Remembering October 7th and the War on Gaza at ISU

Illinois State University students memorialize and reflect on the death and violence in the Middle East on the one year anniversary of Hamas’ Al-Aqsa Flood attack on October 7th, 2023 against Israel.

On October 7^th, 2023, an estimated 2,900 Hamas and other Palestinian militants broke through the 19-year Israeli blockade on the Gaza border. They initially targeted Israeli Defense Force (IDF) targets. However, they continued their attack deeper into Israel committing numerous acts of terrorism¹ at a music festival and several communal villages called Kibbutzim. Ultimately, 373 Israeli security forces, 695 Israeli civilians, and 71 foreigners were killed during the flood.² 250 hostages were kidnapped and taken back to Gaza. It was the largest death count in Israeli history. Hamas also launched approximately 5,000 missiles, some reaching as far as Tel Aviv.

In response to the Al-Aqsa Flood, Israel retaliated, and so began the war on Gaza. The U.S.-backed apartheid nation³ claimed its goals were to rescue all the hostages and eliminate Hamas once & for all. Israel immediately launched a medieval siege of Gaza cutting off access to electricity, water, gasoline, medicine, medical supplies, and all other aid. One year later, the death toll in Gaza is over 42,000 confirmed deaths, with an additional ten thousand dead people estimated to be under the rubble.⁴ It is the largest death count of Palestinians in the history of the Israel/Palestine conflict.

The medical journal Lancet predicted back in June the death toll could be as high as 186,000 people including indirect forms of death. The population of the Gaza Strip was approximately 2.3 million, fifty percent of which are children. If the Lancet predictions are accurate, this would mean 7-9 percent of the population is dead. Around 200,000 Palestinians have been able to escape the Gazan Strip effectively ethnically cleansing them from the land.

On Monday, members of Free Palestine BloNo and Students for Justice in Palestine ISU (SJP ISU) gathered in the Uptown Normal circle to mourn those that have died over the past year, to decry what many believe is a genocide by Israel against the Palestinians in Gaza, and to demand an end to the occupation. Participants held signs and sat in silence with electronic candles as they remembered the dead and injured from this conflict.

Palestinian-American Jannah Alshabah, the founder of Free Palestine BloNo, told WGLT, “My grandfather fled from occupied Palestine when they were attacking, and he was about 3 years old. So this is something that, it’s a part of me.”

In her interview with Agitation Rising, she stated the vigil was to remember the lost lives during this time, specifically the Palestinian lives. When asked if that included the Israelis who died on October 7^th, she said, “I won’t comment on that, but I do believe in world peace.”

When asked if holding this type of event on October 7^th was provocative she stated, “I wouldn’t say it’s provocative. It’s a sign of supporting the resistance. It’s also to empower the Palestinians during their time of suffering. This is not to stir something in the pot. It’s not to promote violence or non-peace.”

I asked what she thought the ultimate resolution to the Israel-Palestine conflict was. She declined to comment on behalf of Free Palestine BloNo, only speaking as an individual. She said, “This is just me speaking. I believe in the liberation of the Palestinians. That is Palestinian land.” When asked what she thought should happen to the seven million Israeli Jews, she declined to answer only saying they were occupiers. Over 70% of Israeli Jews were born in Israel. A plurality (46%) are of Mizrahi/Sephardic descent meaning they come from North African or Middle Eastern countries, many of which expelled their Jewish populations after the 1948 war.

Alshabah told WGLT, “We’re not antisemitic in any way, because anti-Zionism is not antisemitism. It’s just anti-Zionism. Anti-Zionism is literally just being against colonialism and genocide and occupation and colonization. Antisemitism is literally just hate.”

Agitation Rising also interviewed Illinois State University students who were present. They spoke only for themselves and not on behalf of any organizations. Aya Hussein said, “We are mourning all the lives lost. Oct 7^th marks a year of genocide. But, it isn’t the beginning. That happened way back in 1948. We’re mourning the lives lost, lives lost right now, and maybe in the future because of inaction. While we are focusing the mourning on Palestinians, we are also mourning the Israeli citizens that have died. If only Israel would end its occupation, those lives would have never have to have been lost in the first place.”

She stated both Palestinian and Israeli lives have been taken unfairly.

