Students protest conflict in Gaza Strip
Katelyn Boone
Contributing Writer
Janeal Downs
Contributing Writer
A crowd of at least a hundred students and community members marched around campus Monday to raise awareness about the conflict taking place in the Gaza Strip.
VCU students Jesse Hudson, Gabriela Naderi and Kenza Bennani organized the rally as a protest against Israeli aggression in Gaza via Facebook after seeing the events on the news.
“We believe it’s not OK for people to be treated like that … no matter what side you are on,” Naderi said. “We should all be treated equally with justice. We should be free.”
Israeli and Palestinian territories have been in dispute for years and the conflict came to a head once again on Nov. 14. An Israeli drone killed the military leader of Hamas, one of the main Palestinian political groups, in retaliation for what the Israelis said were increased missile strikes from Gaza.
Israel and Hamas exchanged missile fire in largely civilian areas of the Gaza Strip and Israel for days. The conflict killed over 160 people as of Nov. 24 according to CNN and ignited protests all over the world before a ceasefire was reached on Nov. 21.
The demonstration on campus was planned as a way to inform students of the conflict, not create a hateful protest, organizers said.
“We’re not anti-Jew, we are anti-oppression,” Bennani said.
Nearly a hundred students attended, many chanted “Stop the killing! Stop the war!” during the protest.
“People all over the world are standing up just like we are and doing the same thing. We wanted to be a part of that,” Bennani said.
Hillel at VCU, a group for Jewish students, organized a response gathering later that day in the Commons Plaza. Protest organizers coordinated the two events to ensure no conflicts between the groups would occur during their respective demonstrations.
Marc Kaplan, VCU senior and president of Hillel at VCU, created the gathering for Hillel to allow students to voice solidarity for Israel.
“(We are) out to show support for the state of Israel and to advocate peace between all of the factions involved,” Kaplan said.
Noorelhoda Ramadan is from Gaza and attended both protests. Ramadan has lived in the U.S for almost two years with her four daughters and husband. During the week of the attacks, Ramadan kept in continuous contact with her family and friends in Gaza. She was worried to watch the news, fearing she would see a family member or friend who died in the conflict.
Ramadan’s 10-year-old daughter, Tasneem Dababish, chanted during the demonstration, “not another nickel, not another dime, no more money for Israel’s crime.”
Josh Rubin, a VCU junior, attended only the Israel support gathering.
“We want to show everyone Israel’s attack wasn’t unprovoked,” Rubin said. He said the 1,300 rocket strikes against Gaza were not intended for the people of Gaza but for Hamas. Israel made it clear they were going to attack Hamas, he added, but Hamas intentionally kept civilians in target areas. Both Israel and the U.S. consider Hamas to be a terrorist group.
Kaplan said that he is interested in collaborating with the students who were in charge of the protest earlier that day and is in the process of contacting them. He said that both groups of students want the same thing: peace.
