NORTHAMPTON — Dozens of people gathered on the steps of City Hall Sunday evening to stand in solidarity, grief, honor and support of Palestinians killed in protests in the Gaza strip since the end of March.
Organized by the group Jewish Voice for Peace of Western Mass, community members gathered and held handmade signs with messages like “Palestine Will Be Free” and “Let Gazans Live.”
Those in attendance also held signs bearing the names and faces of those who were killed. Al Jazeera reported on Friday that around 1,600 protesters, 160 of them women, have been wounded and more than 30 have been killed by Israeli snipers since the Great Return March movement began on March 30.
“This is not a movement that is coming from our heads. This isn’t a movement about what we think is wrong. This is about what we know in our hearts is wrong. What we feel in our hearts. Our grief,” said Dori Midnight, a Northampton resident and Jewish Voice for Peace member. “On Friday, on a sacred day for the Jewish people, they are killing people. They are firing on children. This is our holy day, our sacred day, and they are killing people. I say as an American Jew, ‘not in my name.’ Not in our name. That is not what a holy day is for.”
In addition to speaking and marching, the group also had postcards on hand to fill out and send to Sen. Elizabeth Warren to thank her for a recent statement she made and perhaps push the senator even further.
“It wasn’t the toothiest statement but it was a statement,” Midnight said.
The Intercept reported earlier this month that Warren said in a statement that she was deeply concerned about the death and injuries in Gaza.
“As additional protests are planned for the coming days, the Israel Defense Forces should exercise restraint and respect the rights of Palestinians to peacefully protest,” Warren said.
Midnight told those gathered that it was the responsibility of American Jews to hold other Jews, U.S. Jewish institutions and the government accountable for what is happening.
“We have to be the ones to make this statement and come out because so many people — especially people of color, especially Muslim people, especially Palestinians — are accused of anti-Semitism anytime they speak out against this atrocity,” she said.
The group held two moments of silence to honor those who have been killed or injured in Gaza. Following the first moment of silence, the group went on its own march through downtown chanting “From Springfield to Palestine, occupation is a crime.”
Jewish Voice for Peace member Rachel Weber told the crowd that as American and American Jews, they had the power to take a solid and powerful stance against the violence.
Emily Cutts can be reached at ecutts@gazettenet. com.