Palestinian student Nour Saad spoke at the vigil for Palestine. Students gathered in the Peace Quad on Jan. 29 to mourn the ongoing loss of life in Palestine. Laci Barrow/ The Maroon
Students grieve for Palestine during vigil Elinor Upham
to address through organizational efforts, including an interfaith vigil for Palestine on Jan. 29. Loyola SDS president Carson Cruse said, “We wanted to have something on campus because there's a lot of Palestinian students here, a lot of Arab students, Muslim students that don't feel safe at outside events.”
Cruse said the goal of the vigil is to provide a safe and educational space for the Loyola community to come together and grieve the immense loss of life in Palestine. “What are we supposed to do? We just go about our lives, and we can't any longer. It's too much,” Cruse said. “It's always on my phone, like children dying, women, families
being bombed, and journalists being killed.” The vigil featured speakers from the Loyola and New Orleans community. The speakers represented members of Christian, Islamic, and Jewish faiths, who offered words of comfort, prayer, poetry, anger, and resilience in English, Arabic, and Hebrew. Students, staff, and community
members also took to the stage to share their experiences and feelings about Palestine with their peers in the Peace Quad. A Palestinian member of the Masjid Omar mosque Hakm Murad said, “We want everyone to understand that we deserve humanity. We deserve a place to call home.”
Vigil for Palestine met with university resistance
president Talla Essa, met with the administration via Zoom on Nov. 1, 2023 to discuss their security concerns with the proposed vigil, which was scheduled for Oct. 2023. They said the Zoom included two administrators – Alicia Bourque and Dale O’Neill – along with Loyola Police officer Patrick Martin. According to Essa and Cruse, Bourque, vice president of student affairs, asked them where the administration should start reaching out to Palestinian students. Essa said she told Bourque to start
with the members of MSA; however, MSA members said they received no further communication from Bourque or the administration, according to Essa. “They said that they were actually contacted by the New Orleans Police Department,” Cruse said. Cruse believed this to be blatant racism. Cruse said he was told NOPD thought the event to be “dangerous and a threat to the city.” Bourque did not respond in time for publication. The Loyola chapter of Students
for a Democratic Society, the Muslim Student Association and the Jesuit Social Research Institute sponsored the vigil, and they all split the $420 cost to pay four police officers to attend the vigil and provide a law enforcement presence, Cruse said. “It's very clear because it's the Muslim Student Association associated with this that there's for some reason more of a threat,” he said.
esupham@my.loyno.edu
How do you mourn the deaths of over 25,000 people? How do you help a community mourn those deaths? These are the questions that the Loyola chapter of students for a democratic Society and the Loyola Muslim Student Association attempt
Elinor Upham esupham@my.loyno.edu
The Loyola chapter of Students for a Democratic Society and the Muslim Student Association said they went back and forth with administration for
months to plan an interfaith vigil for “Palestinian martyrs.” “We went to the administration. We submitted forms,” SDS president Carson Cruse said, “Three times, we submitted a vigil form…we were denied every time.” Cruse said he, along with MSA
See Vigil, page 2