Layal Mansour knew she wanted to start a local movement last year amid the devastating war in Gaza.
“For me, I wanted to show people the atrocities,” said the Sarnia mother and Canadian Palestinian. “For many people, it’s very new, right? They don’t have any background, they don’t know about the Nakba [the mass displacement and dispossession of Palestinians during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war], and I wanted to show people the truth.”
So, the mother of five, and descendant of Palestinian-Lebanon refugees, joined forces with a small group of like-minded residents, began making posters, and organizing peaceful protests at Sarnia City Hall last fall.
Participants slowly started showing up each week, many with homemade signs calling for a ceasefire in Gaza – where daily military assaults from Israeli forces began following a Hamas-led terror attack in Israel on Oct. 7 that officials say killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took 253 into captivity in Gaza.
“I was sure it was not going to stop very soon, so I wanted to spread some awareness,” Mansour said of the war that has now killed more than 40,000 Palestinians in the past ten months, marking a ‘grim milestone for the world,’ said UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk, adding most of the dead are women and children. Another 10,000 are missing and likely buried under rubble, officials say, along with 2.3 million displaced from their homes.
“This unimaginable situation is overwhelmingly due to recurring failures by the Israeli Defense Forces to comply with the rules of war,” Türk stated.
And the silence — from the media, to politicians — is deafening, Mansour says.
“For me, it shows how much this world is selective and hypocritical with things related to Palestinians,” she said. “So they just justify the silence by saying, ‘it’s complicated’ and they tip-toe around it.”
Over time, the local protests have moved from City Hall, to busier intersections, and outside of Sarnia-Lambton MP Marilyn Gladu’s office.
“We hear the honks of support, and know more people are aware,” said Mansour, who also set up information booths at Sarnia’s Canada Day celebrations, and last weekend’s Mitton Village Block Party, where dozens signed a petition calling for a ceasefire to end the bloodshed in Gaza.
Mansour’s family story is also featured in a new book, 48 Stories of Exile from Palestine, a collection of 48 personal narratives of those exiled in 1948, 1967, until today — written by their children and grandchildren, with proceeds supporting Palestinian Children’s Relief Funds.
She’s joined by a group of 15 or so on a committee, who have now formed ‘Sarnians 4Palestine,’ a club dedicated to raising awareness and education — from film screenings to book clubs, email lists, and open house events at the local mosque. They’re on Tik Tok and Instagram, and are working on a website.
“Our idea is not to overwhelm people,” says group member Micheline Steele. “We’d like to open peoples’ eyes to other ways of learning; to just be open to listening and considering another perspective…through little conversations.
“It is a community that’s growing,” she added. “It’s all about, how are we going to get the information out so that people are seeing it, and open to it? And not everybody will be. We get some nasty comments, but not many.”
This week, the two women met one last time before Mansour and her family move to Morocco. She’ll remain involved from afar — assisting with social media and staying in touch with the group members, who have become more like family.
“For me, I’m more proud of these indispensable relationships, the bridges I have built, because, I believe this is the first step to positive change,” Mansour said. “We are far more united and have more in common than that which divides us.”
“Layal is a beautiful mentor. We feel like sisters — I’m just going to miss them so much,” Steele said, holding back tears. “We’re in this for the long haul. It’s not just about a ceasefire — it’s making sure this never happens again.”