A vigil with approximately 130 attendees took place on the Oval around 6:30 p.m. Tuesday to honor two young Palestinians and one American who died as a result of the Israel-Hamas war.
The vigil, organized by Students for Justice in Palestine — or SJP — highlighted several activists and individuals. These include Aysenur Ezgi Eygi — an American activist — and Mohamad Zakaria Zubeidi, both of whom were killed amidst violence in the West Bank territory, according to reports by BBC and the Associated Press.
Medo Halimy was also recognized at the vigil. Halimy was well-known for documenting his experience living in Gaza on the video-sharing app TikTok, but died in a hospital after suffering physical trauma from an Israeli airstrike in the Southern city of Khan Younis in Gaza, according to the Associated Press and NBC.
Currently, Israeli military operations in the West Bank are at their largest since the beginning of the war, with 39 Palestinians reported dead thus far, according to NPR.
The war in Gaza began Oct. 7, 2023 after Hamas — a Palestinian militant group — entered neighboring Israeli towns on a major Jewish holiday, Simchat Torah, where about 1,200 people were killed, according to NPR.
Israel declared war the next day and launched airstrikes on Gaza, destroying entire neighborhoods and killing thousands of Palestinian civilians in the months that followed, with the current death toll surpassing 40,000, according to the Associated Press.
This war is a continuation of a 75-year conflict with previous Israel-Hamas wars in 2008, 2012, 2014 and 2021, according to prior Lantern reporting and the Associated Press.
Speeches
Students, faculty and community members spoke and delivered poems at the vigil. Prior to the event’s start, SJP organizers passed out flowers to attendees.
The flowers were placed in front of the statue of former university President William Oxley Thompson, who organizers also decorated with a Palestinian flag.
No police were present at the event; however, a solar-panel-powered camera had been placed by the university near the location of the vigil.
“For the vigil, there were no police officers on the Oval with participants during event programming,” Dan Hedman, university spokesperson, said. “There were police in the nearby area and on campus should support be needed and the camera was in place as part of our security plan to enhance overall safety. Some common gathering spaces are covered by permanent cameras but in areas without permanent camera coverage, public safety may bring in temporary cameras which is very common for events or gatherings, including football games.”
Hedman said while the Department of Public Safety works with students and student organizations to coordinate security arrangements, final determinations are the “sole decision of the Department of Public Safety.”
Aya Rikabi — a member of SJP and a third-year in interior design — spoke at the event, reciting a poem about the desensitization of Palestinian media coverage titled “We Teach Life, Sir” by Palestinian poet Rafeef Ziadah.
Miriam Saab, a third-year in English and sociology, also shared a poem that commemorated Halimy’s death.
Shannon Winnubst and Treva Lindsey, both professors in the Department of Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies as well as members of Faculty and Staff for Justice for Palestine — or FSJP — spoke on the conflict and how to move forward with its accompanying grief.
“To grieve is to express a love for the lives lost,” Winnubust said in a speech. “How we grieve is a measure of how we love, a measure of what we value most, especially when the meaning of who is human and who deserves to be grieved is under such scrutiny and challenge. We come together here to grieve, to insist on our collective family. We come together to grieve and to stand together for a liberated Palestine.”
English professor, faculty advisor for SJP and FSJP member Pranav Jani went on to highlight similarities between Eygi and Ohio State community members — specifically those who organize events similar to the vigil.
“I want to talk about [Eygi] because of the relevance to us as people organizing on a campus,” Jani said. “ I want to talk about [Eygi] as a role model. I want to talk about [Eygi] because she is you and you are her. I have a [22]-year-old daughter. I have a [18]-year-old daughter. I work with you brilliant students all the time. It makes me sad, and it makes me angry.”
Justin Wood — youth director for the Noor Islamic Culture Center — was the vigil’s final speaker, and he said continual activism has a tangible impact.
“You’ll be tempted to be tired,” Wood said. “You’ll be tempted to say ‘Another vigil, another protest, another action, another email I have to write, another call I have to make to my Congress, and I feel like nothing happened.’ But the reality is that globally — and we can see that, even if it doesn’t seem like it’s in front of our faces — globally, that shift is occurring.”
Additional community organizations such as American Muslims for Palestine and the Palestinian Women’s Association made an appearance at the event, with Wood concluding the night at 7:57 p.m. with Salat ul-Maghrib, a daily Islamic sunset prayer.
Event Context
Jineen Musa — co-president of SJP and a third-year in health sciences and health information management and systems — said the vigil was hosted as a direct response to the Palestinian individuals found dead due to the ongoing war in Gaza. Musa also emphasized the impact that Eygi’s death had on the Ohio State and Columbus communities.
“We know people who were directly connected to her, so it just makes the story even more personal,” Musa said. “But, also, we’re not just highlighting her death because she was a Turkish American, but also because she was killed in the exact same way that every other Palestinian is killed in Palestine — where it’s just relentless, brutal killing for no reason.”
With this vigil being SJP’s first of the semester, Musa said members’ continued activism and organization stems from “an urge to keep fighting”.
Malak Hamed, a third-year in psychology and co-president of SJP, agreed.
“I have family in [the] West Bank,” Hamed said. “I was in Palestine over the summer, so I saw the occupation with my eyes. Even if students don’t have family in Palestine, just having family in general and knowing people in Palestine suffering and being killed for absolutely no reason, that’s enough motivation for us to do what we do.”
Jani said SJP obtained a space reservation from the university to hold the vigil outside of Thompson Library on the Oval.
“You know, in this particular case, we actually have reserved the Oval working with Student Life,” Jani said.
Dave Issacs, a university spokesperson, confirmed SJP had the space reserved.
While SJP focuses on spreading awareness of the conflict at a local level, Winnusbt said students at Ohio State play a significant role in the global advocacy for Palestinians.
“We’re here to grieve, but we understand grief as a solidarity and as a global solidarity for the liberation of Palestine,” Winnubst said. “Students, and the bravery, and courage, and clarity that they’re bringing with their convictions to the movement are making it a global movement, and those include the students here on our campus.”
This story was updated Wednesday, Sept. 11 at 11:25 a.m. and at 3:31 p.m. to include confirmation of a space reservation, correct a factual inaccuracy in Jani’s quote and confirm security measures.
