Students gathered around the Hill Student Center amphitheater last Thursday to express support for Palestine in its recently escalated conflict with Israel and protest Israel’s offensive efforts against Hamas, the governing body over the Gaza Strip.
The protest, organized by UAB’s Muslim Students Association (MSA) and led by a group of Palestinian students, called attention to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza created as a result of Israel’s ongoing airstrike campaign and blockade of the region, harming Gazan civilians and blocking access to food, water, electricity, medical supplies and fuel supplies.
Students shared accounts of how the conflict has affected themselves and their families, Muslim community leaders attended and thanked the organizers for calling attention to the crisis in Gaza, and Muslim students led prayers in both Arabic and English.
Nooraldein Alabsi, President of MSA and a Palestinian student, spoke at the event. “How can the murder of a thousand-plus children be justified?” Alabsi asked an audience of protesters. “The people of Gaza have been in siege for 17 years. That’s the majority of my lifetime, and I’m a third-generation Palestinian. Israel has persisted in its war crimes for 75 years. 75 years of constant oppression. 75 years of documented apartheid. Yet, who are being labeled the terrorists?”
Students shouted chants in both English and Arabic, repeating phrases like “Gaza, Gaza, don’t you cry, Palestine will never die” and “Netanyahu, you can’t hide, we charge you with genocide.”
“I’m here to stand against the occupation happening in Palestine,” Alabsi told Kaleidoscope after his address to the students. “I’m personally affected by it. I feel the need more so than ever to stand for something like this, especially when a lot of the media portrays us in the opposite light, in a fashion that doesn’t represent us, I feel the need more than ever to take a stand for myself and use my voice to speak for the people that can’t speak for themselves,” he said.
Some students attended the protest to defend Israel, waving Israeli flags and handing out missing person flyers for individuals presumed kidnapped by Hamas militants. “We’re not here for provocation, we’re not here for fighting,” said Ohad Buck, an Israeli sophomore psychology major. “We have friends and families who are dead and also fighting on the front lines, so it’s very important for us and we want to spread the message… what we went through, it’s like Israel’s 9/11, and to have people that come here and support the other side, it’s quite painful.”
Buck and other students attending in support of Israel stood among the crowd while pro-Palestine protesters gave their speeches, occasionally speaking out to argue certain points. “It’s not true, check your facts, it’s on Al Jazeera,” one student said in response to a speaker’s claim that Israel was responsible for the bombing of al-Alhi Arab Hospital in Gaza. The origin of the bomb is contested, but analyses from Associated Press and other publications indicate that the munition most likely originated from Hamas.
“[The pro-Israel demonstrators] were doing what the western media does today, which is dismissing all the facts, backed by evidence, that what is going on over there is a genocide,” Malik El-Husari, a Palestinian alumnus from UAB’s class of 2022, told Kaleidoscope. Alabsi said of the Israeli students, “It wasn’t unexpected that we would get counterprotesters, and quite honestly, they did have their remarks every now and then, their attempts to provoke some of our members, but overall I thought they were very respectful, and honestly, I applaud them for that.”
While speaking at the event, Omar Qashou, a senior digital forensics major, played a voicemail from his mother. His mother, currently residing in Gaza, recorded the voicemail as a message to UAB students. “We are not terrorists. We are not savage humans. We are people who are sadly dreaming of basic human rights while being ethnically cleansed. The whole world is not just watching, they are watching while finding excuses for Israel. They are watching while they are calling us terrorists. As a Palestinian, I am saddened, and my heart is broken. As an American, I am ashamed,” she said.
