AURORA | Despite the cold and windy weather, nearly three dozen students, faculty and others from the university participated Monday at Anschutz Medical Center in a protest against the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.
The event was organized by graduating medical student Sarah Nofal. Attendees, some of whom wore a keffiyeh — a traditional Palestinian scarf — heard from a few speakers who showed their support for Palestine. They also participated in a “die-in,” where they laid on the ground for six minutes in silence. Each minute represented a month of the war.
Nofal said that the campus has been a supportive environment and that it was easy to facilitate this event because of the help and support of staff, faculty and peers.
The event Monday came as university students all over the country, including the University of Colorado at Denver, are engaging in protests against the Israel-Hamas war. According to the Associated Press, more than two thousand students across the country have been arrested as students and local police departments clashed.
There were no counter-protestors at the event. There was law enforcement present at the protest. The event was peaceful and without interruption.
“I cannot help but note that throughout American history, student protests have been a catalyst for justice,” said Omar Mubarak, a Denver-based vascular surgeon, when addressing the crowd. He then spoke about how student protests during the 1960s Civil Rights Movement and the Black Lives Matter protests.
During the event, attendees also heard from Mohammad Sobeh, who escaped from Gaza following the initial attacks in October. He communicated to the audience through an interpreter. Sobeh spoke about how 25 people in his uncle’s family were killed when a building collapsed and the fear of hearing the missiles but not knowing where they would hit. He also spoke about how families would send children to spend the night at a relative’s house so that if a missile hit their home at night, there would still be a couple surviving family members.
Sobeh said that his son, an American, paid thousands of dollars to bring him and a few other family members to America.
“It is close to my heart as I am Palestinian myself, and I’m also in the medical field ,and I’ve made a lifelong commitment to taking care of others,” Nofal said. “We also have a responsibility to advocate for those who cannot for themselves, namely being the defenseless population, the civilians of Gaza and the West Bank.”
Congratulations to these students for not having any pressing matters in their own country. How many of them do you think really actually understand what is going on between Israel and Palestine?
First of all these are medical students and PhD students as well as practicing doctors and professors, who are well out of graduate school. Medical students and medical professionals especially are very well aware of the suffering that exists in this world in all corners. They probably understand more than you do most likely. I would probably trust their opinion on practically anything more than I would trust yours. You infantilize others to make yourself feel smarter.
The protests are going on at universities and schools across the country because these schools “Monies” are being spent on Israeli buisnesses, yet I don’t hear of protests at Israeli Embassies anywhere. It is the Israeli Government commiting Genocide on the citizens of Gaza, not Israeli buisnesses. Protests at schools only disrupt university buisness and student activities. The Israeli Government could care less.
They do care and they do have an impact. Divestment campaigns are what helped bring down the South Africa apartheid regime. Embassies are also diplomatic entities and probably care less about protestors from a foreign country than an American college campus who is directly responsible for their students.
The keffiyeh is a Hamas symbol and symbol of terrorism and violence. It’s not accurate to say it’s just a traditional Palestinian scarf….maybe at one time it was, but not any longer.