouver, with its snowboarders and kayak tours and great produce and Benetton ad-inspired hipster scene, can seem on the surface a little removed from “global issues”. Issues such as Israel’s bombing of Gaza these last few days. Not to mention the worldwide fury stirred by conflict in the Holy Land.

But, for a primer on Vancouver’s connection to the “big picture”, you couldn’t beat this afternoon’s (December 29) pro-Palestinian protest on West Hastings Street.

Palestinian flags were out in force. So were those of Israel, across the street at the small counter-demonstration. The rhetoric was exact, pungent, fierce, furious, and emotional. Speaker after speaker encouraged the 250-strong crowd to shout.

“Free, free Palestine,” Omar Shaban, vice president of the Canadian Arab Federation, chanted. The crowd returned, “Free, free Palestine.”

...

Asif Husain, who attended the event to represent Muslim solidarity, explained to the Straight why he supports Hamas.

“They’re in a difficult position,” he said. “There is no solution to the peace problem so far. Sixty years have gone by with no end in sight.”

Across the street, a yarmulke-bedecked Stephen Burgher agreed there is no obvious solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

“They [Palestinians] want to be ‘free to the sea’ so they want no Israel left,” he said. “I don’t think anyone over here is calling for the destruction of Palestine. For peace, you’ve got to start off with somebody who’s a partner. You’ve got to start off with someone who is willing to talk to you about coexistence. If they want to destroy you, it’s not negotiation time; it’s war time. And I think it’s necessary, it’s sad to say.”

Hanna Kawas of the Canada Palestine Association blamed the ongoing conflict on the United Nations and the U.S.

“Yesterday was the 43rd veto in support of Israel,” Kawas said. “No other country in the world has been protected as Israel. And they’re doing it basically to cover the war crimes of the Israeli government. The U.S. is complicit in these war crimes. The M16s are American, the ammunition is American, and Israelis doing it on behalf of the U.S. Without them, Israel doesn’t exist.”

I should add there's an interesting bit at the end of the article I link to in the description where they describe how two online friends ran into each other at the protest - each one supporting the other side. So they went out for coffee after the demonstration was over to discuss their conflicting worldviews.

thing is both sides are retarded , both sides need to stop atacking eachother one thing is for sure is that israils response is not proposonate and thay are killing far more "inosent" people than the palastineans.

the protestors seem prity stupid to me i think the only solutoin would be a 50/50 religouse land shair however thats never going to happen because religoin is uterly retarded.

maby ! we can just nuke the whole place !

It is stupid and the US should quit sending billions of dollars to Israel especially the weapons and military craft we gift to them.

THe US is responsible for worsening the lives of those live under apartheid. I mean even the Mediterranean is blockaded. Talk about messed up. It's bad enough they are building those crazy walls to steal land but they also refuse to allow any relief or trade.

It really is no different then US treatment of Native Americans.

Moving this video to Krupo's personal queue. It failed to receive enough votes to get sifted up to the front page within 2 days.