Coachella Valley advocates react to approval of Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal
A chance to rebuild is what Dr. Taleb Alsafi with the Islamic Society of Coachella hopes for the people of Gaza, some even his own friends and family.
"We are expecting that more aid goes to Gaza, rebuilding of the schools, the hospitals that were, you know, bombed and put to the ground. Everything. Life just comes back to Gaza again," Alsafi said.
Now that the final ceasefire and hostage deal between Israel and Hamas has been approved by the Israeli cabinet, Alsafi hopes the agreement will be followed.
But says he distrusts the Israeli government's promise.
"I was happy for the people of Gaza in specific because they have suffered a lot. And at the same time, I was also, again, cautious of my own feeling because you expect everything out of the Israeli government of breaking the laws, the international laws and also the agreements."
The deal, set to be implemented Sunday, would pause fighting for 6 weeks to allow for the exchange of over 700 Palestinian prisoners for 33 hostages held by Hamas.
But among those News Channel 3 spoke with, concerns are being echoed about the fairness of the ceasefire’s elements.
Rabbi Steven Rosenberg with RabbisUnited, worries the ceasefire lacks consequences for Hamas, a designated terrorist organization.
"There is no one on this planet that would not want to have peace and would not want to have an equitable cease fire. Unfortunately, you're dealing with Hamas, which is a terrorist organization. I think we have to remember that October 6th, 2023. There was a ceasefire with Israel and Israel was attacked. Twelve-hundred Israelis and other people were murdered," Rosenberg said.
While peace negotiations offer hope for the future, opposing viewpoints on the reality of the war are still strong.
"I think that the other problem is that we have to stop with the rhetoric that Israel is a country that's committing genocide and committing apartheid. There are so many non truths that are going around that I think that we need to get the hostages home before anything else," Rosenberg said.
When asked what makes this war different from others and about claims of a possible genocide by the Pro-Palestine movement, Dr. Alsafi said:
"It's very simple. And it's it's a unique coincidence that we have the Ukraine and Russia conflict. How many civilians were killed in the Ukrainian or Russian parties? It's totally different to this, this is genocide. You're killing, you're talking about 47, almost 47,000 people killed in a genocide."
