‘They have stories’: Students, community members recognize Palestinians killed in Gaza since Oct. 7 

Several pro-Palestinian organizations held an interfaith vigil on Monday evening in recognition of the estimated 42,000 people who have been killed in Gaza since last year’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Hamas that killed around 1,200 Israeli citizens. Palestinian students and community members spoke to a crowd of about 160 and were joined by Christian, Muslim and Jewish leaders who led prayers in Schenley Park. 

Palestinian community member Karim Alshurafa — whose father survived the mass displacement of Palestinians in 1948 — spoke at the vigil and reiterated the long history of oppression faced by the Palestinian people. 

“I wanted to make it abundantly clear. This war did not start on Oct. 7,” Alshurafa said. “For decades, my father has lived it … They experienced the brutal killing and occupation before Oct. 7 for many decades, anyone who tries to defend themselves.”

Organizers walked around the grass where attendees lit candles and sat while Alshurafa spoke about his family currently in Gaza. As Alshurafa spoke about his cousin and his cousin’s two-year-old daughter, he choked up and paused to recollect himself.

“His two-year-old daughter is suffering from malnourishment, and all he’s asking for is vitamins,” Alshurafa said. “She has a blood infection because she’s so weak. With that being said, these are one of hundreds of thousands of stories of people that are suffering just because they’re still alive.”

Alshurafa named members of his family in Gaza who have lost their lives and are not on the list of registered names of those who have died released by Gaza’s health ministry. The list acknowledges the deaths of close to 42,000, though the health ministry was only able to confirm 34,000 identities.

“These are individuals that have dreams,” Alshurafa said. “My cousins, my aunts, my uncles just dreamt of giving an education to their sons and daughters, giving them a better life where they can hopefully live freely one day. Some of them wanted to be doctors, lawyers, engineers, policemen, nurses and IT professionals, but now they’re cut short. They don’t get to fulfill those dreams.”

Judy Kanafani, who is Palestinian and a junior natural science major, said she did not initially plan to speak, but addressed the crowd after seeing the turnout for the vigil.

“It means a lot to me, to other Palestinian students here, because we grew up without anyone supporting us, and it hits deeper for us,” Kanafani said. “Palestinian students who grew up in American schools, we didn’t have the support … It just means a lot seeing everyone today from all different backgrounds, all different faiths, religions just all here to support us.” 

Kanafani grew emotional as she recounted how her father encouraged her to use her privileges as a first-generation immigrant to “speak for the Palestinian people.”

“My dad, he didn’t grow up in America. He has a very strong Arab accent, so he said if he goes to speak on behalf of the Palestinian people, no one’s going to take him seriously because of his accent,” Kanafani said. “He told me that I have to speak because I have a perfect American accent. People will listen to me. People won’t listen to him. The sad reality is that the voices of Palestinian people and Arab people in general have grown to be very insignificant to Americans and [the] American government.”

As the vigil continued into the night, Kanafani acknowledged the privileges and safeties attendees have.

“I feel bad complaining about school because I know everyone in Gaza wishes they were in school, because they wish they were stressed out, and they wish they were overworked,” Kanafani said. “They wish they had the privilege to do something, and they wish they had the privilege to do all this and be safe. Alhamdulillah, we have the privilege to go back to our cars and warm up after this, and to go home and sleep with our families after this.”

A Students for Justice in Palestine co-president directed attention to the altar set up next to the microphone stand honoring “martyrs” who have died in Gaza during the past year.

Candlelight cast a hazy glow upon photos of men, women and children killed in Gaza displayed on trifold poster boards, with their names and a brief description of them underneath each image. Organizers placed bouquets of flowers and candles on a table in front of the trifolds, with a kaffiyeh draped across the front of the altar. Dozens of tiny candles and additional flower bouquets were arranged on the ground below.

In front of the table, organizers displayed cloth shaped to resemble bodies as a representation of Palestinians who were killed in Gaza. The centerpiece of the altar was a thick stack of 649 pages containing over 42,000 names of those killed. The co-president noted that the first 14 pages of the list contained the names of infants under a year old and described the death toll as a “huge, huge undercount.”

SJP members read the stories of some of those who have died in Gaza during the past year. The co-president said the stories were meant to make listeners “feel their pain, know their dreams and their aspirations” and understand “they were just like you and me.” 

“We just need to remind ourselves that as this, this death toll rises — and it’s risen for the last 12 months — that these are people,” the co-president said. “They have stories.” 

Maggie Hileman, a community member from Squirrel Hill, said she first learned about the Palestinian plight through news coverage of the Six-Day War in 1967, which she read about at a young age. She said she attended the vigil to honor all the Palestinians who have died and because she believes it’s important to “speak out for oppressed people that are mistreated anywhere in the world.” 

“I’ve never talked about [the conflict] my whole life because it would have been antisemitic to criticize Israel,” Hileman said. “If you want to criticize any other leader in any other country, you’re not told that you’re demonizing the people of that country.”

Hileman added that she was looking for community support at the vigil.

“All the people in my face-to-face life support Israel. And so there’s a loneliness that comes with that,” Hileman said. “I’m looking for community that feels the same way I do.”

Luciana De Jesus, a senior classics and gender, sexuality and women’s studies major, said she feels “deeply disappointed and sad” at the continued killing of people in Gaza. She said she saw the vigil as a chance for the Pittsburgh community “to come together [and] to show solidarity.”

“This is a really important cause to me,” De Jesus said. “I detest genocide at any level. This has been going on for far too long, not even just the past year, but for decades now. I think it’s really important for the community to come together and mourn the thousands of people who died in the past year.”