AuroraToday welcomes your letters to the editor at [email protected]. Please include your daytime phone number and address (for verification of authorship, not publication).
Re: 'Disgusting display': Aurora Cultural Centre exhibit closes amid antisemitism concerns, Sept. 26, 2024.
I am writing in response to the article published on Sept. 26 regarding the exhibit at the Aurora Cultural Centre.
I can empathize with the residents who are feeling triggered due to past trauma and the events of Oct. 7. However, it’s equally important to understand that the acknowledgement of Palestinians as a group of people who have been under military occupation and have suffered tremendously does not in any way call for the annihilation of the Jewish people.
The call to “free Palestine” is to free the Palestinian people from a system of apartheid and oppression.
The United Nations, along with countless human rights organizations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, have extensively documented the human rights violations committed against Palestinians by the state of Israel since 1948.
Acknowledging this truth through a piece of art is an important step, especially at a time when we are witnessing the suffering, destruction and starvation of Palestinian civilians in Gaza and West Bank at the hands of the Israeli Defence Forces.
Art has always been used as a tool to highlight the suffering of the oppressed. Art is meant to make us uncomfortable and question the narratives we have been told and I believe this piece of art is doing exactly that. I feel it would be a disservice to the residents of the town if the exhibit is removed.
Aziza Amarshi
Aurora
