Members of the Durango Palestine Solidarity Coalition met in Buckley Park to fundraise for families in war-torn Gaza on Saturday, after news last week of a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas and ahead of President Donald Trump’s inauguration on Monday.
Coalition member Deedee de Haro-Brown said she and her colleagues are “very hopeful” and glad for the break in the violence. For months, the Coalition has been fundraising money it sends to four families in Gaza.
“We’ve kind of adopted them and we send them money every month. And then, hopefully, that contributes to other people,” she said. “We’ve done about $4,000 a month and we’ve raised it through garage sales and clothing swaps, and whatever we can do to raise money.”
The Coalition was passing out paper pamphlets, collecting donations and signing people up to an email list on Saturday during Indivisible Durango’s and Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Durango’s People’s March, which started with a march up Main Avenue and ended at Buckley Park where several speakers rallied the crowd.
Haro-Brown said she doesn’t know how the new president’s administration will impact the Israel-Gaza conflict, although she’s not optimistic because Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are “buddy-buddy,” she said. But she is sure of her disapproval of the Biden administration.
“I think it was awful,” she said of former President Joe Biden’s approach to the conflict. “I think that the way we (the U.S.) just automatically back Israel and send arms and aid to them, we’ve got blood on our hands.”
According to a Jan. 15 Reuters report, the Israeli military said 405 of its soldiers were killed in combat since it began its ground operation on Oct. 27, 2023, in response to the Hamas attacks on Oct. 7, 2023, that killed more than 1,200 people. The Palestinian Health Ministry said more than 46,000 Palestinians have been killed since the conflict started. The Israeli military said about 20,000 of the dead were militants.
Reuters reported Israel’s, Hamas’ and the Palestinian Health Ministry’s estimates are not aligned. Hamas said Israel’s estimates of its losses are exaggerated, although Hamas did not say how many deaths its fighters have experienced. The Palestinian Health Ministry said men of fighting age were just a fraction of identified victims.
Haro-Brown developed her support of Palestine in the 1970s when she lived in an Arab neighborhood in Detroit; she said her neighbors “schooled me up” on the decades-long conflict between the Palestinian people and Israel.
“We’re not supposed to arm people who commit genocide or who commit war crimes, and that’s what we’re doing,” she said, of the Biden administration. “So I think that part is awful.”
Other Coalition members and organizers declined to identify themselves in interviews, but expressed similar sentiments about the new and former administrations.
“The ceasefire? I mean, I think it’s giving people a lot of hope, which is a good thing. But at the same time, very doubtful as to whether Netanyahu or the U.S. are going to be able to continue,” one member said. “… I don’t think it’s going to be any different than it has been. I think it’s going to be worse, honestly.”
Another member called the conflict a genocide committed by Israel and said Biden has fully enabled and funded Israel’s efforts.
“It’s been bad. It’s been terrible. If it wasn’t for him, they (Israel) couldn’t do it without us,” she said.
She said the Coalition will be at the Cold Storage makers market on Narrow Gauge Avenue on Saturday for more fundraising.
“We march every week and we just try to stay active in the community and spread awareness about what’s happening,” she said.
A panel scheduled for sometime in April will host Native and Palestinian speakers who will draw the connection between settler colonialism in the U.S. and Gaza and occupied Palestinian territories.
The Associated Press reported on Sunday three Israeli hostages and dozens of Palestinian prisoners were released from their respective captors after 15 months of fighting on Sunday.
Another AP report said the terms of the ceasefire require Hamas to release 33 hostages in exchange for the release of hundreds of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel. Hamas is required by the truce to free four more hostages on the seventh day of the ceasefire, to be followed by weekly releases for a span of 42 days.
cburney@durangoherald.com
A previous version of this story misspelled Deedee de Haro-Brown’s last name.
