From 11:00 p.m. on Oct. 6 to 6:30 a.m. on Oct. 7, five Palestine Solidarity Coalition members wrote the names and ages of children killed in Gaza since Oct. 7, 2023, filling the sidewalks surrounding the Green, Dartmouth Hall, Parkhurst Hall and McNutt Hall.
Oct. 7 marked the second anniversary of Hamas’ surprise attack on southern Israel, during which they killed 1,200 people and abducted 251 others, as well as the start of Israel’s war against Hamas. Forty-eight are still in captivity in Gaza, about 20 of whom Israel believes to still be alive. Since the attack, the war in Gaza has killed more than 67,000 Palestinians, nearly a third of whom are children, according to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, which is part of the Hamas-run government.
PSC member Gabbie Ross ’28 said she hoped the writing would “bring students’ attention back to what’s happening in Palestine.”
“We understand that, with everything going on with the Trump administration, we’re focusing on tariffs, on the compact, but the genocide in Palestine has been happening for two years and we felt a need to remind our community that that’s still happening with our tax dollars,” she explained.
Recent pro-Palestinian activism at Dartmouth included six students hunger striking in June, filling bathrooms in Parkhurst Hall with ladybugs on the one-year anniversary of May 1 and a student dousing red paint over Dartmouth Hall in April. Additionally, approximately 15 students participated in a sit-in in Parkhurst Hall on May 28, two of whom were suspended on July 31. According to the College’s chalking policy, chalkings are allowed on “sidewalks that are exposed to rainfall.”
Roan Wade ’25, one of the students who was suspended for participating in the May sit-in, said the PSC was chalking to “provide a visualization of the scale and scope of the ongoing genocide” and “call attention” to Dartmouth’s “investments in weapons manufacturers” that supply arms to Israel.
“A lot of times things get reduced to statistics, and our hope is that by writing these names we’re providing that human element and showing that these are … children who are dying every day in Gaza,” they added.
Wade acknowledged that “many people” would find it “uncomfortable to have to walk on top of the names of children who had been killed.”
“We want this to be a visual reminder of the fact that our institution, this institution that we are going to, is complicit in this genocide and the ongoing killing of more and more children every day,” they said.
The College declined to comment. Student leaders of Jewish organizations did not respond to requests for comment.
