Why I am organising an inter-faith prayer vigil for Gaza with other young people
Justice & Advocacy
“With the relentless bombing in Gaza, I think about the future of the young Palestinians there if they do live. More than 16,000 of the 40,000 people killed in Gaza are children. However, even surviving this statistic as a young person in Gaza means living in constant fear of being killed, grief from loss of family and friends and displacement from your home with no protection or safe place to go,” says a secondary school student and St Andrew’s, Indooroopilly parishioner
Growing up, I never understood what Dad being Irish from “Northern Ireland” truly meant. As I grew older, people responded to me saying, “Oh, so you’re not actually Irish” because Northern Ireland is technically part of the UK. This started to undermine my feelings towards my Irish Identity.
During my childhood, I learnt of the oppression that still exists beneath the surface towards Irish people. I learnt of our history as Catholics in Northern Ireland being treated like second-class citizens, including not having the same voting rights due to the plural voting system and how people were stopped at multiple checkpoints in a 20-minute car ride. I once wondered about our Irish language, only to realise that had been taken, too.
“No Irish. No Blacks. No Dogs” was on a poster I saw in a photo that was plastered outside a bed and breakfast in England. Although that poster would not be allowed now, those ideologies still sometimes stand. The atrocities towards the Irish people were justified because of our ethnicity and came from colonial lust for power and greed.
Violence in Ireland officially ended in 1998 under the Good Friday Agreement. When I think about “The Troubles” in Ireland, I also think about all the young people who died in the conflict who deserved to have a future. I would never have thought that I would see the oppression they faced being played out even more violently towards young Palestinians right now.
Despite their own oppression, the Irish have never forgotten about the Palestinian people. I have always been told to never forget about Palestinians. As the violence has gotten worse recently, I have watched it unfold on my phone and felt like I can’t do anything. I think about the young Palestinians who don’t have a bright future or who will never have a future after their lives have been cut so short.
For me, I want to be someone who speaks up for people who can’t speak for themselves. I have always felt this way. When I was eight years old, I spoke at a rally in support of refugees that was televised on ABC News and I wrote a letter to the Australian prime minister at the time about his refugee policies. I was awarded the Rotary Young Citizen Peacemaker Award when I graduated primary school, and I am part of Amnesty International at school.
I think that it is important for young people to show solidarity and pray for Palestinians who are suffering from violence in Gaza, and to grieve and lament the lives lost from the oppression that began well before October 7.
In 1948 more than 700,000 Palestinians were permanently displaced and uprooted from their homes when the State of Israel was created in the “Nakba” (which means “catastrophe” in Arabic). Thousands of Palestinians were also killed. “Nakba Day” is officially commemorated on 15 May by Palestinians to this day.
The events of the Nakba can be traced back to the 1917 “Balfour Declaration“, through which Britain pledged to Zionist leaders that it would help establish “in Palestine [of] a national home for the Jewish people”. Like Palestine, there has been a history of Britain dividing other countries, including splitting Ireland, with Northern Ireland remaining under British rule.
With the relentless bombing in Gaza, I think about the future of the young Palestinians there if they do live. More than 16,000 of the 40,000 people killed in Gaza are children. However, even surviving this statistic as a young person in Gaza means living in constant fear of being killed, grief from loss of family and friends and displacement from your home with no protection or safe place to go. For these young people as their schools continue to be bombed, their education is halted, which will continue to impact their quality of life socially and economically. There are also many other pressing issues for youth in Gaza, including health and sanitation issues from limited access to healthcare. They may not be killed from Israel’s bombardment, but from preventable diseases spreading around Gaza like wildfire. The youth of Gaza won’t remember what it is like to live in peace if this war continues.
One example of the persecution towards young people in both the West Bank and Gaza, which are both occupied, is the indefinite detention without charges. A similar practice young people faced during The Troubles in Northern Ireland — this was referred to as “internment without trial”. Layan Nasir, a young Anglican Palestinian aged 24, has had her safety and freedom stripped away since her abduction and detention without formal charges by Israeli soldiers in April this year. Layan’s parents have only been allowed to see her twice since her detainment and now her mother has growing fears for her health and wellbeing. Layan continues to face the uncertainty of when she will see her family again and be released — a similar storyline for the many other 3,615 Palestinians who are being detained, including 40 children.
Author’s note: I am helping to organise and lead an inter-faith “Gathering in Prayer for Gaza” prayer vigil at 7pm on Saturday 31 August 2024 at St Andrew’s Anglican Church in Indooroopilly. Christian, Muslim, Jewish and other young people of faith will be leading prayers and reading from their holy texts. There will also be prayer spaces. People of all ages and faith backgrounds are welcome to come along. All attendees under 18 years must be accompanied by a supervising adult. There will be a supper after the vigil from 8pm. Please see Facebook for more information.
Editor’s note: Find out how to support Layan Nassir through the “Free Layan Nassir” Sabeel-Kairos initiative.
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