‘Names of Gaza’ echo through the State capital’s cultural corridor

Manaveeyam Veedhi, the State capital’s corridor of art, turned into a living archive of memory, grief and defiant solidarity on Sunday.

One name after another, ten at a time, a relay of voices rose from the cultural street, stitching together the fragile identities of Gaza’s lost children so they would not fade into the anonymity of numbers.

The programme ‘The Names of Gaza’, organised by the Chinta Ravi Foundation, saw socio-cultural activists, civil society members and several others gather to read out the names of Palestinian children killed in Gaza. Each participant carried the responsibility of 10 names.

Along the sides of the cultural corridor, volunteers painted stark banners in red, blac and white in a visual tribute to the genocide victims.

The event was part of a State-wide campaign that began on October 2. Similar symbolic vigil relays have been organised in each district, with each gathering reciting nearly 1,500 names of children killed in Gaza over the last two years. The relay which travelled across Kerala highlighted the names of 20,000 victims.

Addressing the gathering, Palestinian Ambassador to India Abdullah M. Abu Shawesh thanked the people of Kerala for their unwavering solidarity at a time when, he said, “much of the world has turned away.”

“The children of Gaza were killed by the Israeli occupation, killed by an Israeli killing machine that has operated without restraint and with deliberate intent. These children were not the victims of a crossfire. They were targeted and killed after days of hunger, fear and displacement,” he said.

He described the conditions under which many children died. Facing starvation, dehydration, bombings, sniper fire, freezing cold and medical blockades, some children cried that they preferred death over life, Mr. Shawesh lamented.

Speaking of his own family in Gaza, the Ambassador said the families have been “drowning” in rainwater, and the children shivering from the cold. “These are children, who survived the bombing, only to face another form of suffering.”

He also emphasised that solidarity must translate into concrete support for Palestine’s future. “The children and people of Palestine need more than empathy. They need tangible projects and rebuilding efforts,” he said.

The event concluded with Chinta Ravi Foundation’s founding trustee, Sashi Kumar, reading the final ten names. He reminded the audience that the vigil was not an anti-Jew gathering.

“In protests across the world, a good part of those standing up against Israeli aggression are Jews themselves. This is against Zionism, and its cruel and ruthless face,” the senior journalist asserted.

Omar Aziz, the director of media platform Palestine Deep Dive, was among those who turned up for the event. Foundation chairperson N.S. Madhavan and CPI (M) State secretary M.V. Govindan were among those who participated.