Another ISU student present, Andrew Franson, said even if holding this event on October 7^th is provocative “why are you against an anti-genocide campaign?”

Agitation Rising asked Franson what his response was to the assertion that if Hamas simply laid down its arms and released the hostages, there would be peace. He said, “That’s the stupidest shit I’ve ever heard. This particular case of genocide is the most uniquely recorded genocide in history. The genocide of the Palestinian didn’t start on Oct 7^th, it’s been going on for 70 years. The actions of Hamas, whether terroristic or not, are in defense and reaction of the Palestinian people and their homeland.”

While it can certainly be argued that Israel is currently committing genocide in Gaza, the assertion that the entire 70+ year conflict constitutes a genocide is untenable. The Palestinian population both inside Israel and in the annexed occupied territories has grown significantly since 1948. In the 19 years since the occupation of Gaza moved to its borders in the form of a blockade, the population grew from 1.6 million to 2.3 million prior to October of last year.

Israel’s goal throughout its history (and even prior to 1948) has not been to exterminate the Palestinian population. Israel does not believe the Palestinian identity exists; that it is actually legitimate or on some way unique from other ethnic Arabs. It’s why a constant refrain from Zionist voices is there’s dozens of Arab countries Palestinians could go live in. This assumes there are no cultural differences between an Iraqi Arab and a Syrian Arab or an Egyptian Arab and an Algerian Arab. It denies there are distinct nationalities within the wider pan-Arabic community. This is why Israel does not refer to its Palestinian citizens as Palestinian-Israelis but only as Arab Israelis, despite the fact that all Arab Israelis are descended from the 150,000 Palestinians not ethnically cleansed in the 1948 war.

It is far more accurate to say the goal of Israel is to ethnically cleanse the land of the Palestinian identity (e.g., the reason for referring to Palestinian citizens of Israel only as Arab Israelis). Norman Naimark describes ethnic cleansing as:

“the intention … to remove a people and often all traces of them from a concrete territory. The goal, in other words, is to get rid of the “alien” nationality, ethnic, or religious group and to seize control of the territory it had formerly inhabited. At one extreme of its spectrum, ethnic cleansing is closer to forced deportation or what has been called “population transfer”: the idea is to get people to move, and the means are meant to be legal and semilegal.”

As French philosopher Gilles Deleuze said during the 1980s War in Lebanon:

“From the beginning, the purchase of land was made with the understanding that it was empty of all inhabitants, or it could be emptied. It is genocide, but genocide where physical extermination is subordinated to geographical evacuation: being merely generic Arabs, the surviving Palestinians would disappear in the mass of Arabs. Physical extermination… is perfectly present. But they say it is not genocide, since genocide is not their ‘final goal.’ Indeed, it is only one of the means.”⁵

In other words, the goal is ethnic cleansing, Israel is simply willing to use genocidal means when necessary to achieve that goal.

This was the first protest in series of daily actions called the “Week of Rage.” SJP ISU posted “Week of Rage: An Explanation” on their Instagram page on October 7^th:

“The week of rage, held on the week of October 7^th, is not a celebration of Israeli or Jewish misery or violence. It marks the week in which an ongoing genocide reached peaks of inhumanity. There have been over 40,000 confirmed Palestinian deaths since October 7^th, with an estimation of death tolls in the hundreds of thousands. We do not celebrate the lives lost on October 7^th, but rage against the lives lost on the day and sincce – we rage against the violence that is perpetrated by the Israeli state, leading to death and misery throughout the region.

“Antisemitism has no place here. Any citizen life taken is a tragedy. Our focus has and always will be to end the suffering caused by the occupation, and that includes Israeli citizens whose lives have been altered. Our rage is aimed at the Israeli state, not its people, for its war crimes and violent occupation. We know zionism is not synonymous with the Jewish people. We welcome any Jewish student who wishes to mourn alongside us, and welcome in a new hope for peace.”

The Week of Rage included events each day of the week.

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At the ISU Quad, Chabad ISU held it’s own event memorializing the events of October 7^th. The event drew about 20 mostly Jewish students and community members. It was led by Rabbi Chaim Telsner. The group sang songs and prayers in both English & Hebrew for those that have died, the hostages in Gaza, and the IDF soldiers fighting.

