“We may be physically distanced from Gaza, but their voices, their stories, their struggles reach across the miles.”
Oct. 16 — student groups from the U of O and Carleton University led a vigil for Palestine at the University of Ottawa’s University Square. The groups included Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP, Carleton), Palestinian Students’ Association at Carleton (Carleton PSA), Integrity not Spite Against Falastin (INSAF, U of O), and Palestinian Students Association at the University of Ottawa (U of O PSA).
The several U of O-Carleton coordinating student groups stood amongst and spoke to the hundreds of students, staff, and educators in vigil to honour the lives lost in Gaza over the past couple of weeks.
Aisha Ahmed, a third-year biomedicine student and an organizer of the event, commented on the vigil.
“All of us as students, with the Palestinian community decided to hold this visual in support of our martyrs in Gaza. There’s been aggression and bombing on Gaza for the past 10 days, and many people in our community feel helpless, many people in our community feel afraid. So we wanted to hold a vigil to honour our martyrs.”
Maps showing the recession of Palestine’s land over the past seven decades, as well as the names of Palestinians whose lives have been lost in the ongoing assault on Gaza, were displayed on and around the stage.
Samar Odeh from the U of O’s Palestinian Students’ Association, opened the event.
“Thank you all for gathering here today in memory of the lives that were tragically lost. The pain you feel is a testament to your humanity. And your presence here today is a declaration that you will not look away and you will stand in support of the people in Gaza. This situation is dire and the need for peace and justice and humanitarian aid is very urgent. We may be physically distanced from Gaza, but their voices, their stories, their struggles reach across the miles.”
Various speakers from the community took to the stage and spoke about the people that have been affected, of them one had lost 33 family members in the Gaza attack on Oct 10th and in the days following.
Of the statements made, the community criticized Western media’s coverage of the past three weeks, which has also been a source of necessity for the evening’s vigil.
“We wanted to be able to raise their voice and provide that perspective for students at the university campus because the media has been silencing our point of view[;]…they’ve been silencing the Palestinian perspective. So we wanted to make sure that we got it out there to students at the university.” Aisha added.
Of the speakers, Sam Hersh of the Independent Jewish Voices spoke on the recent news, condemning the actions of the Israeli government and the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA).
“The Jewish community is not a monolith, nor unanimous. The Jewish community is with you. anti-Zionism is not anti-semitism.”
Following Israel’s response to the Hamas attacks just days before, on Oct 10th, U of O President and Vice-Chancellor Frémont released a statement on the current situation. Subsequently, Frémont spoke at the event for members of the community affected by the Hamas attack.
One of the volunteers, who has chosen to remain anonymous, echoed the criticisms that were made during the vigil on Frémont’s statement.
“It was a pretty broad statement. The university needs to give a more clear statement on the events and what’s been unfolding because [there are] a lot of people that are impacted by it.”
“Palestinians, like any other people, deserve to have basic human rights, and that we as a university, and as people that attend this university shouldn’t just stand for a broad statement – [a statement] that can be seen as disrespectful too…a lot of lives have been lost and the people that were joined here today we’re here to pay respects, regardless of what statement the university has made.”
Fremont was invited to attend but reportedly declined on account of a scheduling conflict.
