“Marium Ahmad Musa Al-Suwailhi, female, age 17. Ahmad Ayman Subhi Al-Ashqar, male, age 15,” Rabbi Aryeh Bernstein read aloud Thursday evening under Federal Plaza’s bright red Flamingo sculpture.
Bernstein, who held a sheet of paper with 150 names, was one of several speakers who took turns reciting the names of more than 30,000 Palestinians killed by Israeli forces since Oct. 7, while someone else turned a tabletop flip counter after each name during a 24-hour vigil from 8 a.m. Thursday to 8 a.m. Friday.
“At least at the bare minimum, we will pronounce somebody’s name correctly and have a moment of dignified memorialization for blessing for people who were killed prematurely in such a grotesque way,” Bernstein told the Tribune after his turn reading was over. “I have to imagine they did not have proper burials according to their beliefs and traditions and customs.”
By 5:30 p.m., the flipboard was at 3,984. Ben Lorber, a Jewish Voice for Peace-Chicago volunteer, said they might only be able to recite about 12,000 of the 30,000 names by Friday morning.
Organizers of the vigil called the demonstration “State of the Genocide,” intentionally planning it to coincide with President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address Thursday night.
“Biden is addressing the nation without listening to his public and, as he speaks, the death toll rises in Gaza,” said Aaron Neiderman of the Jewish group IfNotNow-Chicago.
The 24-hour vigil comes five months after the beginning of Israel’s military response in Gaza to the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas. According to Gaza’s health ministry, along with more than 30,000 Palestinians killed, more than 2 million Palestinians face catastrophic famine and mass starvation.
Ari Bloomekatz, member of Jewish Voice for Peace and executive editor of In These Times, provided an “alternate State of the Union” during Biden’s telecast.
“This is a critical reframing of tonight’s State of the Union, where our president will surely put on a dishonest performance to assure us of all the amazing things he’s doing to make our world a better place,” Bloomekatz told the Tribune ahead of his speech. “But this performance will indeed be a lie, no matter how much forced applause he receives.”
Bloomekatz said Biden has led the way in funding, fueling and enabling the killing of Palestinians in Gaza.
“It’s not even enough to say that Biden has blood on his hands — he has a genocide on his hands,” he said. “He is ignoring the will of the American people, who largely want an immediate cease-fire, and in addition to supplying weapons and money, is providing cover for the Israeli government on the international stage.”
Eman Abdelhadi, a professor at the University of Chicago, noted that it’s been five months since Oct. 7.
“We’ve been in a state of shock for 152 days now, and it’s hard to even be able to begin to grieve these 30,000 lives when we don’t know how many are going to get killed — its just ongoing,” Abdelhadi said. “We’re trying to do many things at once, but primarily we’re trying to stop this from continuing.”
Abdelhadi, who is of Egyptian and Palestinian descent, said it’s not just Palestinians or Muslims who are desperate for a cease-fire in Gaza, where more than half the population is under the age of 18.
“I think it’s shaken a lot of people’s relationships with this country to its very core,” she said. “And it’s exposing the hypocrisy of the United States, which is funding and fueling this genocide.”
Throughout the morning and afternoon, members of several Chicago anti-war coalitions — including the U.S. Palestinian Community Network, Jewish Voice for Peace, IfNotNow, American Muslims for Palestine and CORE (Caucus of Rank-and-file Educators within the Chicago Teachers Union) — made artwork representing the fight for Palestinian liberation and wrote messages to Biden on a large banner spread on the ground.
The vigil is a chance to grieve, said Eli Newell, field organizer with IfnotNow, who also read out loud the names of Palestinian victims.
“I think about this Jewish teaching of when you destroy a life, you’ve destroyed an entire world, and we’re talking about 10,000 children — that’s 10,000 worlds that have been decimated,” Newell said. “And I think there are no words, just to stand and bear witness and be inside that space of actually going through the utterance of these souls and these people and the people who love them.”
Newell said it’s disheartening when people he comes across turn to “whataboutism,” but he’s vigilant in his responses.
“The thing that I say is, I’m an American taxpayer and American citizen. I don’t have a direct line to Hamas operatives, who may or may not be holding people hostage at this time, but I do have a direct line to the United States government and to my elected officials,” he said. “And I do have an intervention to make as a Jewish person and as an American person who is really, really concerned about the lack of humanity that’s being shown at our highest seats of power and the dehumanization of human beings to a scale that I’ve never seen in my lifetime.”
Hatem Abudayyeh, national chair of the U.S. Palestinian Community Network, has led many mass demonstrations and escalations since Oct. 7. He said that as more Americans join the movement, pressure is mounting for elected officials to do right by their constituents.
“A lot of them, the top democrats, are supporting this genocide politically, diplomatically, financially, militarily,” Abudayyeh said. “The U.S. has now vetoed three separate security council resolutions trying to stop the bloodshed, the fact that it is Biden that’s allowing it to happen. He could end it with one phone call.”
Abudayyeh said it’s significant that the 24-hour vigil is happening in Chicago, where the Democratic National Convention will take place in August.
There is a coordinated effort across the country, including in Illinois, for voters to cast their ballots for no candidate in Democratic primaries, said Deena Habbal, communications lead for the Chicago-based civic justice group Coalition-Activate. Instead, many are selecting versions of “uncommitted,” as the movement opposing Biden’s handling of Israel’s bombardment of Gaza grows, she said.
“Starting in Michigan, the response to it has really energized the nation,” Habbal said. “We’re looking at this as a way to show Biden, ‘If you abandon us, we’re going to abandon you.’”
More than 100,000 people voted “uncommitted” in Michigan’s presidential primary Feb. 27, according to Associated Press results.
Back in Federal Plaza, Emeline Posner, who lives in Bridgeport, was sitting on a bench with her 4½-year-old son, listening to the names with her eyes closed.
“Every time I hear about anybody in Palestine, especially a child, I can only think about what it would feel like to lose my own child,” she said. “I truly cannot fathom those who are losing many children, many friends, many family members all at the same time at all, let alone in these circumstances.
“I just want to cry so much for everybody,” she said.
