[Protester 1: Viva viva Palestina! // Crowd: Viva viva Palestina!]
This afternoon saw the latest protest of the Israel-Hamas war on the U-S-C Health Sciences Campus. At noon, the university’s branch of the Students for Justice in Palestine led a march of protesters across the campus, calling for a ceasefire in the Middle East and remembering the lives of killed Palestinians.
The march began with a poem by American poet Suheir Hammad titled “Gaza.” A protester who did not give their name read the poem out loud to the silent crowd.
Protester 2: Medics killed, schools hit, convoys bombed. The injured are dying. The dead are buried in three hours. The people pray together and curse. The people mourn loud and quiet. Always too loud.
That same protester recalled the context that the poet wrote those words in.
Protester 2: The poem was written in 2009. The ongoing siege in the Gaza Strip has been happening for over 15 years. The Palestinians have been subjugated to such an intense Israeli blockade that the U.N. warned Gaza would be unlivable by 2020.
Before marching across the Health Sciences Campus from Pappas Quad to the Los Angeles General Plaza, the protesters read names of some of the Palestinians killed in the Israel-Hamas war, including a few names of the reported 41-hundred children killed.
Another organizer who did not give their name gave a statement speaking for the participating protesters, asking for an end to what they called the illegal occupation of Palestine and the beginnings of a genocide.
Protester 3: We graduate students of the health sciences at USC, health care workers at L.A. General Medical Center, stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people and denounce the ongoing genocide enacted by the state of Israel. As health care workers in training, we uphold the sanctity of all life. From Boyle Heights to the Gaza Strip.
The organizer described some of the reported conditions of healthcare in the Gaza Strip since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war one month ago.
Protester 3: Medical staff are treating burns from white phosphorus bombs and children without clean water. 50,000 pregnant women in Gaza are at a significant risk of complications to their pregnancy.
Their demand was clear.
Protester 3: It is our duty as future health and current health care workers to advocate for all communities subjected to systemic oppression. We urge our colleagues and elected officials to join our calls for a cease fire, the dissolution of the illegal occupation of Palestine. As the US Senate plans to vote this Thursday, November 9th, on over $14 billion in aid to Israel. We demand that our senators strike down this bill and stop our tax dollars from funding genocide.
[Protester 1: Viva viva Palestina! // Crowd: Viva viva Palestina! // Protester 1: Congress, Congress, you can’t hide!]
The protesters’ calls for action are not a first in this country or even on USC campus. As the Israel-Hamas war enters its second month, the Students for Justice in Palestine, among other groups, are planning more events to protest their position on the war.
[Crowd: Free, free Palestine! Free, free Palestine!]
From Annenberg Media, I’m Marie Louise Leone.