One month after the October invasion of Israel by Hamas forces, Ferris students took to campus to voice their beliefs on the ongoing conflict.
Several students present at the demonstration asked for their names and photos to be excluded from all Torch coverage out of concern for their safety.
Why are you here today?
Cyber security sophomore Yasmin Nasir:
“I want the U.S. to stop supporting this genocide. They need a ceasefire right now.”
Welding engineering senior Forrest Hamilton:
“I’m here today because more than 10,000 people have died in Gaza. This is a genocide of the Palestinian people. When I wake up in the morning, I think about every 10 minutes after I wake up, somebody dies in Gaza. It’s sickening, and it ruins my soul and my ability to love and communicate with people. And it’s sickening that nobody’s talking about it. You understand what’s going on, but you do nothing about it.”
Anonymous student:
“I’m here today because I don’t think it’s wrong for Israel to defend themselves from specifically Hamas.”
Why do you think this has anything to do with students?
Nasir:
“Because students should protest for a ceasefire. And because the U.S. is using all citizens’ money including students’ money and employees’ money.”
Hamilton:
“A human life as a human life, you should value the life of the person who’s sitting and standing next to you.”
Anonymous student:
“This is relevant to students because this is something that is happening in current events. This is something that we are seeing history unfold yet again. I think it’s important to have strong ally ties. I also think it’s important to know the history of the locations that we inhabit. And I think it’s important to know about really care about generally what’s going on in the world. There’s a large stereotype that Americans are unaware of current events, there’s a large stereotype that Americans don’t even know their basic geography. And I think that is utterly stupid.”
What is the point of student organizing?
Nasir:
“I don’t know about politics, but it hurts me to see this genocide. Every time I open my phone, I’m seeing kids bombed. This hurts me a lot.”
Hamilton:
“We’re the future. So we need to be working together to organize and change our future for the better. If we just think we shouldn’t care about it because it’s happening in another country, it’s a sickening idea. Because we’re not just citizens of the United States, we’re citizens of the entire world. To solve the problems that are going on, we need to work with the entire world and we need to organize our student bodies together so that we can work for for better lives for us and the people in front of us.”
Anonymous student:
“The point of student organizing is to build a community and to open a place for debate and varied thoughts. I feel like in recent times, people are within usage of like online spaces, people are ending up in echo chambers and are unable to fully flesh out their thoughts. I feel like a lot of people end up on a slippery slope of ‘this is what I believe in.”