Updated Jan. 9 at 3 p.m.
In the three months since Oct. 7, longtime Middle East peace activist Ellie Shapiro hadn’t attended a single rally.
Like many Jews with a deep connection to Israel, she was grieving. But she didn’t feel called to any of the rallies, because none spoke to her belief system.
“I couldn’t identify with just the pro-Palestinian or just the pro-Israel rally,” the Berkeley resident said. “I’m pro-humanity, and I don’t value Palestinian lives any more or any less than I value Israeli lives.”
That reluctance changed on Jan. 7 as she gathered with about 200 others for a peace vigil at the Lake Merritt Amphitheater in Oakland on a sunny, cold afternoon. The vigil called for a bilateral cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war, as well as for a return of the estimated 130 hostages still held captive in Gaza.
“Finally, I had a place to share my grief,” Shapiro said. “Finally, I found my people.”
The vigil, which took place on the three-month anniversary of the attack with little publicity, was sponsored by Bay Area Israelis whose group is so new that “we don’t have an organization or a website,” Ben Linder of Palo Alto told the crowd.
Some of the organizers have been involved in other local protest movements — opposing the occupation of the West Bank, and fighting court reforms proposed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government. They all identify as Israeli or Israeli American. After Oct. 7, they started meeting regularly over Zoom to process their grief.
It took a while before they felt ready to plan anything, however, and this vigil was a test run of sorts.
“There was a lot of trepidation, and these are Israelis who are not generally that way,” said Estee Solomon Gray, an Israeli American living in Oakland who was part of the organizing team.
Considering how polarizing the Israel-Hamas war is, how traumatized Israelis feel and how Israeli peace activists are often out of step with their relatives and friends back home, she said, “It was really an emotionally scary, loaded thing to do, to step out and say, we must change the game, and we’re going to do it in this way with a public vigil for peace.”
Similar vigils have taken place recently in New York and Boston. Initiated by Israelis, they are different from most cease-fire rallies — which are heavily pro-Palestinian and do not acknowledge Oct. 7 — in that they explicitly call for the release of the hostages. This one also called for humanitarian relief in Gaza, protection for Palestinians in the West Bank and an end to political persecution of Palestinian citizens of Israel.
The Oakland vigil featured a range of speakers, including opening remarks and a land acknowledgment by Isabella Zizi, who is Native American.
One speaker who introduced herself only as Yael said she is Israeli, American, Jewish and Arab.
“Choosing one side to firmly stand on just perpetuates an endless war,” she said.
Quoting Israeli peace activist Vivian Silver, the founder of Women Wage Peace who was murdered on Oct. 7 by Hamas, she said, “There’s no way to peace, peace is the way.”
Testimonials collected from residents of Gaza by the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem were read aloud by one speaker, as were the words of an Israeli mom who had been kidnapped by Hamas with her children about how hard it was to stay strong for them. The group hopes to feature Palestinian speakers at the next gathering, they said.
There was also a period of silence for all of the victims. Calling the gathering a vigil rather than a rally was intended to set a different tone, both to mourn the dead and “feel the feels,” according to Solomon Gray, one of the organizers. Attendees were asked not to bring signs or flags, though some did hold signs.
Several people spoke of the need for such a space, such as Rob Ungar of Oakland, an Israeli American who wore a kippah with a watermelon design, a pro-Palestinian symbol.
“I can believe that Israeli Jews have the right to be safe and support Palestinian liberation,” he said. “They’re not in opposition.”
Rabbi Howie Schneider came from the Santa Cruz area with a carful of friends. He told J. that in the aftermath of the attacks, he felt Israel had the right to defend itself. But at some point, the devastation in Gaza began to weigh heavily upon him.
“This vigil really hits the main points of everything I believe in. The pro-cease fire rallies weren’t dealing with the hostage issue,” Schneider said. “I don’t see how killing more people in Gaza is going to make Jews around the world or in Israel any safer.”