WINDSOR, ONT. -- Hundreds are dead, and thousands of Gazans are left homeless by another war between Israel and the territory’s Islamic Militant Hamas rulers.

Local groups are speaking out on what went wrong in the Middle East and if peace can be found along the West Bank.

“Those people that are doing the demonstrations and creating the terrible atmosphere between Arabs and Jews are people that are ignorant, that don’t know that history of the region,” says Joshua Berkovitz, who was born in Israel and is now a member of the local Jewish community.

He believes tensions in the Middle East are a result of Hamas firing missiles at Israelis.

“I wonder how many missiles Justin Trudeau would allow from the United States to Canada before he declared full war on the United States,” Berkovitz tells CTV Windsor.

Berkovitz says the current state on the West Bank is destroying a relationship built over the last 70 years.

“Hamas is trying to gain control over the West Bank and they look for any excuse that they can in order to steal animosity between Arabs and Israelis,” he says.

Palestinian supporters see the situation differently.

“We see it as the Palestinian people are being ethnically cleansed and this just an escalation to it,” says Ghassan Kanafani, organizer with the Palestinian Solidarity Group.

They’ve held two protests in the last week, with thousands taking part along Windsor’s riverfront.

“You’re ignoring decades and decades of occupational murder and oppression that’s been going on,” says Kanafani.

He believes peace in the Middle East will depend on Western Governments.

“We see this as a colonial project similar to a part of South Africa,” Kanafani says. “All the arms and weapons and diplomatic support for Israel and everything that its doing come from the United States and also partly from Canada.”

Michael Molloy is A professor at Carleton University and spent two decades as Canada’s ambassador to Jordan.

He was part of a team that worked on the Palestinian refugee file.

“Who’s right and who’s wrong? It depends where you pick the thread up,” Molloy says. “I think in this last go around, the launching of the rockets by Hamas was grandstanding. It’s very painful for both sides.”

Molloy believes the damage done by both sides in the past two weeks will take years to repair.

“There are solutions but they take a lot better leaders on both sides than they have out there now,” he says.