Georgetown University community members commemorated the third anniversary of Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attacks on Israel at an Oct. 7 vigil. 

Around 35 students and faculty members gathered in Red Square to demand Georgetown divest from companies with ties to the Israeli military. Georgetown’s chapter of the advocacy group Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) held the vigil as part of their organized “week of rage,” which also included a film screening and a teach-in event.

Angie Zaiter (CAS ’30), who attended the vigil, said the war’s scope has been devastating. 

“The third year of a vigil for genocide is inexcusable because why has such violence, why has such targeted murder been persistent with the technology we have today, in which it’s been broadcasted on a global stage?” Zaiter told The Hoya. “We’re watching a horror firsthand, and yet global communities are not active enough in stopping it.” 

At the vigil, representatives from SJP, the Muslim Students Association and the Anti-Zionist Jewish Student Front, among other student organizations, gave speeches.   

Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attacks resulted in the death of approximately 1,200 people and the abduction of about 250 people. The Israeli military’s counteroffensive has led to the deaths of 74,000 Palestinians and displaced at least 80% of the population in the Gaza Strip. A growing body of scholars and advocates — including the leading International Association of Genocide Scholars and a United Nations commission — have accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza. Israel has consistently denied these claims, characterizing such claims as antisemitic or anti-Israel — often with the defense of the United States. 

University President Eduardo Peñalver previously said he will center student input on divestment in discussions with the board of directors, which controls the university’s investments.

“How broadly we need to consult the question of divestment or endowment investment policy is ultimately a board decision and not an administrative decision,” Peñalver told The Hoya in August. 

“I will meet with student advocates and listen to their perspective and faithfully convey that as appropriate to the board to inform their deliberations,” Peñalver added.

In April 2025, Georgetown students approved a referendum asking the university to divest from companies that have ties to the Israeli military, including Alphabet and Amazon. The university declined to accept the referendum the same day it was approved, and Georgetown increased its holdings in the two companies between April and September 2025.

Darin Eberhardt (SFS ’29), a member of the Young Democratic Socialists of America who spoke at the vigil, said Palestinians will continue fighting for their liberation. 

“We’ve been doing this for over 75 years,” Eberhardt told The Hoya. “The genocide never stopped, and it’s just obviously gotten worse. We’ll just keep fighting until there isn’t colonialism as it is right now in Palestine.”

Georgetown’s chapter of Students for Justice Palestine hosted the vigil Oct. 7 as a part of their “week of rage” to increase advocacy about the Israel-Hamas war. (Nel Peter/The Hoya)

Military, social and political tensions in the Middle East have intensified since the 1948 establishment of the state of Israel and subsequent Arab-Israeli war, which displaced 750,000 Palestinians. In the current conflict, several attempts to maintain a ceasefire have failed and, three years on, both Hamas and Israel continue to exchange strikes. 

Fida Adely, the director of the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies, said the current political moment is an opportunity to catalyze change. 

“This is a political opening, a powerful and hopeful opening, and we need to keep organizing and fighting until Palestine is free, until all of us are free from the imperial war machine fueled by the military complex,” Adely said in a speech at the vigil. 

“This is why divestment from war and war crimes must continue to be our central demand, and we cannot rest,” Adely added. 

Ian Crowley (CAS ’28), an SJP representative, said he hopes Peñalver upholds Georgetown’s Jesuit values by divesting and taking a stand against injustice in the Israel-Hamas war.  

“The university still holds those investments despite most of students not wanting their tuition dollars to go to companies that aid in the genocide,” Crowley told The Hoya. “Now we have a new administrator coming in, President Peñalver, who’s going to be inaugurated in two days, so he has an opportunity to cement his legacy to approach this issue of divestment more constructively than past administrations and to also uphold this university’s commitment and his commitments to Jesuit values and to a sense of universal justice.”

The university body for responsible investment declined a divestment proposal similar to the student referendum from Georgetown’s chapter of Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine in May 2025. 

Noor Zaareir (CAS ’29), who spoke at the vigil, said the university should address rising campus Islamophobia.   

“I just think that the university should take the Palestinian issue and the Muslim issue in general and the immigrant issue as a whole more seriously,” Zaareir added. 

Speakers at the Oct. 7 vigil denounced the university’s decision to maintain investments in companies with ties to Israel’s military. (Nel Peter/The Hoya)

Jaden Sarr (MSB ’27), who attended the vigil, said he felt support from the other demonstrators as a Muslim student.

“It’s a breath to take in to reflect on the genocide and what happens, but I guess the release of it is a little bit easier, not as much, but the effort, the people here, and seeing the different backgrounds, like all types of education and, furthermore, experience, just it really means a lot to me,” Sarr told The Hoya. 

Jackson Schnabel (SFS ’27), an SJP representative, said continuous student solidarity helps the Palestinian cause.

“It means so much to me that the community is still showing out after three years,” Schnabel said. “I know we have the community’s backing, and that the opposition — the people that are continuing to support the genocide — are a small minority on this campus,” Schnabel said.

“Without these shows of solidarity, of coming out together, this struggle would become impossible,” Schnabel added.

Zaiter said the anniversary should be a reminder of the ongoing conflict in Gaza for those who advocate for progressive change.

“All forms of innocent lives lost is a horror,” Zaiter said. “It’s a day for us to really think about the circumstances under which the region, the Palestinian people, are currently living in, and it is important for us to remember that systems of oppression, occupation and violence towards a minority group, towards an indigenous group, have persisted during a time where we sort of pride ourselves on being more progressive, more democratic as a world.”