Palestine Advocates Hold Vigil on International Day of Peace

Palestine Advocates held a vigil at Bo Diddley Plaza Sunday on International Day of Peace to commemorate Palestinian lives lost in Gaza over the past two years.

Last week, nearly two years since October 7, 2023, the United Nations officially declared that Israel has committed a genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.

As of Wednesday morning, the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza reports 65,419 Gazans killed and 167,160 injuries.

At 6:00 pm, about a dozen Palestine advocates marched around Bo Diddley Plaza, with one beating a drum while others carried a kite, olive branches, Palestinian flags and child sized burial shrouds.

After circling the plaza, the group joined several others where they heard speeches, poems and moments of silence. At the end they formed a prayer circle where they meditated on how to move forward before collectively chanting “Free Palestine,” multiple times.

The main organizer, Amanda Goldsmith, said she wanted to put together a vigil for Palestinians after becoming aware that student groups at the University of Florida (UF) had been barred by administrators from holding Palestine-related vigils on campus. “If we can’t do it on UF property, then let’s do it in the community,” Goldsmith said. “I’ve heard of three separate groups and events that have been requested to be done at UF in regard to a vigil for Palestine or Gaza, and they were denied.”

The vigil wasn’t organized by any specific activist groups, but Goldsmith said prior to it she and other organizers reached out to the Islamic Community Center, UF Faculty & Staff for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voices for Peace.

The vigil contained a mutual aid aspect, with QR codes advertising fundraisers for organizations Gaza Forever and Heal Palestine alongside pictures showing their impact. Organizers called it “The Wall of Reciprocity.”

According to their Instagram, Heal Palestine “is an American humanitarian nonprofit organization delivering urgent aid and medical care to children in Palestine, including sponsoring and bringing severely injured children to the U.S. on temporary visas for essential medical treatment not available at home. After their treatment is complete, the children and any accompanying family members return to the Middle East. This is a medical treatment program, not a refugee resettlement program.”

Goldsmith said Gaza Forever was founded in March 2024 by Palestinians on the ground in Gaza with a connection to Ireland. Irish Palestine advocates manage the fundraiser and distribute aid to Palestinians in Gaza. “It started because they were displaced to the South from the North,” she said. “They realized that if they pooled resources, they could get families tents faster, so they started with that, then the water distribution and food parcels… Now my friends have been displaced again from the North to the South from Gaza City. The illegal occupation has cut comms again, so it’s been really challenging to communicate with them the past couple of weeks.”