On Monday, April 15, the Palestine Solidarity Network (PSN) put a mural on the fence of Edward’s Parade memorializing the infants who were killed in Palestine before their first birthdays. The mural included the names of the infants who were killed between Oct. 7, 2023, and Jan. 25, 2024. There were a total of 258 infants named on the mural.
The mural listed the names in the shape of a Palestinian flag, writing in the respective colors of each part of the flag. The middle white strip of the flag was filled in with a large, cursive quote by James Baldwin. The mural was further decorated with symbols of Palestinian alliance, such as a Palestinian stamp, a famous saying regarding the Gaza Strip and other artwork representing the “Free Palestine” message.
When asked what inspired the project, PSN member Lele Nigg, FCRH ’25, explained, “We wanted to take up space on campus to honor the Palestinian martyrs of the settler-colonial Israeli occupation as well as make our organizing efforts on campus more visible and potentially connect with more people looking to get involved.”
PSN President, Heba Elsetouchi, FCRH ’25, explained how they approached the project, knowing its sensitive subject matter. “We put a lot of time and care into making the banner itself because its purpose first and foremost was to honor all of the Palestinian lives taken by the Israeli occupation,” she stated.
Nigg commented that PSN had to choose an age group to focus on for the mural in order to make the search for names more manageable. After choosing to include those who passed before their first birthdays, the PSN found a list of infants killed after Oct. 7 but before Jan. 25 created by a reliable source. The PSN acknowledges that there have been countless others killed before and after the date range they included names from.
Nigg further explained that the PSN believes that their memorial and honoring of the martyrs is valuable regardless of whether others see the memorial or not. However, they explained that the primary purpose of the project was to create a visual demonstration of the extremity of the tragedy so that the audience would carry it with them and continue to think about it after leaving the display. “We knew going into the project that we wanted to personalize the deaths of some of the recent Palestinian martyrs in some way that named as many as possible. Our main goal was that the magnitude of that many names would stay on viewers’ minds throughout the day and potentially move some to action.”
PSN members tabled next to their mural throughout the majority of the time that it was being displayed. They had numerous individuals come up to them to ask how to donate. However, the PSN would like to emphasize that, though it is great that the students wanted to do something, the purpose of PSN is not fundraising, and money will not be enough to stop the tragedy the Palestinian people are facing.
“PSN came up with the idea to do the banner because it was important for us to make the presence of Palestinian activism on campus known,” stated Elsetouchi. “We know that we have so many supporters at Fordham, so we wanted to do something really visible to show that we are here to stay and inspire others to join the cause.”
“As for future programming, we are currently working on a teach-in to happen Wednesday, [April] 24. We encourage students to keep an eye on our socials over the next couple weeks,” Nigg stated. Interested students can follow @fordhampsn on Instagram.
