Students, faculty, and staff held a demonstration on the campus of Eastern Mennonite University in Harrisonburg on Monday, calling on the institution to make a public statement supporting a ceasefire in Gaza. WMRA's Randi B. Hagi reports.
[demonstrators singing "Ceasefire Now"]
Just over 100 people gathered on the amphitheater steps of Thomas Plaza at EMU, singing anti-war songs in the hopes that college administrators will advocate for a ceasefire in Gaza. Student Nussa Garti, who grew up in Morocco, got up to speak.
NUSSA GARTI: So please, pray for people in Gaza, especially during Ramadan.
[bell rings]
Students began to ring the campus bell once for each of the more than 30,000 people who have been killed in Palestine and Israel since the start of the war. They've signed up in one-hour shifts to keep the bell tolling throughout the day on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Organizers Aidan Yoder and Jenna Weaver both studied abroad in Palestine last summer.
AIDAN YODER: I have made relationships with people in Palestine, and I know how much they're hurting seeing their fellow people being massacred.
JENNA WEAVER: The biggest thing, we were like, "what can we do to help you all?" And they said, "tell our story." So I think that's our call.
The action echoes a Vietnam War protest that students at another Mennonite school, Bethel College in Kansas, held in 1969. A photo of their campus bell ringers was featured in Life magazine that October.
