Oakland vigil honors Palestinian children killed in Gaza

About three dozen people gathered at Snow Park near Lake Merritt on Aug. 30 to honor Palestinian children killed during Israel’s war on Gaza. 

Participants sat or stood in concentric semicircles facing an altar covered with part of the Gaza Children’s Shroud, an international memorial project. They quietly recited children’s names and listened to prayers from multiple faiths.

Organizers said the Oakland shroud lists the names of 300 13-year-old children killed in Gaza. The handwritten names covered a large white cloth draped across a table extending toward grass beneath a coast live oak tree. 

“All these 13-year-olds have all been martyred,” said Donna Johnke, a vigil organizer and member of Oak Life Church, which sponsored the event. “They’ve been killed by the Israeli government and our bombs. So, what we’re trying to do is to shine a light on that.” 

The Gaza Children’s Shroud project uses individual names to memorialize children killed in Gaza. The project, according to its website, was inspired by a memorial in Italy. Priests Against Genocide and Doctors Against Genocide initiated this movement.

Monica C. , another vigil organizer and a member of First Presbyterian Church Palo Alto and Christians for a Free Palestine, said the project uses documented names.

The temporary altar held objects that organizers said children enjoy and should have access to, such as books, pens and pencils, a hairbrush and hair ties, a toy car, plastic building blocks, and a kite. Israel recently threatened to expel Palestinians for flying kites in Gaza.

Organizers said the white cloth evokes Islamic janazah burial practices, in which the dead are wrapped in shrouds before burial.

The Oakland shroud was part of a larger U.S. project. Organizers stitched all the panels together and displayed at the United Nations (UN) Church Center in New York City on Sept. 16. It will be taken to Washington DC later this month. 

Lydia Koehm, Oak Life Church member and vigil organizer, said the church partnered with different faith groups connected with the Oakland People’s Arms Embargo. 

“I think what’s really been powerful about this is that statistics are so numbing,” Monica said. “I think seeing people connecting to a single name and thinking, ‘I know a thirteen-year-old’ or ‘I know someone going into 7^th grade’ and just connecting to that name and that child who has been lost is really what we’re hoping for.” 

The vigil created a place for people to gather and grieve, Monica said, and remind folks who are aware but not active to take action. 

“There’s more pressure that’s needed,” Monica said. “Human, community pressure is needed to make a change.”