Why is there a vigil for Saleh al-Jafarawi in Ithaca on October 17?

Why is the Ithaca Committee for Justice in Palestine holding a vigil in memory of Saleh al-Jafarawi on Friday afternoon, October 17? I had never heard of him before a couple of days ago. He was apparently a Palestinian journalist/influencer in Gaza, and he was killed a few days ago, on October 12, but not by Israel. According to a report from Haaretz,

Clashes and gunfire erupted in Gaza City's Sabra neighborhood between Hamas security forces and the Doghmush clan militia, which opposes the group, according to Palestinian reports.

Journalist and social activist Saleh al-Jafarawi, a well-known social media personality in Gaza, was killed during the exchange of fire. According to reports, al-Jafarawi was killed while covering the events.

According to the Times of Israel, "He gained wide attention with a video he recorded on October 7, 2023, in which he praised Hamas’s attack." Arab News also reported, "He gained notoriety after the release of a video in which he appeared to praise Hamas’s Oct. 7 attacks on Israel." Link to the video on X: https://x.com/aggelos210/status/1977456702015373587 (not embedding it here).

Some details about his life from the Wikipedia entry about him (accessed October 16, 1:32 am).

Early Life

Saleh al-Jafarawi was born in Gaza City in the Gaza Strip, on 22 November 1997. He attended the Islamic University of Gaza, where he received a bachelor's degree in media and journalism in 2019. He began producing content around 2018 on the Great March of Return, during which he covered the situation on the group as a freelance journalist for local media outlets.[9] He also worked independently as a freelance photographer and journalist on social media platforms. His reporting style often involved documenting civilian suffering and destruction during Israeli military operations in Gaza.[10][11][12]

Career

Al-Jafarawi became particularly well-known during the Gaza war, when his videos from the conflict zones went viral on platforms such as Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok. He amassed a large following, and his content was widely shared.[11][12][13]

In November 2023, pro-Israel influencers falsely claimed that al-Jafarawi had faked a scene of being hospitalized and labelled the video as "Pallywood". A Voice of America investigation found that the video in the hospital was not of al-Jafarawi but a Palestinian child.[14]

One of his videos surpassed 51 million views, while others exceeded 30 million. Israeli media outlets described him as someone who "exploits tragedies for fame," and referred to him as "Mr. FAFO".[15] The Times of Israel wrote that "he first gained wide attention with a video he recorded on October 7, 2023, in which he praised Hamas’s rocket attacks. Later in the war, he filmed himself crying and reacting in terror to Israel’s airstrikes."[16]

His Instagram account was suspended "indefinitely" in March 2025 forcing al-Jafarawi to use a backup account.[17][13]

In late September 2025, al-Jafarawi's followers raised alarm after the Israel Defense Forces Arabic-language spokesperson Avichay Adraee alleged that al-Jafarawi was affiliated with Hamas. His followers feared that, like other Palestinian journalists in Gaza accused of associations with Hamas, that al-Jafarawi could be targeted in the near future. They drew comparison to the journalist Anas al-Sharif, who was targeted and killed in Gaza by Israel with similar allegations.[18]

I still don't understand why Ithaca CJP is holding a vigil for him in particular, especially considering his early support for Hamas's murderous attack on Israel. Judging from the Instagram post, aa number of other local organizations seem to be cosponsoring or supporting this vigil - Ithaca Food Not Bombs, Ithaca People's University, IC Students for Palestine, and Cornell Progressives.

This is what National SJP posted to Instagram a couple of days ago (I couldn't find it on Instagram - my screenshot is from an article in the New York Post). At least the Ithaca CJP didn't reproduce the National SJP image of him and their bloodthirsty slogans against "collaborators."

Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib - "Hamas’s brutality on October 7 was the plan!"

 

The complete post:

Hamas’s brutality on October 7 was the plan! Newly released documents from Hamas’s underground dungeons include a handwritten memo by Yahya Sinwar, the slain mastermind behind October 7, as reported on by the NYTimes and confirmed by Israeli authorities, reveal a disturbing picture that contradicts Hamas’s claims. The five-page memo (which I've read in Arabic), supposedly written in 2022, outlines Sinwar’s vision for inflicting maximal brutality on Israelis, including civilians, to create a new level of fear and unlock the potential of trauma in “the hearts and minds of the enemy.” 

This includes burning down kibbutzim, stepping on necks, stabbings and beheadings, taking hostages, and all the horrific attacks that we saw on October 7. Critically, for Sinwar, all acts of brutality that he highlighted were to be rapidly captured on camera and immediately broadcast to the world to ensure maximal efficacy and to achieve the intended propagandistic outcome that would revitalize and globalize Hamas’s armed resistance narrative. Additionally, he hoped explicitly that the violence would inspire Palestinians in the West Bank and inside Israel to rise and join Hamas in the battle, not to mention the entirety of the Iranian-sponsored “axis of resistance” to help accelerate the vision of the collapse of the Jewish state. 

