As the rain came pouring down, about 50 protestors gathered under the canopy of Brower Commons on the College Avenue campus Friday to protest recent violence in Gaza and the killing of civilians there.
"From Iraq to Palestine, occupation is a crime," the crowd said as they protested. "Stop the killing! Stop the crime! Free, free Palestine!"
Members of the crowd waved Palestinian flags, held signs and some even wore traditional Palestinian scarves called keffiyehs.
"I still have immediate family in Ramallah and Nablus, and the conflict completely affects my life," said Reem Taha, a Cook College senior. "I have cousins my age that have to live in a place they can't go around the world like they want to. They can't even leave their town without getting a curfew. It makes me sad that I can live here and live in freedom, and they can't because of the Israeli occupation."
Taha is the president of Belief, Awareness, Knowledge and Activism, one of the student organizations who organized the rally, with the self-proclaimed mission of seeking Middle Eastern justice and shedding light on injustices taking place in the Middle East.
"More than 100 people have died recently," said Ahmad Nashif, a School of Environmental and Biological Sciences first-year student. "We are here to protest the injustice that is happening in Gaza. We just want peace. Co-existence is our goal."
Nashif, who wore the black and white checkered scarf draped over his shoulders, said his family is Palestinian and were from Jerusalem.
"It's unfortunate when there is a loss of civilian life," said Arwa Ibrahim, a Rutgers College senior. "For the Israeli civilians that died, a lot more attention is paid as opposed to the Palestinian loss of life which has been much greater in terms of numbers."
Ibrahim said she is personally affected by the news coming from that area. But she said, it also affects her intellectually.
"I think what is happening now is so clear when you look at the facts of the injustice that is going on," she said.
Shorouk Yousef, a Livingston College sophomore, said she was disturbed by the lack of media attention placed on Palestinian civilians killed in Israel's raids, which have killed more than 150 Palestinian civilians in the past few weeks.
"Sixty-three Gazans died Saturday alone, and it was covered by a few media outlets," she said. "There is no equality in the media."
Yousef also described how her upbringing led to her understanding.
"I lived in Palestine for 10 years. You see it completely different that way, and they are killing us whether we resist them or not," she said. "More than a third of those killed in Gaza were women and children."
Deema Sbeih, a School of Arts and Sciences sophomore, said she felt honored to have many people come to the protest despite the rain. Her family members are refugees from Palestine.
"When my grandfather had to leave his home the first time, they came back and found the house completely destroyed," Sbeih said. "So from scratch, my grandfather had to rebuild the house. The second time they had to leave, he sat there watching his home destroyed again. A Jewish man came to him and said, 'I feel sorry for you, and I would like to help.'"
Sbeih said meeting someone who was Jewish at the rally touched her.
"Some Jewish people I know showed moral support, but were unable to come," she said.
Brian Williams, a Livingston College senior, was one of the Jewish students protesting side-by-side with the other students.
"Once I got in a very bitter confrontational argument with an ardent Zionist," Williams said. "I think every violent action on both sides pushes the situation much closer to a full-blown war between Gaza and Israel, and I am ambivalent. I am dead set against what happened in Gaza.
He said he defends the right to resist occupation against the Israeli Defense Forces and the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, but he said any targeting of civilians on either side is completely reprehensible.
"With a lot of Arabic and Muslim students at Rutgers, we feel that there is not a lot of understanding," Taha said. "There are not a lot of people supporting Palestine, and a lot of students get upset at that."
