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Description
Mr. Gallant tells us about the hardships of Palestinians in Israel as he witnessed them.
Fred Gallant
Issu d’une famille acadienne de Mont-Carmel à l’Île-du-Prince-Édouard, M. Gallant s’engage dans l’armée et devient capitaine. Au cours des années soixante-dix et quatre-vingts, il sert deux fois à titre de Capitaine de batterie au sein de la Force des Nations Unies chargée du Maintien de la Paix à Chypre (UNFICYP). Ses méthodes de travail ont aidé plus d’un soldat et sauvé la vie aux siens ainsi qu’à plusieurs Turques et Grecs. Des années plus tard, en tant que major cette fois-ci, il est nommé Observateur militaire des Nations Unies au sein de l’Organisme des Nations Unies chargé de la Surveillance de la Trêve (ONUST) au Moyen-Orient. M. Gallant a des histoires fascinantes à raconter.
Transcription
The other thing that I had, found difficult to accept in Israel was the treatment of the Palestinians within Israel. We, maybe I shouldn’t be saying this, but we are used in Canada to people being free and the Palestinians were, as far as I’m concerned, second class citizens because if they drove a vehicle they had a special coloured license on their vehicle which is different from the Israeli. They’re kept basically in their own area. They don’t have a passport so they can’t get out type thing. If they want to travel they almost, it’s really, really hard for them to travel. They almost have to go into Lebanon and go from there. So I saw a lot of that, that affected me because they were having a hard time and this was ‘90, ‘91. Interviewer: Can you share some stories will help us relate to the hard times that they were having? If your child is twelve years old and he gets caught up in the moment and they start throwing rocks at the Israeli patrol going through the area, and he’s picked up, the next morning a bulldozer is at your parents’ house and they bulldoze the house down. It’s immediate justice, you know, and I saw that on several occasions.