“I want people to know that we are not just numbers when we die.”
On Nov. 17, 2023, Eman, a 28-year-old Palestinian woman living in Cobourg, Ontario, woke up to scroll through Instagram for updates on Gaza, as she had done every morning since October 7.
As she clicked on a video, Eman quickly realized that she was watching something she never wanted to see: Her 26-year-old brother, Ahmed, laying face down on a sidewalk.
His head was blurred, but blood spilling onto the pavement was visible. Eman’s father, Saad, was crouched down beside him, clinging onto a white flag and crying out in Arabic: “I told you — let’s stay at home, my son!”
Eman recognized the street in the Rimal neighbourhood in Gaza City, the place where she’d lived her entire life before moving to Canada in 2015 to pursue a scholarship. In the video, she could hear the voice of their neighbour, Rami, who was filming, pleading: “Let’s carry him. Let’s carry him.”
The red, white and black CNN banner across the video read “Journalist films family’s evacuation from northern Gaza.”
Only Eman’s first name is being used in this story, as she and her family fear harassment as a result of an incident described later in this story. (more...)
Palestinians In Canada Grapple With Loss And Trauma Inflicted By Israel
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