Stonehill College community members gathered on the Quad to march in protest of war and call for peace in Gaza.
The silent protest, held on Tuesday, was put together by John Devereuax, Jonathan Cook, and Alexandra Trantos, alongside the Center for the Study of Race, Ethnicity, and Social Justice.
The Quad was decorated with 4,251 flags, which had the reported names of Palestinian children killed in the Israel-Hamas war. The names come from a Dec. 2023 list. The official total of child casualties is now over 17,000.
The symbolic march circled the campus twice. The march starting on the Quad, then went past the Chapel of Mary, across the Red Bridge, past The Commons, and then back to the Quad.
The idea for this demonstration came after Devereuax was sitting in his dorm watching the aftermath of the October 7, 2023, events in Israel.
“I was sitting in my dorm room hours a day watching the tragedy unfold, and it’s so disheartening. I decided I needed to do something,” Devereuax said.
He then met with professors and other faculty to workshop the idea, and then got permission to go forth with the march.
Devereuax put in over 17 hours on his own over the past couple of weeks writing names of the Palestinian children on the flags, with help from others as well.
This is only one of the events the Center for the Study of Race, Ethnicity, and Social Justice has planned regarding the Israel-Hamas war. The event is on Oct. 30, taking place in the McCarthy Auditorium, where scholars and activists will be holding a virtual panel about the conflict.
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