Pro-Palestinian community members marched to the gates of University Yard on the one-year anniversary of Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel to mourn the Palestinians killed by Israel’s military over the last year during the war in Gaza.   

More than 150 pro-Palestinian community members on Monday night gathered at James Monroe Park and marched to the gates surrounding U-Yard on H Street to pray, sing and mourn those killed in Gaza. Participants fastened flowers and posters on the closed gates while representatives from the DMV Coalition of Students for Justice in Palestine spoke to the crowd about Israel’s military operations in Gaza and the more than 41,000 Palestinians who have been killed over the past year.

Directly following Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel, where the group killed 1,200 Israelis and took more than 250 hostages, Israel launched a military offensive in Gaza. Israel expanded its military operations in the Middle East over the last month, crossing the border into Lebanon to attack Hezbollah, killing more than 1,400 people and displacing an additional 900,000. 

The coalition announced the vigil in an Oct. 4 Instagram post, calling on community members to honor the people killed by the Israeli military in Gaza, Lebanon and the West Bank. Participants held signs reading “glory to our martyrs” and “until return and liberation” as they marched down I and 21st streets to the gates fencing off U-Yard on H Street, where representatives from student groups like the coalition and the Muslim Student Association spoke to the crowd.

“Today, we are creating a space for GW community members to express their grief and to honor the Shahid who have given their lives in resistance to the genocidal state of Israel that has occupied their land for 76 years,” an organizer said at the start of the vigil. 

The organizer told the crowd that the vigil will serve as a space for the community to mourn people who have been killed by Israel’s military over the last year and reflect on the ongoing devastation in the Gaza Strip.

“We have seen graphic images and videos that contain a level of horror that words fail to capture,” the speaker said. 

The speaker said the coalition instructed participants to first meet at Monroe Park because officials have barred some students from campus for protesting the war in Gaza. The Student Coalition for Palestine at GWU claimed in August that the University suspended GW chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace and placed an additional six organizations on disciplinary probation. The coalition also alleged in June that Conflict Education and Student Accountability officials charged 10 student organizations and 13 students for Code of Student Conduct violations following the pro-Palestinian encampment last spring.

She said pro-Palestinian students’ occupation of U-Yard — which protesters renamed Shohada Square —  was symbolic of their resistance to the ongoing violence in Gaza and honors those who the Israeli military has killed. 

“Tonight, we will continue in the spirit that was built in Shohada Square and honor each of our martyrs for the sacrifice they have made for the resistance,” she said. 

An organizer led the crowd from Monroe Park to H Street, singing a Palestinian song, Jannah Jannah Jannah, and instructing them join in as they marched towards U-Yard. 

“Remember we are singing this to honor our connection to the land, to honor the sacrifices that our people have made, and as a commitment to this land that we will never abandon Palestine,” he said. 

Officials issued a GW Alert at 8:24 p.m. for “first amendment activity” and announcing “rolling road closures.” Officials issued an all-clear at 10:13 p.m. 

About 25 Metropolitan Police Department officers lined the fence in front of U-Yard while MPD cars and motorcycles blocked off H street. The department stationed at least 25 additional MPD officers on and around H Street between 20th and 21st streets. 

“We will honor all our martyrs, all our parents, mothers and fathers,” the crowd chanted in front of the fenced-off U-Yard. 

A DMV coalition representative told the crowd they must remain committed to their resistance against Israel, who she said has committed “heinous crimes” in the Middle East over the past year.

“Our resistance and our collective struggle has given us a glimpse of liberation, and we know that we are now closer to liberation than we have ever been before,” the DMV SJP representative said. 

Organizers then paused speeches for Salat al Ishaa, a nightly Islamic prayer. Participants laid out prayer mats on H Street while other community members linked arms and formed a circle around the mats, facing the MPD officers who left their posts at the U-Yard fences during the prayer to stand closer to the street.

At the end of the prayer, a representative from the GW Muslim Student Association said she understands that many community members are frustrated and saddened by the war in Gaza, but encouraged them to continue focusing on the people in Palestine.

“Today and every day, we must stand up and persevere with our unwavering peace seen on the faces of our Palestinian brothers and sisters, to feel like to continue to fight for a free Palestine within our lifetime,” the MSA representative said. 

Another speaker then read a number of poems and testimonies from people in Gaza, including a testimony from a 22 year old college student living in Gaza City.

“You don’t know if we’re going to live in the next moment or not. We are praying every second to be alive,” the speaker said, reading the testimony. 

An organizer then reminded the crowd that pro-Palestinian students still hold a list of demands for the University, which they played out during the encampment last spring. At the encampment, protesters demanded the University divest from companies supplying arms to Israel, disclose the University’s investments and partnerships and drop all charges against students and organizations who officials sanctioned or suspended during pro-Palestinian demonstrations. 

“We launched this encampment here for a reason, under a united banner of demands, demands that no amount of police brutality, no amount of surveillance, no amount of university repression will ever, ever cause us to abandon,” the speaker said. 

The organizer then ended the vigil by encouraging attendees to participate in the remainder of the events the DMV coalition is holding at GW this week — which included a walkout and rally on Tuesday and a movie screening on Wednesday — and reiterated that the purpose of their movement is to protest the Israeli military’s ongoing violence against Palestinians. 

“​​We continue to stand strong in the face of these massacres, because the people of Gaza and the people of the region have shown us what strength, steadfastness and sacrifice look like,” the organizer said. “We are here embodying the spirit of our people who refuse to abandon Palestine.”