Students gathered in the Shapiro Campus Center Wednesday evening to honor the Palestinians that have died in the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, resulting in impassioned speeches, disdain towards the University and minor conflict with onlookers. The University’s chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine released a statement of return on Feb. 29. The group was derecognized by administration in November “because it openly supports Hamas” and “engage[d] in conduct that harasses or threatens violence,” according to Vice President of Student Affairs Andrea Dine in a Nov. 6 email to SJP. The destruction in Gaza since Israel declared war on Oct. 8 has spurred student activists to action in universities around the U.S., and Brandeis is no exception. In their first public pro-Palestine gathering since the Nov. 11 protest that ended in the arrests of seven people, SJP and the Revolutionary Student Organization expressed their support of the Palestinian people and their condemnation of Israel. 

The Justice reached out to SJP, RSO, Brandeis Orthodox Organization and a Jewish student who witnessed the vigil, but did not receive a response from these sources as of press time. 

The violence following Hamas’ attacks on Israel on Oct. 7 has resulted in mass Palestinian casualties as well as numerous Israeli deaths. As of March 10, Al Jazeera reported at least 31,045 Palestinian deaths in Gaza and 425 in the West Bank, as well as 72,654 injuries in Gaza and 4,650 in the West Bank. About 1,200 Israelis were killed in the Oct. 7 attacks, and of the 253 hostages taken by Hamas, 134 have been released and at least 32 have died as of Feb. 6. Hamas recently reported seven more deaths on March 1 and claimed they were a result of Israeli bombardment. They said at least 70 hostages have died, but it is unclear whether or not the previous 32 are included in that count. 240 Palestinian prisoners in Israel were released in exchange for 105 released Israeli hostages in November. 

The event’s organizers began setting up shortly before 7 p.m. in front of the SCC main stairwell, reminiscent of the Nov. 7 gathering directly following administration’s decision to derecognize SJP. As organizers handed out flameless tea lights and masks, some set up flags and art pieces, while others donned keffiyehs, a traditional Palestinian headdress. Beside a Palestinian flag, a flag that read “STOP SUPPORTING GENOCIDE” hung from the stairwell’s first landing. Another flag with the words “DOWN WITH COLONIALISM” was duct-taped to the wall. A rendering of the famous Palestinian artwork “Handala,” which depicts a child dressed in rags with hands behind his back, and a student-made art piece entitled “Brandeis Speaks” were also displayed. 

Israel has denied and rejected the charges of genocide at the United Nation’s International Court of Justice. The final verdict from the U.N. did not deem Israel’s actions genocide, but ordered Israel to conduct the war such that they “ensure with immediate effect that its military does not commit [genocide].” 

RSO and SJP asked community members on March 1 to submit anonymous statements that would be used in “Brandeis Speaks.” The prompt asked those submitting to share their experience “mourning the deaths of tens of thousands of Palestinians and grieving the destruction of the Palestinian people since October 7th and beforehand.” The final product included said contributions pasted over a painting that included pastings of a dove, flags, variations of the Palestinian flag and an image of the Qubbat al-Sakhra, or the Dome of the Rock, an Islamic shrine that sits in the heart of the Al-Asqa mosque in the Old City of Jerusalem. A printed description of the piece laid on the ledge in front of the artwork. 

“Brandeis speaks up is a collective art piece, an expression of our community’s earnest pain and grief thorugh the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people happening in Gaza,” the description read. 

Statements were collected from current undergraduate and graduate students as well as other anonymous community members. “As time goes on, I get more and more scared that this will fall into a backdrop of many other horrors that people feel less compelled to take a personal stand for,” one statement read, while another said it was “gut wrenching” to “have so much visibility into Gaza and also know that this country’s political representatives and many higher ed institutions, including Brandeis admin, are complicit and/or actively supporting this genocide.” Others struggled “to make sense of the inhumanity we are watching unfold” and felt “horrified and hopeless.” 

“Why are we not screaming from the top of our lungs for a ceasefire? For a Free Palestine? We learn about the genocide committed against the Indigenous peoples of Turtle Island on stolen lands. And yet, we do nothing to prevent that from happening again,” one statement read. 

Attendees of the vigil were invited to view the display and follow the “calls of action” displayed on a table at the front of the set up. QR codes on small sheets of paper linked to various places accepting donations to aid Palestinians trying to escape Gaza. Text alongside the QR codes asked community members to “Help get innocents out of Gaza” and “Help a 10-month-old Palestinian survive the war,” as well as quotes from Palestinians still in Gaza. 

