How did this tiny country go from a beacon of democracy in the Middle East to being so utterly reviled – especially by young progressives?
Last Saturday, I met a man named Faisal Salama at a pro-Palestinian rally in Vancouver. Mr. Salama, 30, had just moved to the city. He is Palestinian – born in Kuwait, raised in Edmonton – and still has family in Gaza, including an aunt and first cousins, now displaced from the north as Israeli bombs rain down. His family was relocated to Gaza in 1948 when they lost their home in Ashdod, a city on the Mediterranean coast. Mr. Salama’s father, who was 7 at the time, still lives in Kuwait as a stateless refugee.
My heart was breaking, listening to his story. It was also pounding.
