About two dozen residents gathered at the steps of City Hall in Rockford for a silent vigil to mourn those killed in the Israel-Hamas War at its one-year mark.
“So, we mourn for the remaining 97 hostages whose government has forgotten about them,” said Sameena Zahurullah. "We mourn the 180,000 Palestinians that have died, the 35,000 children that are now orphans."
The death count she referred to includes estimates of those who have died not just by Israeli airstrikes but starvation and lack of medical care, which were calculated by British medical journal The Lancet.
She also offered prayers to the Lebanese people.
“The 3,000 people that have been killed in Lebanon," she said, "and the 1 million Lebanese people that have been displaced [and have] been forced to flee."
Zahurullah helped organize the vigil hosted by Rockford for Palestine. The grassroots organization was formed days after Israel began its military campaign in Gaza. They call for a ceasefire, an end to Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories and an embargo on U.S. military aid to Israel.
In addition, the organization recognizes that Israeli’s aggression towards Palestinians in the occupied territory has a long history.
“This did not start on October 7, 2023,” Zahurullah said. “This has been going on for 76 years in Palestine — the occupation of Palestine — and so this did not happen in a vacuum.”
Throughout the year the organization has held several actions, including marches and poetry readings, and has called for the Rockford City Council to pass a cease-fire resolution.
While the gathering was programmed for quiet reflection, folks spoke out freely in grief and anger against Israel’s expanding military campaign and U.S. tax dollars supporting those efforts.
Dr. Rami Abumasmah, a local oncologist, also addressed the vigil.
“This atrocity and genocide is committed against the civilians of Gaza,” Abumasmah said. “They are being subjected to humiliation, the right of determination has been taken from them for decades, and they're being kept in a concentration camp.”
The United Nations, in a report released in 2022, found that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories amounts to apartheid.
Abumasmah is among those with direct ties to Gaza.
He held a large picture of his cousin Aziz who, along with his family, a total of 21 people, were killed in an airstrike last year.
He’s visited Gaza frequently throughout his life. For the last decade, including in 2022, he visited as part of a medical mission to help establish a hospital with a cancer treatment center.
“There is no radiation treatment in whole Gaza,” he said, “It is not allowed by the Israelis.”
He said Israeli airstrikes destroyed the hospital last year.
“So, what we've been building for years," he said, "has been demolished and destroyed in a blink of eye.”
And while the conflict has escalated, Abumasmah said folks should not despair.
“We," he said, "as human beings first, as people who live in this country, we cannot — it's not an option to stay silent.”
“It's not an option to protest at your convenience," he continued. "It's not an option to just go back after work and just watch little bit of stand feel sorry for them. This is not an option. You have to stand firm. Educate people. Keep talking."
Another speaker at the vigil was 82-year-old Lutheran pastor Jim Roberts. He said the statistics of the victims don’t tell the whole story.
“They don't tell stories of homes and people going from place to place, looking for a safe place to stay," Roberts said, "then getting bombed, then looking for another place to stay.”
“That's no way that we can live," he added. "There's no way we can support that as, as a country."
A recent study estimated that over 22 billion dollars in American tax dollars were spent in Israel and the region.
This week, reports say the U.S. sent a letter to Israel calling them to improve access to food to civilians or risk a suspension in military aid.
Meanwhile, the U.S. is deploying an anti-missile defense system and 100 troops to Israel, as the region plans for an escalation in the conflict as Israel considers striking Iran.
