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As a life-long Palestinian American Seacoast resident, id has at all times been vital to me. My mother and father instilled in me a fantastic delight in my household’s Palestinian heritage. My mom would go to my courses at Little Harbour College and do shows on our tradition. I’d write about my experiences visiting Palestine all through center and highschool, and on the College of New Hampshire, my ardour for refugees guided my teachers and my activism.
After commencement from UNH, I started organizing domestically in Portsmouth for Palestinian human rights. I organized a number of demonstrations in Market Sq. and Prescott Park over the previous two years, with unbelievable turnouts and solidarity from different organizations like Indigenous New Hampshire and Black Lives Matter.
Portsmouth and Palestine are my residence.
A number of weeks in the past, I discovered that U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken can be delivering the graduation tackle at my commencement ceremony from Georgetown College on Could 21. The information caught me off guard, and I instantly shared the data with colleagues within the Arab Research program.
As college students of the Center East, and with many people hailing from the area, we have been intensely conscious of the function performed by the U.S. authorities in abetting the Israeli occupation. For myself and my friends, this was a chance to confront energy face-to-face.
Two days later, I woke as much as discover video after video of the late Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, murdered in broad daylight by Israeli troopers as she was reporting on an Israeli army raid within the Jenin Refugee Camp. Two days later I watched in horror as her funeral procession was attacked by Israeli forces within the courtyard of Jerusalem’s St. Joseph Hospital. Then I got here throughout a tweet by Blinken: “We have been deeply troubled by the photographs of Israeli police intruding into the funeral procession of Palestinian American Shireen Abu Akleh. Each household deserves to put their family members to relaxation in a dignified and unimpeded method.”
Blinken’s toothless tweet, labeling the assault on Shireen’s funeral an “intrusion” enraged me. No assertion that acknowledged her loss of life as cold-blooded homicide by Israel. I messaged my friends instantly and we started to plan our motion.
We finally determined to hold out a silent protest; we needed others in our cohort, a few of whom both held citizenship in Arab international locations that don’t respect free speech or have been right here on scholar visas, to take part with out worry of penalties. We’d don the standard Palestinian keffiyeh and carry photographs of Shireen each throughout the graduation procession and all through Blinken’s tackle. We even completely investigated Georgetown’s free speech insurance policies and ensured that we have been in step with its protocols.
On graduation day, I rushed my household to get to campus early. I had not advised them what we have been planning. My mother and father rightfully fear about me; Palestinian college students and activists in america are usually blacklisted, smeared, and punished for his or her advocacy. Nevertheless, honoring Shireen’s legacy, and making the most of this uncommon public alternative to make our voices heard in entrance of a high-ranking U.S. policymaker, was much more vital to me than any private threat I’d face.
When the procession started, I used to be the primary in line carrying a photograph of Shireen. Greater than half of the Arab Research cohort participated. Our plan was executed flawlessly. However when the time got here for our stroll throughout the commencement stage we have been shocked after we noticed that Secretary Blinken stayed; we had assumed he would depart immediately after his tackle. Upon realizing that I used to be anticipated to fist bump the secretary of state after receiving my diploma, I made a cut up second determination to disregard the gesture and as a substitute communicate to him.
On stage, I regarded Secretary Blinken within the eye and stated: “We demand an impartial investigation of Shireen’s homicide, and we demand an finish to all American assist to the Israeli army now. Please.” I may barely hear what his one phrase response to me was. All I knew was that, in that second, I used to be training the ideas that grounded me so deeply in all of the work that I and numerous others don’t just for Palestine however for human rights in all places.
I used to be hooded for my Grasp’s diploma after which returned to my seat.
Because the ceremony ended, Secretary Blinken motioned to me together with his arms, signaling for me to not depart. As he left the stage he stopped in entrance of us and stated, “I see you. I hear you.” I reiterated to him that we demand an impartial investigation into Shireen’s homicide. He replied, “We’re dedicated to discovering the reality.”
I felt enraged over again. We knew the reality. What we needed was to place that reality on the worldwide report, in order that at some point Israel may very well be held accountable.
My mom has at all times stated I’ve a pointy tongue. I instantly responded, “We all know the reality. She was murdered by the Israeli army that we bankroll. We must always cease funding the Israeli army, we have to minimize all American assist to Israel.” I don’t know if he heard me, as a result of he walked away.
A video clip of me elevating the Palestinian flag and talking to Blinken on stage has since gone viral. I had not deliberate our interplay, nor anticipated that clip to be so broadly shared. I’ve obtained messages of assist from world wide, together with from childhood buddies and academics in Portsmouth, and distant household I’ve by no means met within the Center East.
My friends and I’ve since launched a public assertion explaining our motion and reaffirming our calls for. We hope that anybody impressed by our small, symbolic act of resistance will take the primary steps in organizing for Palestinian liberation, regardless of the place they’re. We all know that these efforts are small in measurement, however small streams develop into nice rivers.
Nooran Alhamdan, a lifelong resident of the Seacoast, is a Little Harbour College, Portsmouth Excessive College, UNH, and Georgetown College graduate and a dedicated advocate for Palestinian liberation and human rights. In 2019 she was awarded a Harry S. Truman scholarship and this fall will start legislation faculty.
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