Commemorations and vigils unfolded across the world, including in the D.C. area, on Monday to mark the anniversary of the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel.
At the University of Maryland, there were heightened security measures, including fenced-off areas with checkpoints and metal detectors, ahead of a pro-Palestinian group’s vigil Monday night.
Led by the group “Students for Justice in Palestine,” the vigil is in solidarity with Gaza, where all universities have been “obliterated over the last 12 months,” said Daniela Columbi, with the Maryland chapter of SJP.
Last week, a federal judge ruled that the university could not bar the group’s vigil, citing a violation of its First Amendment rights.
WTOP’s Dick Uliano, who reported from the college campus, said, “What some of these students have been telling me is that some of them are here out of what has transpired over the past year, and also as the matter of freedom of speech. Because of the judge’s ruling, they felt it was important in that the university did not want this to take place. … The students say, ‘No, that’s wrong.'”
Earlier Monday, next to the Washington Monument, a memorial for those killed when Hamas attacked Israel were remembered. The event marking the attack was organized by the Christian nonprofit organization Philos Project.
“I woke, like many of you, on Oct. 7 to news that Hamas had broken through the gates separating Gaza from Israel, and it shook me to my core,” said Luke Moon, executive director of the Philos Project.
As speakers took to the stage, others stood with the flags of Israel and the United States. Security was tight, as the keynote speaker, Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance, arrived and took the stage.
“We want the real peace that can only exist in the region when Hamas is defeated,” Vance said. “The only way this war is going to end is when Hamas gives up its arms and stops the fighting and lets the hostages come home.”
He went on to note the rise anti-Israeli and antisemitic sentiment that grew during demonstrations earlier this year on college campuses around the country, as well as the growing fear that the U.S. will soon be at risk of joining the warfare as Hezbollah and Iran ramp up attacks.
“Of course, you have the right to protest, even if we disagree with your message. You do not have the right to harass your fellow students simply for being Jewish,” Vance said.
Danielle Menache is from New York, but said she attended the event not only for herself but for her 91-year-old mother who she said was saved by nuns during the Holocaust.
“My mom is alive because she was a hidden child in a convent, and she was actually saved by nuns,” Menache said. “The fact that I am here, and I am alive, is thanks to Christians who actually did the right thing, who stood when nobody did the right thing.”
Mike Tseitln is Jewish and said he was happy to see the support from Christians and others at the event.
“(The) Jewish society is very small, so it’s very important that (the) Christian community supports Israel because otherwise it looks like we are by ourselves. And that’s not true,” Tseitln said.
In D.C., a remembrance ceremony is taking place at Meridian Hill Park in Northwest to honor the lives lost both in Israel and Gaza.
At a memorial gathering in D.C. on Monday night, hosted by nonprofit organization IfNotNow, members of the Jewish and Palestinian communities came together to mourn all the lives lost in the yearlong conflict.
Lauren Maunus, political director of IfNotNow, said the memorial’s purpose tied back to the Jewish notion that every life is a universe in and of itself.
“We’ve lost too much life. So we are here in community and heartbreak and grief to mourn both what happened last year, and the 1,200 Israelis who lost their lives. … We are really recommitting altogether as well to demand that our politicians do not send another bomb in our name,” she said.
Hamas militants’ surprise cross-border attack last year killed about 1,200 people. Another 250 were taken hostage; around 100 remain in captivity, with many of them feared dead. The attack, on a major Jewish holiday, shattered Israelis’ sense of security and left the world facing the prospect of a major conflict in the Middle East.
Israel responded by waging a war against the Hamas militants in Gaza, where the fighting has killed over 41,000 people and displaced around 1.9 million. The conflict has spread in the region, where Israel now also is fighting Hezbollah militants in Lebanon, facing escalating threats from Yemen’s Houthi rebels and contending with a mounting conflict with Iran, which backs Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis.
WTOP’s Scott Gelman, Will Vitka, Luke Lukert, Ciara Wells, Mike Murillo, Abigail Constantino and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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