“365 days ago. A day the world changed forever. We witnessed the unthinkable,” Telsner said. “The brutal loss of innocent lives. A pain so deep that words cannot express it. We cannot stop thinking about the 101 [hostages] still held captive somewhere in the tunnels in Gaza. We recognize the soldiers who were killed.

“And yet, from this brokenness, something remarkable has emerged. The heart of our people – the Jewish people – has shown its true beauty. In the face of horror, we saw tremendous acts of kindness. In the face of horror, we saw tremendous acts of strength. We truly are witnessing what we’ve been saying all along; Am Israel Chai, the nation of Israel is alive [it can also be translated as “The People of Israel live”]. The Jewish people have endured and will endure forever. We are a nation that has survived and will survive.

“What is the secret of our survival. The Jewish people are known as Am Israel, the nation of Israel. The Holy Land is known as Eretz Israel, the land of Israel.

“The land of Israel and the Jewish people in the land of Israel were given a mission: to sing the song of God; to manifest, express and bring the presence of God into this world. This is what the people of Israel and the land of Israel is all about.

“Our goal and role is to remind the world that Jews by nature are beyond nature. And God’s presence ensures our survival.”

Israeli ISU student Ariel Atias spoke during the event.

“It’s been crazy seeing how many people around the world and here are uneducated,” said Atias. “People are trying to say it’s not antisemitism when it is antisemitism. Hating Israel is hating Jews. That’s the same thing.”

Atias said more people would be at the event, but they are scared to be here.

He ended his speech with, “We’re going to win. We’re winning. We’re winning everyday. We’ll dance again.”

Agitation Rising News spoke with both Telsner and Atias. (Atias had been previously interviewed by ARN last October, only a couple weeks after the Al-Aqsa Flood.)

When asked how he was feeling on that solemn day, Telsner said, “Pain. Lots of pain. You have your own siblings sitting in captivity; the Jewish people are one nation.”

When asked if he supported a ceasefire deal, he said, “Absolutely. Once we have the hostages back and the [Hamas] military give up their arms. When the Jewish people are safe which means the terrorists are eliminated… absolutely. We had a ceasefire before [on October 6th].” There was no ceasefire in place prior to October 7^th. Throughout just September of 2023, sixty Palestinians were injured protesting the almost two decade blockade at the Israeli border. Six people were killed by IDF bullets. This doesn’t even include in the West Bank & East Jerusalem. Prior to October 7^th, 2023 was already the deadliest year for Palestinians; 256 people had been killed.

Telsner did not believe in a ceasefire deal to get the hostages back, calling it a hoax.

“I don’t believe that’s an option. There’s never been a deal to return all the hostages for a ceasefire. There’s been a deal to return some hostages and that would automatically be a death sentence for the rest of the hostages. That’s not called a ceasefire; that’s called killing hostages. There’s never been a ceasefire; it’s all a hoax.”

There has been at least twelve ceasefire deals offered by Hamas. This video lists eleven of them.

A week long ceasefire occurred in November. 110 Israeli hostages were released in exchange for 240 Palestinian hostages.⁶

Two Israeli hostages were released in late-October for humanitarian reasons. 95% of Israeli hostages brought back to Israel occurred through a ceasefire or other negotiated agreements; only 5% have been rescued via military operations.

Atias said memorializing October 7^th was ironic. “It’s a memorial day and it’s still going on.”

When asked how he thought of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s prosecution of the war, he said, “I disagree with him on many things. I feel like we should have gone harder in the beginning. I think we should have done what we are doing in the north earlier.”

He’s referring to the Northern front of Israel which has been attacked by Hezbollah (a Shia paramilitary organization in Lebanon which is effectively a part of the Lebanese state). Hezbollah has said it is attacking Israel in solidarity with the Palestinian people in Gaza and would cease attacks if a permanent ceasefire is reached. According to the US-based Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED), Israel and Hezbollah have launched 7,491 cross-border attacks between October 8^th, 2023 and July 5^th, 2024. The overwhelming majority were fired by Israel.

According to a BBC report from July 2024, “In Israel, officials say 60,000 civilians have had to abandon their homes and 33 people have been killed, including 10 civilians, because of attacks by Hezbollah.”

