Emory Students for Justice in Palestine (ESJP), Emory Stop Cop City, Emory Students for Socialism and Emory Divest Coalition, among other groups, hosted an Oct. 8 memorial on the Emory University Quadrangle to commemorate and mourn the lives lost in Gaza and Lebanon. Over 100 people attended the event, which included speeches, prayers, fundraising and craft-making. Many attendees dressed in black mourning attire and donned keffiyehs.
Speakers mourned those killed in Lebanon as the war in the Middle East recently expanded, with Hezbollah and Israel launching attacks on one another. Hezbollah is an Iran-backed Shiite militant and political group within Lebanon.
During the event, speakers shared stories and honored those killed in Gaza since Oct. 7, 2023.
“On Oct. 7, the world reached a turning point,” one speaker said. “Regardless of one’s race, background or ethnicity, the day brought a shared understanding of what it meant to be Palestinian.”
Another speaker read a poem about displacement by a Palestinian Lebanese poet and then read the poet’s reflection.
“I hope that my poem reminds you all not to simply measure violence in the number of bombs dropped but to consider the impact it has on every single person living there,” the speaker read.
Rev. Fahed Abu-Akel, the founder and executive director of the Atlanta Ministry with International Students Peachtree Presbyterian Church, gave a speech urging college students to engage in research and ask questions, as they are the “backbone for freedom — for liberation.” He proceeded to explain Palestinian history and shared his personal experience living in Gaza. Abu-Akel was born in 1944, four years before the foundation of Israel, in Kafr Yasif, a town now located in Israel.
“When we came back, we discovered five Palestinian villages next to my village were destroyed,” Abu-Akel said. “That means the new creation of the state of Israel destroyed 530 villages and towns and exiled close to a million Palestinians.”
The United Nations reported that the creation of Israel displaced 700,000 Palestinians.
Abu-Akel encouraged the audience to stand together regardless of religious background.
“I challenge all of us, people with faith or without faith,” Abu-Akel said. “[In] 2024, if we don’t stand with each other as a human family, to say we are against oppression, locally, nationally and globally, we are against terrorism, locally, nationally and globally.”
Attendees then prayed together while holding candles in prayer circles. They also participated in a Janazah prayer for “the martyrs of Palestine” and multifaith prayers. The Janazah prayer is a prayer commonly recited at funerals.
Event organizers set up poster boards on the Quad with information about the history of the broader conflict. There was also a donation table in addition to the Refaat Mobile Library, a traveling library in Atlanta in honor of Palestinian poet Refaat Alareer.
Some community members wrote the names of those who died on a sign and placed candles in front of it.
Ibrahim, an organizer of the event who requested to be identified only by his first name due to fear of retaliation, said he was glad that people felt “safe and comfortable to show up.”
“It’s just a great opportunity for people to learn more about Palestine but also to mourn,” Ibrahim said. “This is really a memorial first, and so we wanted to make sure that we really respected and honored all of our martyrs, all the people that have been killed in Palestine, Lebanon and Syria, and Yemen, all across the different countries affected by this conflict.”
Additionally, Ibrahim expressed the need to understand one another in the community.
“A lot of people tend to get caught up in the politicized nature of Palestine and Israel, but it's important to remember that there’s people that are hurting on both sides, civilians lost,” Ibrahim said. “It’s important for everyone to give each other grace and to kind of step back from it and recognize that this isn't just about politics, it’s about people’s family members dying.”
Contributing writer Ivana Chen (27C) contributed reporting.
