Houston Youth for Peace in Palestine held a demonstration in front of the M.D. Anderson Memorial Library on Monday and Tuesday for the people of Palestine affected by the crisis in Gaza.’
‘It’s basically a memorial to honor the people who were lost. It’s a symbolic cemetery to raise awareness in the student population,’ demonstration organizer and UH alumna Kellie Abou-Awad said. from and.
Students, volunteers, and alumni attended the event.
‘A lot of people that have passed by don’t know what the Palestinian flag looks like, they’re not sure where Gaza is, and they don’t know what exactly is going on,’ Abou-Awad said.’
Abou-Awad and a team of volunteers passed out fact sheets to students who walked by the demonstration. Abou-Awad said the fact sheets were gathered from credible American media sources and not Arab media outlets for the purpose of keeping objectivity,.
‘We’re not pushing a political agenda. All we’re saying is that we’re honoring people that have been lost. They are victims of an unjust offensive against them,’ Abou-Awad said.’
Political science sophomore Dmitry Galushko said the demonstration was a great way to educate the public, but he held a different opinion on the crisis in Gaza than the demonstrators.’
‘I can’t say that it’s only Israel to blame for. It’s also Hamas at fault for this, and in some cases, even Israel was provoked. We cannot justify the killing of 1,400 people, but it’s not only Israel’s fault,’ Galushko said.’
Similarly, philosophy graduate student Andrew Elizaga said he intially wasn’t sure what the demonstration was about. He said he thought it was a Mexican event because of the flags, but was curious enough to find out more.’
‘Despite their attempts to convey what’s happening…it seems to be a one sided portrayal. I don’t think it’s an adequate representation of everything, but they’re also trying to argue that what you get from the media is not adequate, either,’ Elizaga said.
Abou-Awad said the demonstration is a humanitarian effort.
‘Every life is equal,’ Abou-Awad said. ‘We do not want to go into that comparison of life, we want to reiterate to everyone that every human life is special, every human life is equal.’
The demonstration was held in conjunction with the UH Muslim Students Association.’
MSA president and business senior Mohamed Hussein said after a bit of research, anyone will find the numbers of causalities involved appalling, but he believes acknowledging the crisis is an act of civic duty.’
‘We (in MSA) think it’s a good cause. The purpose of this is to recognize the innocent people who have died and create awareness of the situation that they live in. This is in the best interest of our nation, as Americans,’ Hussein said.
The crosses in the memorial illustrated that the situation in Gaza does not affect only Muslims and Jews.
‘Christians have been affected and have been lost in this crisis. A lot of people just seem to think that (Gaza) is a Muslim city and a Muslim issue and it is not. It is also a Christian issue,’ said Abou-Awad.
‘That’s why we want to show and tell people that it’s not necessarily Muslims but also your Christian brothers and sisters that are being affected.’
