Hundreds in Fort Lauderdale call for ceasefire in Gaza as Israel-Hamas war continues
FORT LAUDERDALE — Hundreds of people in Fort Lauderdale took to the streets to protest the ongoing violence in Gaza and call for a ceasefire.
"People are frustrated and disgusted by the civilians that had been murdered both on October 7 and what happened after," said protest organizer Anas Amireh.
Amireh said peace will only happen when Palestine is free.
"That's what the message is here: to free Palestine once and for all," he said. "Stop the violence between two people that love each other. The Jews and Arabs, Christians and Muslims, go to New York, come to South Florida, they love each other, they work with each other. Let's make that happen also in the Middle East and in Palestine."
While almost everyone we spoke to also denounced Hama's attack on innocent Israeli civilians, some did not right away.
"This group is condemning the act that was brought upon Gaza," one protestor who did not want to be identified said. "Now the act that was brought upon by Israelis is something that has been here for decades, we've been resisting them for decades, we've been under occupation. So, I'm not going to condemn anything until I see that representatives are condemning the genocide in Gaza."
That angered Rabbi Rick Chizever of Temple Emanu-El on South Beach.
"They're terrorists," he said. "They went into Israel and they killed, raped innocent civilians and babies. This is unheard of. This is not human. This is not a people that want to coexist."
Saturday's protestors called for an immediate ceasefire, but Chizever explained why it's more complicated than that.
"If Hamas is not eradicated, we might have a ceasefire, but what will happen is we will be back in the same boat, five years, seven years, 10 years. Who knows?" he said. "We need to eradicate the terrorists, not all citizens of Gaza, the terrorists who are promulgating this type of unacceptable animalistic behavior."