As the vigil began, a student organizer asked attendees to “be respectful.” Since student organizers wished to maintain anonymity, they asked for no one to take recordings of the event or its speakers. 

The first speaker touched on the pain they felt in knowing that “our tax money” is funding the Israel-Hamas war. “It feels like there’s very little we can do,” they said. 

They were not alone in their helplessness and grief; a graduate student, who spoke next, knew that there was nothing they could say that would truly encapsulate their “cripplingly heartbreaking” grief. “Grief is enraging,” they said, so much so that it was “an amount of anger that if you mustered it, you don’t know if your body could take it.” The graduate student’s anger did not stop there; their voice shook with emotion throughout their speech. They felt “so fucking angry” that they wanted to scream but did not know if they would “be able to stop.” 

The speaker said that the “death and destruction” in Gaza has “erased entire families” and caused both mental and physical trauma that those suffering would “never overcome.” “Do you not see what I see? Do you not know what I know?” they asked, a question hypothetically posed to those who are not upset. “How is it that we’re both human, but only one of us is mourning?”

“If there is solace in something it is that I do not have to carry [this] alone,” they said, recognizing the vigil’s sizable turnout. “I implore you not to look away.”

After the speaker stepped down to applause, a Jewish student led the attendees and organizers in the Mourner’s Kaddish, a traditional Jewish prayer commonly recited to honor the memory of the deceased. The student that led the prayer asked everyone to say the prayer for the Palestinians killed since Oct. 7 and “since 1948.” A moment of silence followed the prayer. 

Following the moment of silence, the student organizers invited up anyone who wished to speak or share, and many attendees did. The first student to do so told the crowd that the first and last thing they think about every day is Palestine. Every little thing, such as drinking coffee, causes them to think about the people of Gaza who cannot anymore. However, the student acknowledged that the vigil’s turnout proved “that our communal grief is powerful.”

The student also recited “If I Must Die,” a poem written by Dr. Refaat Alareer. An Israeli airstrike killed Alareer on Dec. 6. The poem was shared online five weeks prior to his death, according to its website. The poem was also written on a piece of cardboard that was part of the vigil’s display with two flowers laid in front of it. 

Another request was made of onlookers on the balcony to stop recording. “It’s not respectful at all,” an organizer said. The organizer continued to say that they constantly feel “gaslit” by the world around them, which earned a round of applause. There were multiple other requests of the viewers to stop recording or filming throughout the vigil. One of the speakers who did so asked people on the balcony how they “didn’t have morals.” Some of the onlookers were recorded by a member of the RSO. 

A subsequent speaker said that if the leaders of both the U.S. and Brandeis believe there is “nothing to grieve, which makes what’s happening far, far worse.” They wondered how said powerful figures see “the murder of children,” “the bombing of hospitals,” and the “starving” of “an entire civilization” and not change their actions. The speaker said that Brandeis is “named after the greatest defender of free speech” on the Supreme Court, but the University uses police to arrest the people it disagrees with. That, they proclaimed, is “unacceptable.” As a Supreme Court Justice, Brandeis is quoted to have said “that repression breeds hate; that hate menaces stable government; that the path of safety lies in the opportunity to discuss freely supposed grievances and proposed remedies; and that the fitting remedy for evil counsels is good ones.” 

Free speech was a worrisome topic for others as well. One student said they were tired of the University claiming that it values free speech because they “silence anyone in support of Palestine.” They felt as though their voice was being stolen from them “no matter what” they did. 

“Fuck Brandeis! It’s as simple as that,” one student proclaimed. 

One common thread throughout many of the speakers was the idea of boycotting. Both boycotting corporations that support Israel such as Starbucks and the University itself were suggested. A later speaker cited the fact that Starbucks has lost a large amount of money as a result of the boycotts. The Economic Times reported on Dec. 7 that Starbucks had lost $11 billion dollars — a 9.4% decline — a loss that is linked to the boycott in response to their support of Israel. 

A speaker reminded the crowd that an institution cannot run without money, but that the University is funded by a “very powerful anti-Palestinian lobby determining everything happening at this school.” One student called on attendees to boycott the name of Brandeis itself. They are embarrassed to have that name on their resume, as they do not want people to think they are a “supporter of genocide.” 

A later speaker called on the community to “ruin the reputation” of the University to prevent more people from attending. “This school will continue to support genocide as long as it is profitable,” they said. 

