Around 100 students walked out during 2nd bell on Feb. 2 for peace in Palestine amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas war. The Muslim Student Association led the walkout, and multiple MSA members delivered powerful speeches and poems from the Blair steps.

“A lot of what’s going on right now is either not seen by people, or it is seen but not resonating with people,” Racky Barry, ‘24, club president of MSA, said. “We wanted to bring awareness to the difficulties that they’re dealing with… and make sure that people know it’s not a religious issue, but a human rights issue.”

However, this was not the first time MSA attempted to host a walkout. Earlier in the year, MSA attempted to collaborate with the Jewish Student Union to create a walkout to call for a ceasefire in Palestine, but it was canceled last minute due to miscommunication between both students and the administration. 

“We knew another club that’s being directly affected by this conflict is the JSU, so we collaborated with them,” Barry said. “But unfortunately, due to differing feelings and opinions on each side, we diverged in ways of getting that message across and couldn’t find a common ground.”

The cancellation created time for reflection and conversations between the students and adults involved to discuss their disagreements.

“It was very, very emotional for everyone, because when an adult says, ‘Hey, you’re not doing this right,’ students feel [that criticism] much more intensely,” Diniz said. “I think a lot of the MSA kids were feeling like, ‘We did something really wrong,’ and that turned into, ‘Are we really being listened to because that wasn’t our intention?’ I think it was a learning experience for everyone, definitely for the kids, but I think even the adults learned something from it.”

However, the experience brought members closer together and created a more connected community for Muslim students.

“I don’t think they realized that they share the experience of having immigrant parents and they also share the experience of languages that kind of overlap each other,” Diniz said. “I’ve seen them talk a lot more about these things since [the last walkout], and even the parents got [more] connected with each other. So [that’s] definitely a positive that came out of it.”

For the Peace for Palestine Walkout, MSA decided to go on without the collaboration of JSU.

“The MSA students decided that it was okay for them to have an event that was from their perspective,” Diniz said. “It’s not that they felt that the Jewish Student Union didn’t have to be a part of it, or shouldn’t be a part of it, but they felt they could have their own perspective put out there.”

The creation of the new walkout also allowed members to focus on their message to the student body.

“At first it was a lot of neutrality stuff, but it’s hard to be neutral in a conflict like this,” Barry said. “That was one thing that we were looking forward to [in the new walkout], being able to stand up for those on the oppressed side without hurting the sentiments of other communities at the school.” 

The preparations for the walkout were primarily student-led and the student body was informed via social media and word-of-mouth. 

“The only thing I really did was read the speech beforehand, and give some pointers here and there,” Diniz said. “[The MSA members] were very worried about being polite and respectful.” 

Despite many MSA members being initially disappointed by the turnout, Diniz was surprised with how engaged the students were. 

“There was a somewhat younger group, and I was surprised at how much they were actually trying to pay attention,” Diniz said. “It was almost a positive that we didn’t have a large disruptive group, because the people who were there really got to listen.” 

The walkout serves as a reminder that conflicts in places far away can affect students at WHHS.

“A lot of our Muslim students are either immigrants themselves or are the children of immigrants, and they got to share how maybe [the Israel-Hamas war] is not happening to them, but there are other things happening in their home countries, but we don’t know about these conflicts and how much they hurt every day from all of it,” Diniz said. “The world is a wonderful place, but lots of bad things happen out there that are affecting our kids.” 

Barry also hopes the students learn from the walkout the importance of fact-checking information.

“The amount of things they show on the news versus what we can see on our phones is vastly different,” Barry said. “Don’t judge a book by its cover: actually read the book, research the issue and then make a decision based on your research and knowledge.”