Pro-Palestinian protesters held a mock funeral in front of Syracuse’s Federal Building Monday, to remember those killed in the war in Gaza.
Under driving rain, protesters dug a children’s graveyard on a grassy knoll in front of the Federal Building. Binghamton University student Yana Uones read the names of some of the 20,000 children killed in the violence, spurred by the October 7 terrorist attack on Israel.
“I was just seeing the sheer list. I broke down into tears,” Uones said. “And seeing a list of names of children that didn't even have names yet was so heartbreaking. They had to put their parent’s name, or the daughter of, or the son of the parent, which was just…unbelievable. It's just unbelievable."
John Amidon with Veterans for Peace and Pax Christi Upstate New York, said the protesters want to send a message to U.S. Sens. Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, that the U.S. is complicit in the genocide of thousands of Palestinians, including 20,000 children.
"Bombing hospitals, schools, refugee camps, making no distinction between women, children, men, combatants and non-combatants killing doctors and journalists and basically just slaughtering every human being who's living there or attempting to,” Amidon said. “We call that genocide."
Amidon said he can’t stand to watch the death of more civilians.
"I won't sit by any longer,” he said. “We've sat by way too long already, allowing this to continue. We've written to our representatives, there are lawsuits, even the Congress tried to pass resolutions of disapproval.”
After the peaceful action, protesters chanted as three gravediggers were taken into custody by authorities from Homeland Security. They were given citations and released.