Many of the participants expressed their disappointment in and dismay at the University’s actions. One said that they chose to attend Brandeis because they had believed it was a “social justice school,” but much of its money is going to Israel and “supporting genocide and the death[s] of so many people.” It felt to them like a “spit in the face.” 

A Jewish student claimed that it is a “lie” to say that Zionism simply means “self-determination for Jews.” The Anti-Defamation League defines Zionism as “the movement for the self-determination and statehood for the Jewish people in their ancestral homeland, the land of Israel.” 

The student deemed Theodore Herzl, who was the “visionary of modern Zionism” and the establishment of a Jewish homeland according to the Jewish Virtual Library, a “white supremacist … bastard.” Zionism, they said, supports the “ethnic cleansing of Palestinians,” and that the people of Gaza’s lives were “stolen from them by Zionists.” The student’s voice grew increasingly louder throughout their speech. 

Other Jewish students also stepped up to speak. One said that it makes them feel “sick and angry” to hear people say that Israel is the only place Jews could go to if there were another Holocaust. Israel would not want them as a queer Jew, the speaker said, so Joe Biden’s claim that Jews are safer because of Israel is therefore false. “This genocide is not in our name,” they said. “Fuck that country.” Bringing up the Holocaust “over and over again” to “justify a genocide” is the most “horrific fucking thing,” they concluded. 

A later speech reminded students to use their right to vote. The speaker said they did not want Joe Biden, “an old genocidal fuck” running this country anymore. They disagreed with the “vote blue no matter what” mindset, and advised the crowd to “make wise decisions.” Another student claimed that pressure would cause Joe Biden to send more aid to Gaza or support Israel less. 

Two Palestinian students also spoke at the vigil. The first thanked everyone for coming, as it meant a lot to them as a Palestinian at a “Zionist university.” The “apartheid,” occupation and “genocide” must stop, they said; it needed to stop a long time ago. The student also touched on how abnormal it feels to witness the destruction in Gaza. “It’s not living. It’s a concentration camp, the same ones the Jews escaped,” they said, describing how Gazans have to starve, drink sea water or “defecate in the street.” “We brought refuge for [Jewish people],” they continued, “and look what happened.” The student remained calm throughout their speech.

The second Palestinian student reminded listeners that Israel is committing “mass punishment” for Palestinians living in Israel. They said their family and the people they know in Jerusalem and the West Bank cannot find food, and Palestinians are being let go from jobs because of what is happening in Gaza. The Justice could not find a source to confirm this as of press time. 

They continued to state that support must be directed to all of Palestine. They felt ashamed to talk about their pain because they are not dying from bombs and their home has not been stolen. The U.S.’ support of Israel distressed them as well; the crowd yelled “Shame!” when the student said that U.S. taxes pay for Israel’s universal healthcare. 

Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health reports that Israel’s healthcare plan is funded by “an earmarked, income-related tax and general government revenue.”

The student concluded by asking attendees to pray for their family and donate or share GoFundMes for Palestinians. 

Another speaker recited the poem “Fuck Your Lecture on Craft, My People Are Dying” by Palestinian-American poet Noor Hindi.

Two faculty members also spoke at the vigil. One expressed their pride in the attendees for “asking the hard questions,” and stressed that they should not let their “grief turn into melancholy.” The other faculty member said they had been at Brandeis for a long time and praised its students for making it a more justice-including place. 

More speakers expressed anger at those who don’t “care about what’s happening.” Those people, they claimed, are “disgusting.” The student went on to say that everyone there was privileged to wake up under a roof and to be grateful that they are alive, for “nothing is as uncomfortable as being murdered.” They also criticized passive language: Palestinians “are not starving. They are being starved. They are not casualties. They are being murdered.”

“Face the facts. It did not start on October 7,” they said. 

One speaker reminded those at the vigil that their “words have power.” The words “conflict” or “situation” do not appropriately describe the situation in their opinion, and they felt hurt and disgusted when hearing that. 

They said, “It’s not a situation. It’s not a fair fight. It’s ethnic cleansing.”

As the vigil came to a close, one of the student organizers notified attendees that two undercover police cars were outside and advised those leaving to be safe and “buddy up.” The Justice could not confirm the police presence as of press time. 

SJP and RSO plan to hold a mass meeting at 7:30 p.m. on March 12 in Shiffman 202. They will discuss how they can further their efforts on campus to support Gaza and the Palestinian people.