Monday marked the first anniversary of the Hamas attack on Israel in which the group killed about 1,200 Israelis and took hundreds more hostage.
At various events, Kalamazoo groups reflected on the year since the attacks, which prompted Israel to begin a war against the militant group in Gaza.
Members of the Jewish community gathered Sunday night for a private observance.
At Western Michigan University, Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) held a “Die-in Demonstration” in front of the Seibert Administration Building Monday afternoon.
“I think most of us expected this to be done and over with by now,” said Marissa Wagner, the president of WMU-SJP, who was standing with a group of about 10 students behind a line of five human-shaped forms representing corpses covered in sheets.
Last spring, the students urged university officials to take a stand on the conflict and issue an official statement.
“While it felt like we were making progress, we just kept hitting road block after road block arguing over specific language. And at this point, we're here to tell the administration that enough is enough,” Wagner said.
Monday evening, the Kalamazoo Nonviolent Opponents of War (K.N.O.W) held a public event on Stadium Drive not far from the campuses of Kalamazoo College and WMU. The event was called the “Chain of Resistance.”
Participants lined the street holding signs and children’s clothing that was stitched into a chain.
“It was a simple way to try and visually show the impact of the sheer number of children that have been killed in the last 365 days,” explained K.N.O.W.’s Chelsea Hayden before the event.
The war has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians, including thousands of children.
“While the events of October 7th are horrific and every human life has value,” Hayden said, “the response to what happened on October 7th has been disproportionate, extremely violent.”