By: Janiyah Gaston
On Oct 24 the Southern Illinois Chapter of the Young Democratic Socialists of America held a “No Votes for Genocide” protest outside of Morris Library to bring awareness to the genocide in Gaza.
Rana Salameh, a Computer Science teacher here at SIU said that the purpose of this protest is to spread awareness about what is going on in the Middle East.
“We're trying to spread the word of what's happening in the Middle East and the genocide. It's not just [that] Israel is killing babies and civilians every day,” Salameh said.
Protestors held signs that read “A great nation doesn’t condone genocide” and “War does not make Israel safe.”
Salameh said the main issue between Israel and Gaza did not just start on Oct 7, it started back all the way in 1948 when countries in power gave Israel the land.
Carbondale community member, Edye Arnvell said she not only came out today to support no votes for genocide, but to help people understand what is happening.
“We need to make them understand this will affect them the wars that are coming, that are happening right now,” she said. I mean, they either passed or they're getting ready to pass automatic Selective Service, and these are people that will have to go fight.”
Arnvell said the government is sitting back and letting the genocide continue.
Keith Felty, a 2010 SIU alum said people need to know that what is going on between Israel and Palestine is more than just a war.
“Try to enlighten other people to what's going on with not just a lot of it is against war, but also Palestine, and actually ethnic cleansing and genocide. So there's a lot of different causes,” Felty said.
Comments