NOVANEWS
An altar created by 14 Friends of Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace on display at a California Day of the Dead observance honors the children killed in Gaza this summer. Staff photo Phil Pasquini
San Rafael, California’s annual Day of the Dead community observance was held Nov. 2 in Pickleweed Park Community Center. The free event included art activities and storytelling, as well as Mexican and Central American music and dance performances. Memorial altars, which honor deceased loved ones and victims of historic and current tragedies, were the centerpiece of the popular event.
This year, two groups—14 Friends of Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace—created a heart-wrenching memorial altar in honor of the 501 or more Palestinian children killed during Israel’s brutal 51-day summer military assault on Gaza. The one Israeli child killed by a mortar strike allegedly from Gaza also was remembered.
Photos of some of the murdered children, along with their names and information about their short lives, adorned panels on the wall. A single panel was entirely devoted to listing the names of the dead Palestinian children.
A soccer ball positioned on the altar atop a traditional black-and-white checkered keffiyehdisplayed the names of cousins Mohammed, 11, Ahed, 10, Zakaria, 10, and Ismail, 9, Bakr, who were murdered by the Israeli military July 16 while they were playing soccer on a Gaza beach.
“People spent a long time at our altar,” Jane Jewell, co-founder of 14 Friends, told the Washington Report. “I was expecting most people to give it just a cursory glance, but I was wrong. I’m glad we put so much detail about each child on the display boards; the details were read.”
