Vibrant red tatreez patterns on attendees’ thobes and black-and-white keffiyehs filled the colony ballroom as over 100 guests gathered to attend the Students for Justice in Palestine’s (SJP) Falasteen Forever fundraiser event.
Falasteen Forever was an event to showcase the work SJP did all semester and raise awareness on Palestinian struggle and culture, according to Saad Ijaz, a sophomore government and politics major and member of SJP.
“One of the biggest tactics that the Zionist lobby uses, not only here in America but also throughout the world, is they dehumanize Palestinians,” said Ijaz. “We’re hosting this event, at least for one aspect, to show people that … the people dying have names, they have cultures.”
In addition, the event is part of a matching campaign to raise $120,000 for Gaza via the Middle East Children’s Alliance (MECA) with SJP pledging $60,000 remaining from their lawsuit in 2025 to match the funds that they hope to raise.
In 2024, UMD SJP filed a lawsuit against the University of Maryland for its unconstitutional ban of SJP’s vigil for Gaza on October 7, 2024. As a result they received a $100,000 settlement from the university, a historic victory for the student organization.
“Falasteen Forever is a time to come together as a community and not only continue to keep alive the cultural side of Palestine and the Palestinians,” said Daniela Colombi, a member of UMD SJP, “but also to really have time for people to reflect and to reground themselves in their principles.”
The senior studying astronomy and physics also commented on the significance of this event at this time specifically.
“We’re seeing the U.S. and Israel basically continue to bomb Palestine, Lebanon, Iran, Syria, across the entire region,” said Colombi. “It’s important to really pull together this momentum, because I think a lot of people are very angry and very worried about where the world is going right now.”
Jeremey Quinn, a junior astronomy major, came to the event after being invited by his classmate. According to Quinn, this was his first time being exposed to Palestinian culture.
“Exposure is key,” said Quinn. “I never really thought about this situation until you really put that human element in your face.”
The event contained speeches from guest speakers such as activist Linda Sarsour, who spoke on the importance of student activism, Laila El-Haddad who shared the impact of Palestinian storytelling and Dr. Tariq Nayfeh who served as a doctor in Gaza during the genocide.
The event also featured a performance of Palestinian folk music by Foad Foty and the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM) Youth choir.
The event made Quinn reflect on his own background coming from a family of immigrants.
“I couldn’t help but think about my own family’s experience, particularly during their escape from Vietnam in 1978 and the refugee crisis,” said Quinn. “It was just this whole cluster, this whole mess. It’s disappointing.”
According to Colombi, SJP hopes to continue their fight.
“I think that in the future, anybody who’s reading this or listening, hopefully, we’ll have you here next year, and you’ll come out to more and more events because SJP is going strong at UMD.” said Colombi. “We refuse to back down. And there’s a lot of big changes to be com[ing] and to be seen, and we want you to be part of that.”
Image credits: Cover photo by Hamza Muhib for Al-Hikmah.
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