The Georgetown University Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine (GUFSJP) led attendees in a Jan. 18 vigil that honored the lives of Gazan academics whom Israeli forces have killed.

Participants gathered for a procession from the university front gates to the front steps of Healy Hall. Lining the Healy Hall stairway, professors clad in multicolored faculty gowns read aloud the names of their late Gazan colleagues to an audience of students, some donning keffiyeh, scarves symbolizing Palestinian pride. 

Over the course of an hour and a half, those present at the vigil remembered two dozen academics killed in Gaza as faculty held up signage with their faces and names.

GUFSJP, whose members include professors, staff and graduate students, calls for a divestment of U.S. tax dollars from Israel, the right of Palestinians to return to their homeland and the recognition of the full rights of Palestinians.

Fida Adely, the director of the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies, said the purpose of the event was to share in grief over the deaths of thousands of students and academics killed in Gaza.

“We gather to mourn the death of our colleagues — educators, researchers, teachers — who have worked tirelessly under oppression, a stifling blockade, and more than half a century of military occupation to educate, innovate, mentor and guide young people in Gaza,” Adely wrote to The Hoya. “Their murders represent an attack on Palestinian history, culture and futures.”

Israeli attacks have killed several of the most prominent Gazan academics, including Sofyan Taya, physicist and president of the Islamic University of Gaza.

Citing statistics that indicate immense damage to educational facilities in Gaza, Judith Tucker, a professor of history emerita and GUFSJP organizer, said the vigil sought to bridge Palestinian academic legacies with the immense pain mourners felt.

“They were accomplished senior professors, presidents and deans of universities, and promising young teachers and researchers who had a lifetime of service to education ahead of them,” Tucker wrote to The Hoya. “We mourn their deaths, we deplore the incalculable damage done to higher education in Gaza, and we call for an immediate ceasefire to prevent further death and destruction.”

Israeli attacks are holding all education in the Gaza Strip at a complete halt, according to a spokesperson for United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF). The UN estimates that attacks have damaged nearly three-fourths of the educational infrastructure in Gaza and many of the remaining structures are now shelters.

A university spokesperson said events such as the faculty-organized vigil are protected under the freedoms of expression that Georgetown grants.

“Georgetown’s Speech and Expression policy provides broad latitude for the expression of ideas and opinions,” the university spokesperson wrote. “Members of the community may express their views throughout campus locations regardless of whether the space has been reserved for that purpose, as long as the actions do not violate other university policies, disrupt university business, or curtail the free speech rights of others.”

Adely said Georgetown’s position as an American university endows its faculty and staff with a responsibility to honor their colleagues who lost their lives in Gaza.

“Education is at a complete standstill, as the Israeli bombardment of Gaza has left no place safe, Adely wrote. “As faculty and staff at an American university, we have a moral obligation to honor these colleagues, to remember them, and to speak against the policies of the US government that have been complicit in their murders.”

Alongside calls for a ceasefire, Tucker said the human and physical toll of the Israeli attacks has included the deaths of over four hundred undergraduate students, at least two dozen faculty members and immense damage to university buildings.

“The wanton attacks on academic institutions in Gaza are attacks on educators everywhere,” Tucker wrote. “Just as we admire the contributions of our Palestinian colleagues as researchers, teachers and administrators, we now grieve their loss, and demand a ceasefire.”