Students listened to solemn voices and the rushing of the Rideau River at a vigil for Gaza held near Carleton University’s campus on Wednesday evening.
Cool winds brushed by dozens of attendees at the Vincent Massey Park service, as they listened to speeches, prayers and the names of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in Gaza.
Groups including Students for Justice in Palestine, Independent Jewish Voices, the Carleton University Students’ Association and the Carleton University Human Rights Society organized the event.
Aidan Kallioinen*, CUSA’s vice-president of student issues, began the service by saying the candle lighting was an act of resistance as well as a symbol of mourning.
“Grief is not weakness, grief is fuel,” Kallioinen told the crowd. “It is what keeps us human, when the world demands indifference.”
Rieaz Shaik, the South African High Commissioner-designate to Canada, told the crowd that independent voices must acknowledge what he described as a crime.
“As my government correctly insists, and we will continue to insist, (it) is the crime of genocide,” Shaik said.
“Despite the genocidal efforts to eradicate an entire people, we see the light of Palestine.”
Aviya Doikayt, a student and IJV Carleton representative, told the audience about how her identity in the Jewish diaspora led her to feel more connected to the Palestinian struggle.
“There is nothing brave about aligning with power,” she said.
“There is nothing weak about standing with the oppressed.”
Ana Sofia De La Parra, a master’s student who attended the event, said she came to the vigil to show unity with her Palestinian friends.
“They’ve taught me so much, and I want to be here for them to be a true ally in the ways that I can do.”
Nearing the end of the vigil, attendees held candles while some volunteered to read the names of those killed in Gaza to the crowd.
Some of those names were attached to pictures on posters lining the Rideau River footbridge.
“It’s important to know their names, and it’s important to know that they are human lives,” said Reem Hammoud, the vice-president of SJP at Carleton.
Nir Hagigi*, the president of IJV Carleton, said every one of these names represented a “world.”
“Tonight, we’re mourning worlds upon worlds destroyed,” he said. “But we’re also affirming something else — these worlds will not be forgotten.”
*Aidan Kallioinen and Nir Hagigi have previously contributed to the Charlatan.
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Featured image by Brendon Poste/the Charlatan.
