Rockland for Cease-fire holds vigil in Veterans Memorial Park

On October 4, Rockland for Ceasefire hosted a vigil at Veteran’s Memorial Park in Nyack commemorating the more than 40,000 Palestinians that have been killed over the course of Israel’s war with Hamas. Israel’s retaliation  in the Gaza Strip was launched in response to a devastating terrorist attack on the Jewish state perpetrated by the Palestine-based terrorist organization Hamas on October 7 2023. This devastating attack resulted in the deaths of over 1,000 Israeli civilians and the abduction of 250 people, 97 of whom remain captives of Hamas.

As the violence continues, members of Rockland for Cease-fire have held demonstrations across the county demanding an end to the conflict and condemnation of Israel by U.S. leaders who have supported the Jewish State. 

 Chief Dwane Perry, the elected leader of the Native American Munsee Nation was the first to speak for Rockland for Cease-fire. Chief Perry in 1965 helped establish the first racially integrated barbershop in Suffern. As the son of a medic who served in World War 2, Chief Perry was proud to recount his father’s work in helping to liberate concentration camps after the Allies victory in Germany, as well as his own efforts to help prepare a safe haven for surviving members of the Hasidic community in East Europe who relocated to Monsey, N.Y. 

Expressing frustration that the efforts of Rockland for Cease-fire have been perceived by some members of the community as anti-Semitism, he told the crowd that he and his fellow demonstrators argued only in favor of the sanctity of life. Chief Perry ended his remarks with a plea for peace stating: “Let us all now join hands in this time of holiness that peace may prevail and the Natives of the Middle East be acknowledged within and on their own homeland and that peace may prevail and all may live side-by-side in dignity.”

Ahmad Odetalla also spoke at the vigil and shared remarks prepared by his mother Fatima Odetalla, a Palestinian American Nurse Practitioner in Rockland. The daughter of Palestinian immigrants and a former resident of the West Bank, Odetalla’s remarks described the palpable horror of watching the devastation occurring in her former home, including the destruction of hospitals, schools, and houses of worship. Odetalla called on all levels of American leadership to support a United Nations resolution passed in September which demanded that Israel “brings to an end without delay its unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.”

Aidan Strange, a Jewish resident of Rockland who has lived in the county for  two years, echoed his fellow speakers’ calls for peace and lamented the alienation that advocating for an end to the conflict has brought him. “Being a vocal and visible anti-Zionist Jew this last year has been painful, isolating, and in many ways orphaning. I won’t water this down: I’ve been on the receiving end of vile hatred from a community I once took deep pride in, and thought was mine. I have been harassed, received death threats, been called a kapo, a terrorist, a terrorist lover, etc. and each time I am attacked in these ways, I think wow, this is a small fraction of the relentless hate that my Palestinian brothers and sisters have been facing for decades.”