Following an emotional week for Muslim and Jewish communities, approximately 100 students and members of the community gathered on the Chapel steps to make a plea for peace during Friday evening's "Vigil for Gaza."
The event, sponsored by the Arab Student Organization, the Muslim Student Association, Duke Against War and the Interfaith Dialogue Project, was designed to be a platform for individuals to express their grief for the Palestinians caught in the crossfire, organizers said.
"We gather here as a cry to humanity for an immediate end to the suffering of the people of Gaza," sophomore Yasmina Chergui, president of the Arab Student Organization, said to the attendees. "Our intention is not to draw attention to the perpetrators of the violence but rather to take a moment to place ourselves in the shoes of the victims."
Keeping with this spirit, the presentation began with a slideshow illustrating the human cost of the war-images of rubble-strewn streets, grief-stricken family members and dead children wrapped in Palestinian flags flashed across the screen as the Black Eyed Peas' song "Unison" played in the background.
"I appreciated the vigil's organizers' attempt to begin on a universal, human note," Rabbi Michael Goldman, of Duke's Freeman Center for Jewish Life wrote in an e-mail Sunday. "Even more important, one of the heads of MSA approached me before the rally just to make sure that I was alright. She expressed a genuine desire not to let the conflict, and the way it plays out on our campus, to jeopardize friendships. I thought that was very mature."
Despite organizers' insistence that the event was a vigil, not a protest, at moments the tone became political. Faisal Khan, a staff assistant in the philosophy department, urged attendees to call for an end to the conflict while MSA members collected donations for the Palestinian victims and signed up participants for a political demonstration in Washington, D.C., against the offensive.
Palestinian journalist and blogger Laila El-Haddad, Trinity '00 and a former Chronicle columnist, compared conditions in Gaza to those in the Warsaw ghetto in 1943, decrying "the illegal occupation of Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem" and calling for a free Palestine.
"It is incumbent upon all of us to speak out for peace and justice for all Palestinians and Israelis," she said. "We must not only call for an end to arms-whether they are Palestinian rockets or Israeli laser-guided missiles-but we must also address the underlying cause of it all. We must demand an end to Israel's illegal occupation."
Junior Rachel Silverman, a Jewish student and former president of Duke Friends of Israel-who wrote a letter to the editor in The Chronicle last February condemning El-Haddad's appearance at a similar peace vigil-again said that although the vigil was in good taste for the most part, she did not appreciate the speaker's comments.
"I just thought she was very offensive and inflammatory," Silverman said. "She compared the situation in Gaza to the Holocaust, and I thought that was very unfair."
Silverman was one among several members of the Jewish community who were in attendance, including Goldman and current Duke Friends of Israel president Max Kligerman, a sophomore.
"Even though we had some basic disagreements, we can agree on the tragedies of the conflict, and that is enough to bring us together," Kligerman wrote in an e-mail Sunday. "The vigil was for the most part very respectful and well done."
Duke Friends of Israel for its part will begin a campaign to educate the campus about the Israeli side of the issue, beginning with a set of fliers advertising its own set of facts, he said. Kligerman wrote in an e-mail to the DFI listserv that the purpose of the fliers is to "help shed light on the conflict and... defend Israel's actions."
"Did you know... Hamas hides their arsenal of weapons in civilian neighborhoods, even under elementary schools and hospitals," one draft of a flier reads.
"We decided to launch this campaign because many members of the Jewish community on campus felt that the conflict was being depicted improperly and were very upset by this," Kligerman said, referring to fliers posted by MSA and ASO advertising the vigil.
The death toll in the conflict, now in its 17th day, has topped more than 800 Palestinians, nearly half of whom are reported to be women and children, and 13 Israelis, according to United Nations estimates. Casualties have been quickly mounting since Israeli forces launched an air and ground offensive into Gaza Dec. 27 in response to rocket fire from Hamas, an organization that controls the area and is considered a terrorist group by most Western nations.
A common refrain repeated by speakers was an appeal to Jewish and Muslim communities to maintain and strengthen their bonds of friendship, in spite of conflicting views.
"We all have personal opinions and clear disagreements, and that's when intellectual, ethical and moral tests arise," Muslim chaplain Abdullah Antepli said at the vigil. "I personally believe that what's been done to the victims in Gaza-innocent civilians in Gaza and keeps happening as we speak-is neither acceptable nor justifiable.... But at the same time, we should continue the friendships, partnerships, coalitions and alliances that we have had on this campus and continue to do the common work together as we are part of this one community."
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