By Divya Vakkalanka
Correction: a previous version of this story misspelled Ronald Zeigler’s last name and included the incorrect date for the vigil. This piece has been updated.
Hundreds of students attended Students for Justice in Palestine’s teach-in and vigil Thursday, Oct. 12 on McKeldin Mall, mourning the loss of Palestinian lives due to the ongoing war in Gaza.
University of Maryland’s Students for Justice in Palestine is a chapter of the national organization advocating for Palestinian liberation and self-determination across college campuses.
The event began with a moment of silence to mourn the Palestinians who have lost their lives in the decades-long conflict between Israel and Palestine. The mall fell into a hush as Palestinian flags waved high, with the only audible noise being the gentle trickle of water from the fountain.
Many student speakers and interviewees who attended the event requested their identities remain anonymous, in fear that they would be retaliated against.
“The uprising that began on October 7 is a response to decades of colonial violence, ethnic cleansing, genocide and erasure have been trapped in open-air prison by the Israeli state and its military for 16 years,” said one of the vigil’s anonymous organizers.
Zishan Chowdhury is a student at the University of Maryland who was flying a Palestinian flag at the vigil. He believes that the illegal settlement of Palestinian land has led to violence in Gaza.
“You can’t just come and pick another country’s land right away,” Chowdhury said.
Ronald Zeigler, the Director of the Nyumburu Cultural Center, shared with the crowd the importance of the term, “resistance.”
“An individual person or an organization can put up resistance against something that he or the organization disagreed with, or doesn’t want to participate in. The case of people in Palestine is the subjugation to inhumane conditions for housing” Zeigler said.
Zeigler explained that the Nyumburu Cultural Center has worked with Students for Justice in Palestine in the past and emphasized the need for community healing.
“This event is a testimony of valid resistance, but an attempt to heal and work with each other,” Zeigler said.
Many faculty and staff members from the Robert H. Smith School of Business and other schools signed on to an open letter to the University of Maryland community, expressing their disapproval of the vigil.
One of the attendees who chose to remain anonymous said, “I am an Asian-American student on campus, and I believe that the fight in Palestine is relevant to all of our lives”.
“For all of my friends who have been personally impacted by this tragedy and the to, to ensure that the community is educated about the misconceptions regarding Palestinians and their fight for liberation,” the anonymous attendee said.
An anonymous Palestinian student who worked in a hospital in Palestine over the summer was one of the vigil’s speakers. She worked in Nablus, a city on the West Bank that’s 50 kilometers north of Jerusalem. As soon as she arrived in the country, she said that snipers were aimed at her and her father.
“I was second-guessing myself. I was like, am I a terrorist? It was like I’m a deer being hunted right now. They were ready to shoot me,” the anonymous student said.
The hospital had limited capacity, with only trauma surgeons working. Many of the operations were performed without electricity. According to the student, if it weren’t for her and the other healthcare workers volunteering, “these people have injuries that will never be fixed.”
Being back in College Park, she felt frustrated and alienated by the student body.
“Being Palestinian on campus is a crime. You say it to you’re doxxed, you’re blacklisted. Nobody likes you. And it’s like, if only people would just hear and if only people would just listen.”
The event ended with a chant of students echoing, “Free free Palestine. From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”
Featured Image: Students standing in solidarity with the Palestinians who have lost their lives in Gaza. (Divya Vakkalanka/Stories Beneath the Shell)