The Butler Mall was transformed to honor victims of war. Photos by Reece Butler.
AIDAN GREGG | MANAGING EDITOR | agregg1@butler.edu
REECE BUTLER | MANAGING EDITOR | rmbutler@butler.edu
After a year of student outcry, grief and reflection, multiple organizations expressed their remembrance of the past year, after Oct. 7, 2023 when Hamas forces attacked southern Israel, inciting further conflict and mass casualties in the region.
Throughout the day, the Israel on Campus Coalition (ICC), Butler College Republicans, Butler Hillel and Butler Students for Justice and Palestine (SJP) held several events to recognize the lives lost over the past year of conflict and hold space for those mourning close to home.
Israel on Campus Coalition and Butler College Republicans demonstration on South Mall
Before 7 a.m., members of the Israel on Campus Coalition and the Butler College Republicans lined up 1,200 miniature Israeli flags along the South Mall to represent the Israeli lives lost on Oct. 7, 2023. The display was flanked by three yard signs and an informational booth with photos of hostages taken and people killed by Hamas, as well as QR codes linking to multiple resources for education and garnering student opinions.
Junior finance major Brendan Byce is the president of Butler University’s chapter of College Republicans. His organization chose to provide resources for ICC because they are not currently registered as a student organization and therefore cannot reserve on-campus space through the Event Management System. Byce had previously purchased Israeli flags for an Oct. 7 event, but finalized plans alongside ICC this semester. Byce believes in creating a space for Jewish students to mourn, especially on the one-year anniversary of the Oct. 7 attacks.
“Overall, [our] mission is just to give recognition and bring people together [and] start a conversation,” Byce said. “We didn’t want it to be partisan at all; it had to be registered under us just for the logistics.”
The demonstration lasted until mid-afternoon and reaped the benefits of campus foot traffic, as many passersby stopped to observe the memorial.
Representatives for ICC declined to comment.
Hillel vigil at the Compass Center
Hillel’s vigil provided a closed space in the Compass Center for Jewish students, faculty and staff to mourn the approximately 1,200 people killed and over 250 hostages taken by Hamas forces in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Illuminated by flameless candles arranged in the Star of David, students recited prayers from traditional Jewish liturgy for peace, healing and the return of hostages.
Alyssa Smith, a junior psychology and Spanish double major, is one of Hillel’s co-presidents and helped organize the vigil.
Smith emphasized the importance of providing community for Jewish students.
“It’s been a really tough year,” Smith said. “There’s been a lot of times, especially for Jewish students — on a campus with very little Jewish population — we felt alone and we felt isolated. Having a space where people feel like they have people who are there to support them, there to embrace them and where they can feel whatever they’re feeling [was the purpose of the vigil].”
Students told stories of one person taken hostage and two of the people killed on Oct. 7, one of whom — Netta Epstein — was Smith’s friend. Smith told stories about Epstein and his sister, who she met at camp. She shared that Epstein was killed after jumping on a grenade to save his fiancée.
Students, faculty and staff lit candles in the Jewish tradition of candle lighting on the anniversaries of deaths. They also painted stones yellow, which were to be placed in the shape of a yellow ribbon outside the Compass Center. The yellow ribbon has come to symbolize the return of hostages taken on Oct. 7.
Sumaiyah Ryan, a junior public health and sociology double major, is one of SJP’s co-presidents. Ryan acknowledged that it was important for both Hillel and SJP to mourn their losses.
“Jewish people have experienced tons of discrimination throughout history, and 100% deserve a safe space,” Ryan said. “We’re being very respectful of making sure both of our communities get the space that they need on that day.”
Smith appreciated the mutual understanding that Hillel and SJP were able to come to, despite some of their disagreements.
“I hope that we can continue on the trajectory we have now of facilitating productive conversation,” Smith said. “Although we might not agree on everything, just bringing in that sense of humanity and understanding that we’re all hurting right now [is important].”
The vigil concluded with the singing of “Hatikvah,” Israel’s national anthem. After the vigil, some participants departed for a remembrance event held at the Indianapolis Hebrew Congregation.
