Ayesha Ahmed and Insiyah Moosabhoy, rising seniors at Hinsdale Central High School, wrapped up their final exams Friday, but the end of the school year was not on the top of their minds.
Two days into the start of their summer break, more than a month of planning came to fruition as protestors gathered outside Hinsdale’s Village Hall, Sunday afternoon.
Ahmed and Moosabhoy organized the “Rally for Justice,” calling for a ceasefire in the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestine, inspired by the ongoing protests in cities and college campuses across the U.S.
Aware of the small scale of their rally, the end goal was to make the community more aware of the conflict, Moosabhoy said.
“I feel like there is a lot of polarization around what ‘pro-Palistinian’ is, and honestly I think that we can say, from the bottom of our hearts, we just want justice,” Ahmed said.
Shortly after the start of the conflict in October, Hinsdale Central received backlash from some parents and community members after a flier for a Krispy Kreme fundraiser raising money for Gazan relief.
The flier also contained the slogan “From the river to the sea Palestine will be free,” which has been used by groups calling for the dismantling of the State of Israel, and is labeled as antisemitic hate speech by the Anti-Defamation League.
“It was in the early days [of the conflict], so I think a lot of people were mistrusting of what was going on, but in the end it worked out and everyone said it was okay,” Ahmed said.
The “Rally for Justice” kicked off shortly after noon. Sunday drew more than 50 protestors and a sizable audience across Chicago Avenue. That same day the Hinsdale Chamber of Commerce hosted dozens of vendors for the 50th Annual Hinsdale Fine Arts Festival in Burlington Park.
The rally went ahead without conflict aside from a few complaints from festivalgoers about the noise, later in the afternoon protestors walked down Garfield Street and around Hinsdale’s downtown area.
“I think that today is really about putting a good light on what we’re fighting for, which is justice, not violence,” Moosabhoy said.
