A Vigil in Solidarity With Palestinians

In response to the ongoing Israeli violence against Palestinians in Sheikh Jarrah, Gaza, and elsewhere, several dozen St. Lawrence University students, faculty and alumni gathered on May 15 for a Vigil in Solidarity With Palestinians. 

Organized by a small group of concerned students, the vigil was a hybrid event, with about 25 participants gathering in person in the university chapel and an equal number joining virtually via Zoom. It coincided with Nakba Day, which commemorated the 73rd anniversary of the expulsion of around 750 thousand Palestinians from their homeland and the destruction of 500 Palestinian villages. Since that time, dispossession and displacement of Palestinians have been normalized by the legitimacy conferred on the State of Israel as it carries out its settler colonial project. This year, 2021, this historic day coincided with a vivid remembrance that the Nakba is painfully alive in the ongoing atrocities committed by the Israeli government in Gaza and Sheikh Jarrah.

"We organized the vigil in an attempt to oppose dominant media and educational repression of Palestinian voices, acknowledging ourselves and our educational institution as complicit within Palestinian and US settler colonialism,” said student organizer Sara Monggaard. “In amplifying Palestinian voices, we also hope to build a sustainable network of solidarity within which we can actively stand with Palestinians both on campus and beyond."

The Human Impact of Violence

Recently, Israeli forces have once more intensified their efforts to remove Palestinian families from Sheikh Jarrah, a predominantly Palestinian neighborhood in East Jerusalem. Even though veiled in official Israeli discourse as a “real estate dispute,” it is another attempt to eliminate the Palestinian presence in Jerusalem by giving Israeli settlers exceptional rights to reclaim property lost in 1948 whilst around five million Palestinians do not enjoy any right to reclaim land lost in the same period. 

Palestinians, who have been resisting violence and evictions for decades, are standing up to protect their homes. In addition, as Palestinians gathered to pray during the holy month of Ramadan, tension erupted in response to the forced evictions in Sheikh Jarrah. Israeli forces used rubber bullets and stun grenades on worshippers in Al-Aqsa mosque on May 7th. 

In Gaza, where residents are intensely surveilled and lack reliable water and electricity, Israeli airstrikes worsen the conditions of life under siege. Israeli authorities claim defense from Hamas' rockets, which are themselves retaliating for Israeli violence in Jerusalem. Whilst Israel,  heavily funded by the United States, enjoys a sophisticated anti-missile system and disproportionate military capabilities that prevent further losses, the death toll in Gaza continues to rise: 217 people, including 63 children as of May 19. 

“In amplifying Palestinian voices, we also hoped to build a sustainable network of solidarity within which we can actively stand with Palestinians both on campus and beyond.”

— Sara Monggaard

Additionally,  the Israeli airstrikes have destroyed important assets such as a 12-story building housing the offices of journalists for the Associated Press and the Al Jazeera TV network. In a statement, Al Jazeera expressed that this will directly affect the ability of journalists to inform the world about the realities on the ground. 

The vigil was an effort to break the silence and collectively demonstrate support to Palestinians in light of recent events, but also a statement of solidarity with the historic Palestinian struggle for freedom. During the event, participants were invited to center the voices of Palestinians by reading testimonies, poems, and other texts.

Several of these texts are reproduced here.

Excerpt of email written by Siham Omar Mahmoud Abu Ali, a young Palestinian woman

"Gaza is under attack. They are bombing it as we speak. They are using illegal phosphorus gas. They are bombing it until there is nothing left. Palestinians in the besieged Gaza already had nothing to begin with. They barely even have clean water and electricity. And now they are losing their families. People have not seen sleep in days, and those who have don't get to wake up from it. 

“My feed is filled with images of dead scorched unidentifiable limp bodies. 

“Israeli mobs are roaming around the streets attacking people and marking their homes. I keep on going back to the door of my home making sure it is locked because the mob groups were passing around our neighborhood tonight. 

“I'm not sure why I am recapping all of this. I am sure you have seen more than enough videos online. Enough for you to make up your own mind about what's happening. And I am so so so thankful for those who took the time to read, and share because at the end of the day international online support is all that we have."

Joint Statement by Palestinians in North America

“As we mark the 73rd anniversary of the Nakba, we, the undersigned, join together to reaffirm our commitment to the Palestinian people’s struggle for justice, return, and liberation. We commemorate the loss experienced by Palestinians in 1948 when hundreds of thousands of our people were forced into exile and saw their homes and villages stolen or destroyed by Zionist militias. To this day, colonization and dispossession remain ongoing processes, where Palestinians continue to endure land theft and encroachments on their basic rights. Despite the multiple decades of Zionist brutality, our resilient people remain committed to resisting Zionist settler-colonialism and to the liberation of Palestine.” (Read the full statement at https://palestinianyouthmovement.com/nakba-73.) 

Fadwa Tuqan, “The Deluge and the Tree”

Source: https://allpoetry.com/Fadwa-Touqan 

When the hurricane swirled and spread its deluge

of dark evil

onto the good green land

'they' gloated. The western skies

reverberated with joyous accounts:

"The Tree has fallen!