Students for Justice in Palestine vigil at Star Fountain
Students, faculty and staff gathered at Star Fountain in the evening for SJP’s vigil to mourn the over 41,000 Palestinians killed and over 96,000 injured across Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories in the last year, primarily in the Gaza Strip. Student organizers held a space for reflection and mourning in front of banners bearing the names of a portion of the infants under one year old killed in Gaza this year.
Junior computer science major Omar Daas is one of SJP’s co-presidents. Daas, whose family is from Palestine, began the event with a reading of the names and ages of approximately 245 Gazans killed in the last year, less than 1% of the total number of deceased. He emphasized that Oct. 7, 2023 was the beginning of a genocide in Palestine.
“The genocide may have started a year ago, but it’s still going on,” Daas said. “Bombs are still dropping. We stand firm in our opposition of colonialism and imperialism and all forms of oppression. We continue to demand divestment and the ending of arms to Israel.”
Student organizers read longer biographies of three Palestinians killed in Gaza, including that of Hind Rajab, a five year old girl who was killed along with six of her family members and two paramedics who were killed while attempting to come to their aid.
Ryan recited a poem by the Palestinian poet Refaat Alareer titled “If I must die,” and another by Egyptian-American poet Yahia Lababidi titled “You win by losing.” Both poems address the massive casualties in Gaza and the martyrdom of the deceased. Alareer was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Northern Gaza on Dec. 6, 2023.
According to Ryan, one of the driving forces behind these casualties is Zionism. Variably defined by different groups, Zionism is generally considered a nationalist ideology which advocates for the establishment and maintenance of an Jewish ethnocultural state in the Levant.
“We believe that nothing should happen at the expense of an entire race of people; what Zionism has manifested as is the eradication of the Palestinian people,” Ryan said. “They’re being kicked out of their homes. They’re being displaced [and] told to move countries. They’re being killed. They’re living in an apartheid state.”
The readings were followed by Christian, Muslim and Jewish prayers by students. After a moment of silence for reflection and respect, organizers offered a call to action. They advocated for boycotting corporations like McDonald’s and Disney which have supported Israel. Students asked that participants call their representatives and demand a ceasefire and the end of arms sales to Israel and promoted a chalking event on Wednesday near the Starbucks gazebo.
Although SJP and Hillel held different events, attendees at both mourned what they have lost and reflected on the past year. Smith recognized the importance of SJP having their own space and the humanitarian crisis in the region.
“It’s very valid for them to be able to have a space to talk about what’s going on, because as much as this issue is very polarized, I can say that what’s happening to people in Gaza and people in Lebanon, and all the countries that are being affected right now, it’s awful,” Smith said. “Regardless of where you stand, there’s an issue of humanity.”
‘There’s not a single story here’
Despite a historically tense relationship on campus, the representatives for Hillel and SJP expressed mutual respect for one another. Both groups hope that recognition of their shared humanity and shared struggle will pave the way for their respective futures on campus.
“I come from a standpoint that a person is a person,” Smith said. “Especially, we’re people, [who] both come from minority groups, and it’s really tough to have people against you.”
Director of the Compass Center Daniel Meyers has helped facilitate interfaith dialogue and provide support to Jewish and Muslim students in the wake of rising antisemitism and Islamophobia since Oct. 7, 2023. Meyers said that as students, faculty and staff continue to navigate questions about Israel and Palestine on campus, we need to approach difficult conversations with empathy.
“You might not understand and you might not have the same experience,” Meyers said. “But to recognize how many different ways this same day, and the days after, and the months ahead and the months behind us have made people navigate emotions, experience loss, frustration and anger are really extremely understandable.”
In the wake of tragedies on Oct. 7, 2023 and over the last year, the different ways students came together to mourn reflect the multitude of impacts that the Israel-Palestine war has had on everyone.
Meyers holds space for this range of responses while acknowledging the span of individual emotions on this day of mourning.
“There’s not a single story here,” Meyers said. “It’s important to try to capture that multiplicity of the ways people relate to it.”
