An ode to those who stayed. An ode to those who suffered. An ode to those who slept. An ode to those who prayed. An ode to those who stood. To the youth, the students, the alumni, the faculty. To the refugees, the immigrants, the eyewitnesses, and the delegators.
To those who resided in peace on a land they have a right to inhabit. Who were charged and pushed, intimidated and injured. We thank you.
As students of the land in which we once remained, with a constitutional right to engage in peaceful demonstrations as part of a public institution, we arrived and stayed firmly put with no intention other than to exist in peace within our community. Our cries for justice were met with staunch resistance – those wishing to remove us from the land, those with a cause that revolves around nothing other than silencing and eradicating our existence. While we protested and called for our right to live, they called for our end.
Psychological warfare. Biological warfare. Chemical warfare. The incitement of terror. We could not go a single day or night without being met with all of the above. The opposition raised money solely to impair and deface our cause – to “take back” the campus. Left to fend for our own, with no weapons nor intent to engage in offensive action. They disrupted everything from our prayers to our sleep without consequence. They disrupted our right to reside in safety while being reaffirmed by authorities who watched shamelessly atop buildings with snipers for a better view. From windows, from behind barricades, from helicopters, they allowed and condoned our brutalization. They pointed their fingers, inflicted violence, and then reviled at our attempts to defend ourselves. They took our umbrellas, claiming they can be used as weapons, while they watched our oppressors clobber us with fireworks, mace, mice, bludgeons, and more.
Helicopters and drones could be heard from above, drowning our voices from below. They whir and watch us run around in darkness, having no use other than to scare and mentally debilitate those on the ground. Something so prevalent and constant in Palestine that they have ordained for it a name: Zanana.
Women ran out of their tents, wearing the hijabs they slept in out of fear of an abrupt need to come out towards the front lines. A fear that had been corroborated day after day.
As the injured are sprawled out on the ground, shirts are wet with a mix of blood, pepper spray, water, and dirt. To the right is someone frozen on the floor in shock—no one treating her knows her name. To the left is someone unconscious—we gather and carry him and burn his name into our brains. We run around with ink stained on our arms, marking vital information in the case we are separated from others or rendered incapacitated.
With limited media on our side, a narrow and skewed narrative is constructed. Our videos and testimonies are suppressed, and we are left to pray that those who hear us then trust us.
Endless parallels can be drawn. But a few major comparisons prevent the two from ever being comparable. We have stood our ground for seven days while knowing we have a safety net of a home to run to. They have been resisting for 75 years and 208 days, or 27,583 days in total without any alternative option. Day in day out, children man the front lines, act as medics for their parents, and allow the resistance to carry on. They have maintained levels of iman some of us might never reach, for they never forget to say alhamdulillah. They trust that for each act of brutality, they are rewarded, and that their efforts and efforts around the world will lead to their liberation.
Allow this to remind you why the encampment was set up in the first place. We are calling on our university to stop funding companies which directly empower the genocide taking place in Palestine. While we may be hurt, we are now aware of our strength and our abilities. We need to continue educating ourselves and others and ensuring that we ensure one another’s safety at all times. What we experienced in a week is nothing compared to the history of the Palestinian genocide, and we must bide time and remain energized to ensure that they were not successful in halting our movement.
Take this time to recenter your intentions and remind yourself of who we are doing this for. The ultimate goal is for all of us to see a Free Palestine within our lifetimes, and this is only possible with the strength of our community and the will of Allah, our protector and provider. Remember that whether to Tongva or Palestine, we will return.