Seniors Take DC: Palestine on the Agenda

The seniors and Dr. Malley after meeting with Senator Marsha Blackburn’s Staffers

By Fayo Bushra & Zaynab Ali

From September 18 to September 25, the PVS senior class traveled into the heart of the country, Washington, D.C., to advocate for Palestinian rights. This group of students sought to address an important issue while gaining insight into congressional advocacy.

Their week started with a rigorous exploration of the capital, touring the Supreme Court and various national monuments. Being from Memphis, which isn’t quite a walkable city, the students quickly tired as they walked over 15 miles on their first day in the Capitol; “I hadn’t walked that much in so long, I was sore for the majority of the trip,” Senior Abeer Khatib grumbled. They also had the chance to visit various museums including the Holocaust Museum, the National Museum of African American History and Culture, and the National Museum of  Asian Arts.

The trip’s climax took place at the 10th Annual Palestine Advocacy Days, organized by American Muslims for Palestine (AMP). Here, the students learned effective ways to discuss the ongoing genocide in Palestine and came up with 4 asks they wanted to demand from their congresspeople. The seniors then went on to visit four congressional offices; Senators Marsha Blackburn and Bill Hagerty and Representatives David Kustoff and Steve Cohen. The students had meetings with Blackburn and Kustoff’s staff while Bill Hagerty refused to talk to them. In their meeting with Steve Cohen, the seniors were disappointed to find that he was only willing to talk to two members of their delegation of 20 people. But he later opened the floor to one more person, Hala Odeh, a Palestinian student who wanted to share her experience with him. The group successfully convinced Cohen to sign a letter calling for an independent investigation into the murder of an American citizen volunteering in the West Bank by the IOF.

When asked about her reflections on the trip Suha Faruk responded, “I think a lot of us have this view that the American government poses an immovable wall when it comes to anything regarding Palestine, but this trip tore down that view for me. We got to meet so many strangers who supported our efforts, from people in cars that passed by to people we met in masaajid.” While Musa Sherrif had a different outlook, saying, “The trip itself was very enlightening as to how some people can just deny common sense just for the pursuit of worldly funds. The people in charge of our government are very set in their belief that anyone not like them is not human.”