The great trunk is smashed! The hurricane leaves no life in the Tree!"

Had the Tree really fallen?

Never! Not with our red streams flowing forever,

not while the wine of our thorn limbs

fed the thirsty roots,

Arab roots alive

tunneling deep, deep, into the land!

When the Tree rises up, the branches

shall flourish green and fresh in the sun

the laughter of the Tree shall leaf

beneath the sun

and birds shall return

Undoubtedly, the birds shall return.

The birds shall return.

Rafeef Ziadah, “We Teach Life, Sir”

Mahmoud Darwish, “In Jerusalem”

Source: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/52551/in-jerusalem 

Translated by Fady Joudah

In Jerusalem, and I mean within the ancient walls,

I walk from one epoch to another without a memory

to guide me. The prophets over there are sharing

the history of the holy ... ascending to heaven

and returning less discouraged and melancholy, because love

and peace are holy and are coming to town.

I was walking down a slope and thinking to myself: How

do the narrators disagree over what light said about a stone?

Is it from a dimly lit stone that wars flare up?

I walk in my sleep. I stare in my sleep. I see

no one behind me. I see no one ahead of me.

All this light is for me. I walk. I become lighter. I fly

then I become another. Transfigured. Words

sprout like grass from Isaiah’s messenger

mouth: “If you don’t believe you won’t be safe.”

I walk as if I were another. And my wound a white

biblical rose. And my hands like two doves

on the cross hovering and carrying the earth.

I don’t walk, I fly, I become another,

transfigured. No place and no time. So who am I?

I am no I in ascension’s presence. But I

think to myself: Alone, the prophet Muhammad

spoke classical Arabic. “And then what?”

Then what? A woman soldier shouted:

Is that you again? Didn’t I kill you?

I said: You killed me ... and I forgot, like you, to die.

Mahmoud Darwish, "The earth is closing on us: The Nakba"

تضيق بنا الأرض

تَضِيقُ بِنَا الأرْضُ. تَحْشُرُنَا فِي المَمَرِّ الأَخِيرِ, فَنَخْلعُ أَعْضَاءَنَا كَيْ نَمُرَّ

وَتَعْصُرُنَا الأَرْضُ. يَا لَيْتَنَا قَمْحُهَا كَيْ نَمُوتَ وَنَحْيَا. وَيَا لَيْتَهَا أُمُّنَا

لِتَرْحَمَنَا أُمُّنَا. لَيْتَنَا صُوَرٌ لِلصُّخُورِ التِي سَوْفَ يَحْمِلُهَا حُلْمُنَا

مَرَايَا. رَأَيْنَا وُجُوهَ الذِينَ سَيَقْتُلُهُمْ فِي الدِّفَاع الأخيِرِ عَنِ الرُّوحِ آخِرُنَا

بَكَيْنَا عَلَى عِيدِ أَطْفَالِهم. وَرَأَيْنَا وُجُوهَ الذِينَ سَيَرْمُونَ أَطْفَالَنَا 

مِنْ نَوَافِذِ هَذَا الفَضَاءِ الأَخِير. مَرَايَا سَيَصقُلُهَا نَجْمُنَا.

إلَى أَيْنَ نَذْهَبُ بَعْدَ الحُدُودِ الأخِيرَة ِ؟ أَيْنَ تَطِيرُ العَصَافِيرُ بَعْدَ السَّمَاءِ

الأَخِيرَةِ أَيْنَ تَنَامُ النَّباتَاتُ بَعْدَ الهَوَاءِ الأخِيرِ؟ سَنَكْتُبُ أَسْمَاءَنَا بِالبُخَارِ

المُلَوَّنِ بِالقُرْمُزِيِّ سنَقْطَعُ كَفَّ النَّشِيدِ لِيُكْمِلَهُ لَحْمُنَا

هُنَا سَنَمْوتُ. هُنَا فِي المَمَرِّ الأخيرِ. هُنَا أَو هُنَا سَوْفَ يَغرِسُ زَيْتُونَهُ..

دَمُنَا.

محمود درويش  

Next Steps

At the conclusion, participants had the opportunity to express thoughts and feelings brought up by the testimonies and reflections during the vigil. Several students shared their personal connections with the Palestinian cause and others expressed a desire to educate themselves more about the issue.

In addition, different participants reflected on their positionality in the face of Palestine oppression, situating themselves as complicit in the system that funds military and ideological weapons that aid in the subjugation of Palestinians. This was followed by a collective brainstorming of ways in which students can stop the cycle of oppression, such as boycotting Israeli products, pressuring government representatives, mobilizing at the grassroots level, and spreading awareness about Israel's apartheid regime. 

In the face of so much suffering and strife, hope has been sown amongst students: hope that the vigil, more than an end in itself, would be a catalyst for more awareness and solidarity with the Palestinian cause at St. Lawrence and beyond. 

A banner made by participants in the May 15 vigil.