HS students release balloons in memory of dead
By Greg Forester, Staff Writer
Students released dozens of balloons into the sky above Princeton High School on Friday to memorialize the hundreds of lives extinguished by fighting in the Gaza Strip. The following evening, about 150 people gathered in Tiger Park at Palmer Square to recognize the loss of life and support Israel’s right to exist.The two events were the latest expressions of local concern over violence in the Middle East, where Israel is continuing an offensive against militants responsible for rocket attacks on Israeli towns. Another event is planned for 7 p.m. tonight, Tuesday, by the United Jewish Federation of Princeton Mercer Bucks at the Jewish Center at 435 Nassau St.
The event at Princeton High School was organized by two juniors, Aislinn Bauer, 16, and Angie Abbis, 16. They gathered approximately 50 students and staff members in a ring on the high school lawn for a 10-minute moment of silence, before releasing black and white balloons into the frigid air Friday.
The students said the event was not designed to take sides in the conflict.
”We didn’t want to make this into a political thing,” said Aislinn. “We just want to (provide an opportunity) to mourn the deaths that have occurred on both sides.”
The Saturday event at Palmer Square was organized by the United Jewish Federation of Princeton Mercer Bucks. It was conducted as a traditional Havdalah gathering, commemorating the holy Sabbath day and the start of the new week, according to Andrew Frank, the federation’s executive director.
”We hope and pray for a durable peace, a peace that will stop the attacks on innocent civilians from both sides,” said Mr. Frank, who also attended the Princeton High School event. “It was very clearly a rally of people standing behind the right of Israel to exist and the right of Israel to defend itself.”
Mr. Frank said the event — led by rabbis Adam Feldman, Julie Roth, and Annie Tucker — concluded with the singing of Israel’s national anthem, “Hatikva,” and the reciting of a Jewish prayer for peace.
At the high school on Friday, Nora Abbis, a senior and Angie’s 17-year-old sister, said the hope among many of the students was that events like their Gaza Vigil could bring together the two sides of the conflict.
”We’re trying to bring together two rather extreme groups together to mourn the loss of human life,” Nora said.
Others at the vigil expressed their own opinions of a conflict that continues to divide some in Princeton.
”I am completely against what Israel is doing,” said Shahbaz Hyder, 16, a junior. “They shouldn’t be able to bomb other countries for no reason.”
Also at the event was Grazia Agrusti Taha, a Princeton High School world language teacher originally from Italy who is a liaison to one of the school’s Muslim student organizations. She said it was impressive to see the students display the initiative to organize such an event, and “hear another view.”
Ms. Agrusti Taha said she took part in Italian demonstrations against the occupation of Palestine violence during her 23 years in Italy, and eventually married a Palestinian, who also spent time teaching for the Princeton Regional School District.
”From the 1960s and 1970s, when I could understand the conflict, I became an active participant,” she said.
Through her husband, who was born in Haifa in present-day Israel and experienced events during the Israeli-Arab conflict, Ms. Agrusti Taha said she developed a belief that peace was possible. She said it was her understanding that Muslims, Jews and others lived in peace in the area until 1948, around the time of the beginning of the Israeli war of independence.