Nooran Alhamdan: Portsmouth and Palestine are my home

As a life-long Palestinian American Seacoast resident, identity has always been important to me. My parents instilled in me a great pride in my family’s Palestinian heritage. My mother would visit my classes at Little Harbour School and do presentations on our culture. I would write about my experiences visiting Palestine throughout middle and high school, and at the University of New Hampshire, my passion for refugees guided my academics and my activism.

After graduation from UNH, I began organizing locally in Portsmouth for Palestinian human rights. I organized several demonstrations in Market Square and Prescott Park over the past two years, with incredible turnouts and solidarity from other organizations like Indigenous New Hampshire and Black Lives Matter.

Portsmouth and Palestine are my home.

A few weeks ago, I learned that U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken would be delivering the commencement address at my graduation ceremony from Georgetown University on May 21. The news caught me off guard, and I immediately shared the information with colleagues in the Arab Studies program.

As students of the Middle East, and with many of us hailing from the region, we were intensely aware of the role played by the U.S. government in abetting the Israeli occupation. For myself and my peers, this was an opportunity to confront power face-to-face.

Two days later, I woke up to find video after video of the late Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, murdered in broad daylight by Israeli soldiers as she was reporting on an Israeli military raid in the Jenin Refugee Camp. Two days later I watched in horror as her funeral procession was attacked by Israeli forces in the courtyard of Jerusalem's St. Joseph Hospital. Then I came across a tweet by Blinken: “We were deeply troubled by the images of Israeli police intruding into the funeral procession of Palestinian American Shireen Abu Akleh. Every family deserves to lay their loved ones to rest in a dignified and unimpeded manner.”

Blinken’s toothless tweet, labeling the attack on Shireen’s funeral an “intrusion” enraged me. No statement that recognized her death as cold-blooded murder by Israel. I messaged my peers immediately and we began to plan our action.

We ultimately decided to carry out a silent protest; we wanted others in our cohort, some of whom either held citizenship in Arab countries that do not respect free speech or were here on student visas, to participate without fear of consequences. We would don the traditional Palestinian keffiyeh and carry photos of Shireen both during the commencement procession and throughout Blinken’s address. We even thoroughly investigated Georgetown’s free speech policies and ensured that we were in line with its protocols.

On commencement day, I rushed my family to get to campus early. I had not told them what we were planning. My parents rightfully worry about me; Palestinian students and activists in the United States are often blacklisted, smeared, and punished for their advocacy. However, honoring Shireen’s legacy, and taking advantage of this rare public opportunity to make our voices heard in front of a high-ranking U.S. policymaker, was far more important to me than any personal risk I would face.

When the procession began, I was the first in line carrying a photo of Shireen. More than half of the Arab Studies cohort participated. Our plan was executed flawlessly. But when the time came for our walk across the graduation stage we were surprised when we saw that Secretary Blinken stayed; we had assumed he would leave directly after his address. Upon realizing that I was expected to fist bump the secretary of state after receiving my diploma, I made a split second decision to ignore the gesture and instead speak to him.

On stage, I looked Secretary Blinken in the eye and said: “We demand an independent investigation of Shireen’s murder, and we demand an end to all American aid to the Israeli military now. Please.” I could barely hear what his one word response to me was. All I knew was that, in that moment, I was practicing the principles that grounded me so deeply in all the work that I and countless others do not only for Palestine but for human rights everywhere.

I was hooded for my Master's degree and then returned to my seat.

As the ceremony ended, Secretary Blinken motioned to me with his hands, signaling for me not to leave. As he left the stage he stopped in front of us and said, “I see you. I hear you.” I reiterated to him that we demand an independent investigation into Shireen’s murder. He replied, “We are committed to finding the truth.”

I felt enraged all over again. We knew the truth. What we wanted was to put that truth on the global record, so that one day Israel could be held accountable.

My mother has always said I have a sharp tongue. I immediately responded, “We know the truth. She was murdered by the Israeli military that we bankroll. We should stop funding the Israeli military, we need to cut all American aid to Israel.” I don’t know if he heard me, because he walked away.

A video clip of me raising the Palestinian flag and speaking to Blinken on stage has since gone viral. I had not planned our interaction, nor expected that clip to be so widely shared. I have received messages of support from around the world, including from childhood friends and teachers in Portsmouth, and distant family I have never met in the Middle East.

My peers and I have since released a public statement explaining our action and reaffirming our demands. We hope that anyone inspired by our small, symbolic act of resistance will take the first steps in organizing for Palestinian liberation, no matter where they are. We know that these efforts are small in size, but small streams become great rivers.

Nooran Alhamdan, a lifelong resident of the Seacoast, is a Little Harbour School, Portsmouth High School, UNH, and Georgetown University graduate and a committed advocate for Palestinian liberation and human rights. In 2019 she was awarded a Harry S. Truman scholarship and this fall will begin law school.

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Nooran Alhamdan: Portsmouth NH and Palestine are my home!