Around 100 people descended on UVA’s McIntire Amphitheater on October 15th as Students for Justice in Palestine (“SJP”) held a vigil in memory of the lives lost over the past two years of genocide in the Gaza Strip.
By the glow of handheld candles, the vigil prompted attendees to reflect on the “whole familial lineages eradicated, neighborhoods leveled, children kidnapped, mutilated, [or] decapitated” which the world has watched from behind phone and television screens.
The first of an array of speakers emphasized the role American citizens have played in the most recent Israeli actions. They argued that despite a great physical distance from Palestine, the actions and financial choices of Americans contribute to the state of Israeli-Palestinian affairs.
“The genocide in Gaza and the broader context of Palestinian subjugation have been indescribable,” the first speaker explained, “we have a duty to Palestinians, to their oppression, to their martyrdom, to their dashed hopes and dreams to acknowledge their suffering.”
The most pressing of these duties is to end what the first speaker identifies as “complicity.” For example, they cited UVA’s investments in Israeli companies, which students attempted to challenge in a February 2024 referendum.
It is this widespread systemic support, they said, which leads to the continued murder and starvation of civilians in Palestine. To realize peace for the Palestinian people, the speaker said that Americans must use our “privilege of standing here in health and safety to push for an end to the suffering, end to the humiliation, and end to the dehumanization of those deemed replaceable.”
The testimonies of multiple Gazans were read aloud by a line of volunteers, illustrating scenes of the violent overthrow of pre-invasion life. Beginning with a familiar life in their homes, surrounded by family and close neighbors, the stories each swiftly turned to a reminder of the reality faced by Palestinians.
The first testimony showed the constant danger of moving through occupied ground: “A sniper shot me from about 300 meters away and hit me in the back next to my spinal cord. The bullet exited through my stomach.”
The next highlighted the severe famine seen under the Israeli blockade: “[My daughter] is now diagnosed with severe malnutrition. At her age, she should weigh 12kg, but she only weighs 4.5.”
The final story told of one teenager’s experience in a massacre at an aid site: “soldiers were shooting to kill people, snipers fired at them, or tanks ran them over. I saw mutilated bodies — people crushed.”
Attendees bowed their heads to these words, listening closely as the volunteers recounted these stories. While the experiences of four people were relayed, the organizers proceeded with a longer list of martyred Gazans. The names of 103 people were read aloud: just a sliver of the estimated over 60,000 who have died.
In the two years since the October 7th attacks and subsequent invasion of Gaza, Israel levelled the majority of Palestinian cities within the two-mile strip, displacing over 1.8 million people. Furthermore, the actions of the IDF have disabled humanitarian organizations, often leading to unreliable medical support and underestimated statistics. The speaker claimed that numbers like the estimated 60,000 killed that are portrayed in the media are “severe undercounts,” which can be attributed to the “total collapse of the health system” following heavy strikes on Gaza’s hospitals and humanitarian offices.
Both Israel and Hamas have agreed upon a Trump-backed ceasefire settlement, but the history of agreements to end the genocide being broken has many skeptical. According to Al Jazeera, at least 23 people have been killed in Israeli strikes since the agreement was established.
For SJP, Trump’s deal does not satisfy the goal of peace and justice in Palestine. The first speaker stated that the ceasefire comes “at the expense of Palestinians and their inalienable rights of self determination, safety and freedom” in favor of wealthy potential stakeholders who may seek profit from the destruction of Gaza.
One student in the crowd defined justice in Palestine as “living in a world where families that were affected feel safe,” adding that “having a ceasefire doesn’t get rid of all of the actions that [Israel] has done to innocent people.”
“This vigil holds even more significance given our university’s and country’s complicity in the genocide,” the first speaker noted, “let us remember that while tonight is a time for mourning, it is a time for hope; hope that through our collective voice and solidarity, we can bring about justice and liberation.”
The event concluded with a reading of Mahmoud Darwish’s poem: The War Will End, with the speaker reciting “The war will end. The leaders will shake hands. The old woman will keep waiting for her martyred son, that girl will wait for her beloved husband, and those children will wait for their hero father. I don’t know who sold our homeland, but I saw who paid the price.”
Names and other explicit identifiers have been excluded from this article for the safety of involved individuals.
Leave a Reply