Demonstrations, memorial services show local support for Israel, Palestine one year into war

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) -- Hamas militants attacked southern Israel, killing more than 1,100 people one year ago, sparking a war that has continued every day since. 

The effects of a war halfway across the world can be felt and heard in Columbus. 

"October of the seventh was an atrocity for all of humanity," said Rabbi Aleyah Kaltmann of Chabad Columbus.  

But the war’s effects are not felt by just one people. 

"We're gathered on Oct. 7 on purpose on this day to reaffirm that history did not begin on Oct. 7,” Jineen Musa, president of Students for Justice in Palestine of Ohio State University, said. “The way the Western media tends to frame this, Palestinians have been exposed and have been dealing with oppression for 76 years.” 

Demonstrations, memorial services show local support for Israel, Palestine one year into war

A group of Palestinian activists marched at the Ohio State Student Union Monday evening, carrying a long chain of pictures of people who have died in Gaza since the conflict began a year ago. The group chanted for the university to divest from its financial interests connected to Israel. 

"Before Oct. 7, I would say this campus was a place that I found home to, I felt welcomed,” Musa said. “I felt included, but after that, it has drastically been different from administration to students. Palestinians have also been murdered throughout this past year and we have seen nothing coming from this university. We oppose our university’s complicity in this.”  

Several miles away in Bexley, hundreds gathered for a solemn memorial service at Jewish Columbus. The service was packed, leaving those in attendance left standing even in the overflow room.  

Prayers were read, songs were sung, and stories were told from the perspective of Israelis who were killed during the Hamas attack last October. 

"Our hearts were shattered. We quickly reached out to our close family and friends in Israel to check on them," read one speaker during the memorial service. 

Just down the street at Kitchen of Life, Rabbi Aleyah Kaltmann hosted a different kind of memorial service. 

"We mark this day with the rallying call of unity that we can come together as one people, as one humanity by doing acts of goodness and kindness and saying that evil has no place in our world," he said. 

Kaltmann gathered people together to remember that day one year ago and bake Challah bread, a braided bread made of multiple strands of dough intertwined together. 

"When you bake the whole bread, it's different strands, but they unite,” Kaltmann said. “They come together to create one cohesive entity. People will leave realizing that they're not alone. People will leave realizing that they are part of a greater entity, a greater group of people. We're here for each other.” 

The different services and demonstrations shared a passion for their people, and a sadness for the lives lost. Since 2008, the current war in the Middle East is the fifth conflict between Palestinian and Israeli people.