Silent protest honours the children killed since 7 October 2023

Words: Matthew Hirsch / GroundUp

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The names of 22,434 Palestinian children killed since 7 October 2023 were written on a 20-metre-long shroud displayed during a silent demonstration in Cape Town on Wednesday.

The picket outside the Cape Town Holocaust and Genocide Centre on Wednesday morning was organised by Mothers4Gaza, SA Jews for a Free Palestine, SA Christians for a Free Palestine and the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC).

Wednesday marked three years since Hamas-led militants attacked communities, military posts and a music festival in southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and taking roughly 250 hostages back into Gaza.

Israel declared war on Hamas the next day and began an air and ground offensive in Gaza that has killed 74,000 people, including more than 20,000 children. Recent satellite images show how 82% of structures in Gaza have been damaged, mostly destroyed. More than one in ten people in Gaza have either been wounded or killed. Several international humanitarian groups and the UN Human Rights Council have found that Israel has committed genocide in Gaza.

Picture: Matthew Hirsch / GroundUp

Imam Rashied Omar, of Claremont Main Road Mosque, told the crowd that they were there to remember the children killed.

‘We stand alongside their grieving mothers and their families. Each of their names represents the precious life of a child. A child who deserves safety, love, (a place to) play and a chance to grow and to flourish,’

‘We also mourn the Jewish children who were killed on October 7, 2023. And we hold their families also in our hearts, for every child is sacred,’

‘Each name here represents not only a child who was martyred by the evil forces of the empire, but a child who is grieved by a family and a community,’ said Reverend Rene August.

‘A child whose life was cut short because of an ideology that forgets … today we choose to remember,’

There was a counter-protest on the other side of the road by pro-Israeli supporters. They waved Israeli flags. Their signs read ‘Free Gaza from Hamas’ and ‘Hamas = Palestinian ruin,’

Picture: Matthew Hirsch / GroundUp

The pro-Palestine protest continued with its programme, with the group making their way through the city centre. They stopped briefly at St Mary’s Cathedral, where Megan Choritz of SA Jews for a Free Palestine read a poem. They also stopped at Groote Kerk and the Central Methodist Church, before finishing at St George’s Cathedral for their weekly vigil.

Ayesha Bagus, one of the organisers and a member of Mothers4Gaza, told GroundUp that the shroud was part of the Know Their Names project and was inspired by Priests Against Genocide.

‘People were deeply emotional writing kids’ names,’ said Bagus. ‘After two days, we’d only reached the (names of) 5-year-olds,’

‘We need to talk about what has been happening to Palestinian people before the 7th of October to understand why the 7th of October happened. Nobody is saying what happened on the 7th of October was right, but we must acknowledge the conditions that were there before that time,’

Picture: Matthew Hirsch / GroundUp

In a joint statement, the Cape SA Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBD) and the South African Zionist Federation (SAZF) said:* ‘Today, the Cape SAJBD, together with the SAZF Cape Council and our national partners, dressed in black and stood at seven landmarks across South Africa, holding posters displaying the facts of what happened on 7 October 2023,’*

‘We stood so that South Africans can see the truth, understand the horror of that day, condemn the atrocities committed, and remember the innocent lives that were so brutally stolen,’

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Also read:

‘Know their names’: Cape Town to host shroud walk for Palestinian children

Picture: Matthew Hirsch / GroundUp

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