About 100 students at UNC Charlotte attended a vigil Thursday evening in support of Palestinian lives lost in the Gaza Strip.
Unlike some campus rallies that have had confrontations between Jewish and Palestinian students, Thursday’s rally was a vigil organized by student organizations, including the Palestinian Cultural Organization and Muslim Student Association.
Several people spoke against Israel’s attack on Gaza, which came in response to the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks by political and military organization Hamas, also the Gaza Strip's governing body.
UNC Charlotte student Mira Abdelaziz, who organized the rally, said she wants the world to know that Palestinians in Gaza are suffering.
“These are groups of people who have often been dehumanized by the media, ” she said. “Perhaps not intentionally. We treat them like statistics, we treat them like collateral damage, like casualties. This is not collateral damage. This is not just another casualty. These are all humans who have been killed.”
Israel said the Oct. 7 attacks killed more than 1,400 people, including children. Roughly 200 people were taken hostage, which U.S. President Joe Biden condemned as the deadliest attack against Jewish people since the Holocaust.
The Palestinian Health Authority said earlier this week that at least 8,500 Palestinians in Gaza have died since Oct. 7.
When asked how Israel should have responded after the Hamas attacks, Abdelaziz said she could not answer that question.
“I cannot offer my opinion on that because I am not a governing power,” she said. “All I know is that this is not the action that should have been taken. And I need the world to know that this is not the action that should have been taken.”
Another student, Martha Alyea, said although Israeli civilians were killed in the attack, she questions whether Israeli reports of atrocities committed by Hamas are true.
“I am skeptical,” she said.
According to the Associated Press, Israel has shown a photo of a burnt baby, gunmen shooting the dead bodies of civilians in cars and militants beheading a body with a hoe. There is also video of people in motorized hang gliders entering Israel and footage of Hamas gunmen firing at civilians.
CBS News reports that journalists watched a videoof Hamas atrocities shown by Israeli Defense Forces.
In Durham Thursday night, protesters organized by the North Carolina Triangle Chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace shut down Highway 147 in downtown for several hours.