Since September, the conflict between Israel & Hezbollah has dramatically escalated with many of Hezbollah’s top officials being assassinated. The Lebanese Health Ministry says the death toll from Israeli attacks has reached  2,141, with 10,099 injured since Oct. 8, 2023. 1,323 people have been killed and 3,700 have been injured just since September 23^rd, 2024. Reuters reported that nearly one million Lebanese have been displaced by Israeli attacks. Israel recently launched a ground invasion into Lebanon with Netanyahu threatening to do Lebanon what has been done to Gaza.

With regards to a ceasefire, Atias said, “I support a ceasefire if, and only if, Israel can go back to its places safely without any fear October 7^th would happen again down south or up North. I don’t think the setting is right for a ceasefire because people in the north can’t go back to their places.” During the November ceasefire, Hezbollah did not launch any attacks on Israel.

Atias claimed Netanyahu had accepted a ceasefire agreement in supported by the U.S. “Sinwar doesn’t really want a ceasefire cause he sees his dream coming true,” Atias said. “Netanyahu agreed to Biden’s ceasefire agreement and then they turned him down.” Reports indicate otherwise. Hamas has repeatedly agreed to ceasefire terms, only for Netanyahu to add additional demands at the last minute. Over half a million Israelis, and every single hostage family, have protested Netanyahu demanding an end to the war and a ceasefire agreement be reached to return the Israeli hostages. Atias said he has not participated in those protests.

Atias was asked if he’s experienced antisemitism on ISU campus.

“I’ve experienced hate speech which has been directed towards me,” he said. “The encampment last year saw me and was calling me names and chasing me.”

“They chased after you?” I asked.

“No, not chased after me like running at me. Trying to blame me for whatever is happening.”

“Did you try to engage with them?” I asked.

“I was just watching from the side and just recording and sending it to our community.”

Rabbi Telsner says he has not experienced any antisemitism directed at himself.

Last April, Chabad ISU released a statement regarding antisemitism on campus:

“We are deeply affected by the rise of antisemitism on ISU’s campus. During this challenging time on college campuses and around the world we would like to show our unwavering support for the entire Jewish community here at ISU. In light of recent protests and antisemitic rhetoric posted around campus and Bloomington Normal, we would like to show our unabashed support for the existence of the State of Israel and the safety of the Jews around the world.”

1. An act of terror being defined as an indiscriminate attack on civilians for political reasons.
2. The overwhelming majority were murdered by Palestinian militants. But, an unknown number were killed in “friendly” fire or the Hannibal Directive. The Hannibal Directive is an Israeli doctrine which prioritizes killing military personal who have been kidnapped to prevent them from being used as bargaining chips.
3. The question of whether Israel is an apartheid state is incontrovertible at this point. The overwhelming majority of international groups agree Israel is an apartheid state. These include: Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People; UN Special Rapporteur Michael Lynk; UN Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices; UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA); Amnesty International; Human Rights Watch; B’Tselem; Yesh Din; Physicians for Human Rights Israel; Adalah – The Legal Centre for Minority Rights in Israel; HaMoked – Center for the Defence of the Individual; Tamir Pardo, former head of Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency; Amos Goldberg, leading professor of the Holocaust at Hebrew University in Jerusalem; Ban Ki-moon, former secretary-general of the United Nations; Daniel Levy, former Israeli negotiator; Yehudit Karp, former Israeli deputy attorney general; Michael Benyair, former Israeli attorney general. Even Israeli leaders have admitted Israel is an apartheid state.
4. The Gazan Health Ministry either does not know and/or chooses not to distinguish between civilians and Palestinian militants in its death figures. Hamas claimed in February of 2024 that six thousands militants had been killed (it has not released updated numbers), though it did not release any direct evidence like the names of militants. Israel claims it has killed 18,000 militants; however, the Israeli military considers all males of “fighting age” to be potential militants, includes non-military members of Hamas in its death counts, among other discrepancies.
5. The Importance of Being Arafat. Two Regimes of Madness: Texts and Interviews 1975-1995. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
6. Israel has nearly ten thousand Palestinian hostages in its prisons who are routinely tortured and do not receive any due process. Over 3,500 are held under “administrative detention”, i.e., indefinite detention with no charges filed against them (similar to the United States’ Guantanamo Bay Prison). The rest were tried under kangaroo military tribunals with no objective judge or impartial jury.