BRUNSWICK

The Brunswick Mall rang out with folk music Saturday afternoon while displays in tents were set up to educate the public on a bevy of causes ranging from the environment to peace in the Middle East. That was the scene of the 11th Annual Brunswick Peace Fair, organized by the Brunswick-based Peace- Works.

As singer Kathleen McGee strummed away, Bob Schaible, chairman of Maine Voices for Palestinian Rights, was drumming up support to end U.S. military aid to Israel.

“Our aim is to educate people about the Israel-Palestine conflict, and to try to get the Palestinian narrative out there more, because too many people still think that Palestinians are terrorists and war mongers and they hate Jews,” Schaible said.

Schaible said, “We’re also trying to counter all that point of view with what we regard as the truth and the factual information.”

The group is trying to gather 1,000 signatures in a petition to Maine’s Congressional delegation asking them to stop voting for military aid to Israel. By about 12:30 p.m., Schaible said he had about 800 signatures.

Referencing the disparity between the two sides, kill ratios and the devastation of Palestinian infrastructure in Gaza from last summer’s offensive is proof the Palestinians pose no threat to the existence of Israel.

“Israel poses a threat to itself by de-ligitimizing itself by all of it’s heinous behaviors toward the Palestinians. It’s own worst enemy is itself,” Schaible said.

Things got a little heated when a fairgoer challenged Schaible to change his sign advocating for Palestinian children. The woman wanted “and Israeli” added to the sign, touching off a debate over who has a right to the land.

“Where are the Jews supposed to go — where are the Jews supposed to go?” the woman repeated her question, referring to the Palestinians as immigrants who needed to go to resettlement camps.

Schaible told the woman she had a “skewed” version of the story.

Not far from the Middle East conflict was Bring Your Own Bag Mid Coast and Averil Fessenden.

“We are promoting the reusable bags and we want to encourage Brunswick and Topsham to propose ordinances toplacea5centfee on carryout paper and plastic bags and to ban Styrofoam carry-out containers both for food and beverages,” Fessenden said.

Fessenden said the measure was aimed at reducing garbage overall and in particular to reduce the amount of plastic going into landfills and the oceans. Fessenden said that although people may think plastic bags are often recycled, they most likely end up in the garbage, plugging storm drains or flapping from tree branches.

The growing interest in such bans took off in Portland, who has just enacted its bag fee as well as Freeport now weighing its own version of the ordinance. Freeport has already banned Styrofoam.

Fessenden said more than 125 billion plastic bags and Styrofoam containers are used in the U.S. each year. Think paper is the way to go? Fessenden’s handy information sheet claims that although they won’t create their own island in the Pacific, paper takes four times the energy to produce than plastic and cost the retailers more — costs that get passed along to consumers.

Plus, Fessenden said, that extra energy translates into increased global warming.

Lindy Ost chatted with visitors to her tent and her cause Maine AllCare.

“We are here to expand Medicare and approve Medicare for all,” Ost said.

Ost said there are over 30,000 Mainers that do not have health care and she too had a petition to sign as well as health care related games to bring attention to “the need to provide good coverage for everybody.”

When asked about the Affordable Healthcare Act, Ost said, “I think the problem is the high deductibles and the premiums.” She said there was a college student there earlier whose plan had a $150 emergency room visit deductible — money she doesn’t have.

dmcintire@timesrecord.com