RETRACTION
The below article is formally retracted for inaccuracy and editorial failings, and should not be considered an accurate account of events for any purpose. For a rewritten article on this event, see “Student hosted walkout for Palestine“
The retracted article remains below for reference.
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Oct. 18 — As part of National Students for Justice in Palestine’s “Week of Rage” initiative, Hampshire College Students for Justice in Palestine held a walkout on October 7th in honor of Palestinian lives lost in the State of Israel’s on-going genocide in Gaza and the West Bank.
Students in attendance gathered on the library lawn at 11:30am. Several organizers spoke, and various resources were taped up on the pillars outside the library entrance.
Attendees were invited to craft red paper poppies, a symbol called a “remembrance poppy,” traditionally worn in Commonwealth nations to honor fallen military personal.
The symbol was inspired by the poem In Flanders Fields by John McCrae, and were first used at the end of World War I to commemorate fallen soldiers, and have since been used in “Poppy Days” to raise funds for veterans, widows, orphans, and charities such as the Red Cross.
The walkout itself was met with a mixed response from students:
Some users on YikYak complained that the walkout felt performative, while others felt that while the walkout may not have accomplished a material goal, holding space for victims of genocide is valuable in-and-of-itself, particular when combined with material action.
Hampshire SJP is holding a yard sale on Saturday from 2pm to 6pm at Enfield mod 45, with all proceeds to benefit Palestine.
