A public memorial and vigil was held at Bethnal Green Gardens for innocent Palestinians who have lost their lives in the current conflict in Gaza.
On Sunday, October 27, the memorial held 10 speakers and stalls to share details about the Israel-Gaza war.
Speakers from the Tower Hamlets Palestine Solidarity Campaign talked about their experiences and how the war has affected them.
Suad Chentoufi, a host on one of the stalls at the event, talked to EastLondonLines about her stand, which is a visual representation of the lives affected by the ongoing war.
Chentoufi told ELL: “We provide red, green and black ribbons to represent the [Palestinian] flag. People can pin it on the white sheet to represent one life killed.”
She also spoke about her opinions on the war, saying that: “Right now, I’m feeling angry, and furious because it’s gone on for a whole year already and there’s no telling that the war will end tomorrow. Even if it ends tomorrow, so many lives have been lost [already].
“I just can’t put it into words. I just feel really angry.”
The current conflict started after Palestinian militant group Hamas stormed Israel and killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, on October 7 last year. Since then, Israel’s military offensive in Gaza has killed over 43,000.
Elina Shaari, one of the speakers, talked about the vigil. She told ELL: “For me, it is about coming together. It is about remembering and honouring the lives of the people of Palestine as a whole and those who have been killed, martyred and murdered.”
Selina, a local attending the event (who did not provide her surname), explained her view on the Israel-Gaza conflict. She said: “It’s very sad, very frustrating, very dehumanising what’s happening, and it’s kind of incapacitating.”
Syirin Said, the organiser of the event, talked to ELL after the event: “We did a vigil back in December 2023. We held it for journalists, academics and creatives.
“We thought we should have done it again, but this time around we’re focusing on all of the Palestinians because I think what Israel is doing at the moment is to dehumanise Palestinian lives and we are stopping that from happening.”
Said continued: “We must amplify the fact that Palestinians are not just numbers. Palestinians are not just statistics.”
The speakers at the event also included Holocaust survivor Stephen Kapos, Lebanese writer Amy Abdelnoor and journalist Hala Sabbah.