What has been disturbing is that the terror group not only denied committing any atrocities against civilians despite broadcasting their footage to the entire world in real time, but they went on to accuse Palestinian civilians from Gaza of being behind the abuses that took place, alleging their terrorists would not do such horrible acts. Worse, large numbers of Palestinians still don’t believe that such horrendous atrocities took place on October 7, despite overwhelming video evidence of Hamas, not to mention the Western-based pro-Palestine movement, which is worse in denying that any atrocities took place. 

As much as Hamas has always been a horrendous terror organization, there was an exceptionally ruthless and barbaric nature to the October 7 massacre, unlike anything before it; October 7 was an entirely different chapter in which Hamas became an ISIS-like entity in its deployment of fear, terror, intimidation, and up close animalistic dehumanization that was truly different in scale and horror. 

It is one of the many reasons why I could never, ever be silent after that fateful day, in which my beautiful Gaza and people were shamefully associated with such barbarism. I did not need the NYT or the Israeli military to reveal what the whole world saw with our own eyes - shame on anyone who still refuses to believe that there were any atrocities on that day or that civilians were killed in the supposed “Hannibal directive” or “friendly-fire.”

For a more hopeful meaning of remembrance of October 7

Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib, founder of the Realign for Palestine project, spent today at a commemoration at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, sponsored by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum.

Alkhatib is a Palestinian from Gaza who has lost many family members to the Israeli military assault on Gaza. I've heard him speak with pain about the loss of those he loved, the loss of his family home, and his worries about relatives still in Gaza. He is angry at Israel (justifiably, in my opinion), but has channeled his anger into working for a new alternative for Palestinians, not in futile support of the violent so-called resistance supported by radical left groups in the US and elsewhere. This is from his newsletter:

Today, we remember the tragedy experienced by thousands of Israelis who endured horrendous violence and pain due to Hamas’s barbaric terror attack on October 7, 2023. I stand, as I have over the past two years, with the hostage families and those with loved ones still in captivity in Gaza, who are desperate to end the trauma that they and all Israelis continue to feel as long as this issue is not resolved. I am thinking of Lishay Miran Lavi, who is desperate to be reunited with her husband, Omri; Yotam Cohen and his brother, Nimrod; Arbel Yehoud, who spoke of her struggle to overcome the trauma from prolonged captivity; and all who have living and deceased family still held in Gaza.

Many former hostages were present today at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC for a commemoration hosted by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum with support from US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and his wife, Allison. Several former hostages shared the horror they went through on October 7 and beyond, not to mention the unimaginable suffering experienced by their families while waiting for their release. These voices are worth remembering whenever people try to convince you that October 7 and hostage-taking were somehow an inevitability due to occupation or oppression. What occurred on that fateful day was not “resistance” by any stretch of the imagination. It was nothing but violent criminality that was entirely unnecessary and avoidable. It did not need to happen. 

Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib Proud American; native Gazan; pro-Palestine, pro-Peace, anti-Hamas, anti-occupation, Two State Solution; Resident Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council (Views my own).

 

How Anti-Zionists "Remember" October 7, 2023

The Cornell University "Progressives" seized the opportunity presented by the second anniversary of the Hamas attack to desecrate the memory of the 1200 people murdered on that day by placing "pro-Palestinian" signs and placards on the quad at Cornell. There was no mention of why the war began; it's as if Israelis woke up suddenly on October 8 and decided to attack Gaza out of the blue. 

Instead of remembering the murdered Israelis, this is what they call for:

What does the slogan "We will free Palestine in our lifetime" mean? 

It reminds me of the New York City anti-Zionist group "Within Our Lifetime," which clearly has the goal of destroying Israel and establishing a Palestinian state instead of Israel. Is that the goal of the CU so-called Progressives? If not, they should make clear what their goal actually is.

(Photo is from CU Progressive Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/p/DPggbq9gGKx/). Go there to see the rest of their photos. Some are of Palestinians killed by Israel in Gaza - and note that I do not object to those photos, or in general to calling attention to and condemning how Israel has conducted the war in such a brutal and destructive way. My objection is to the CU Progressives refusing to admit how the war began, with the Hamas attack, and crassly and exploitatively seizing the opportunity on this day of all days to proclaim their political righteousness.

This is the poster that Within Our Lifetime posted on their Twitter/X page:

They named their demonstration after the title that Hamas gave to their invasion of Israel, the "Al-Aksa Flood."

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The Coalition for Mutual Liberation at Cornell also posted the same photo from the CU Progressive Instagram, plus a short video that used footage from the Hamas attack on October 7, which they took from an account called "Palestine Reveals" (link here: https://www.instagram.com/p/DPgSRPEDW5J/).

Here's a still from the video:

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The Ithaca College Students for Justice in Palestine also posted this same photo from CU Progressives in their Instagram Story:

They also posted another slide that requires one to agree with the Pro-Palestine movement in order to be considered a feminist:

(Link to Instagram Story: https://www.instagram.com/stories/ithacacollegesjp/3738202444342873566/).