By Eric Shōkei Manigian, Co-Chair
FOR Metro NY/NJ Chapter

On Wednesday, September 16, an interfaith coalition gathered at the Church Center of the United Nations to hear sermons from across religious traditions regarding the ongoing slaughter of Palestinian children in Gaza.

The number is well over 20,000 but that is where the official number is right now due to the fact that positive identification must be verified by DNA evidence by a hospital, all of which have been bombed in Gaza, and so many children are still buried under the rubble, or that there is nothing left to identify.

It is a gruesome fact that we must not look away from. In focusing on the children, I hope not to overlook the 680,000 adult civilian Palestinian population whose lives have been stolen, similarly, the official count being only 78,000. Israel is now known to be the number one source of child deaths, globally. The group asks the profound question, “Where is the justice?”

Members of FOR joined the hosts, including Doctors Against Genocide, Priests Against Genocide, Justice for All, and other organizations who signed onto being a moral voice of outcry to support the project of the Gaza Children’s Shroud. The shroud is a running, hand-written memorial document of names of the children who have been murdered in Gaza. It is two meters wide and 100 meters long, filling the room with its presence.

The afternoon began with an interfaith service hosted by the UN Church Interfaith Chaplain, Rev. Dionne Bosissière. We then heard from two Buddhists, Dr. Scott Hagaman (Plum Village / Doctors Against Genocide) and Rev. James Lynch (Risso Kosei Kai). Readings from scriptures started with excerpts from the Qur’an by Sheikh Walead Battrash (Dar Ul Islah). From the Christian scriptures, Fr. Steve Josama (Priests Against Genocide / St. Susanna’s Parish), Fr. Tim Taugher (Saint Francis of Assisi).

Imam Saffet Catovic (Justice for All) noted: “Every major religious tradition and spiritual path commands us to protect the innocent, to seek justice, and to stand against the abuse of power. These children committed no crime. They waged no war. Their only ‘fault’ was being born Palestinian. Today, we do not ask forgiveness for them. We ask for their forgiveness. Let us stand as members of [the] faith community [to] fold the shroud—in the Islamic tradition of Takfeen—symbolically wrapping of dead children and blessing them.” Then, Imam Catovic recited Surah Al-Fatihah from the Qur’an.

A reflection and poem was subsequently read by a member of the Palestinian community, Hadeel: “These scriptures call us not only to hear but to act. We now reflect on the sacred act of naming, and the weight of our own accountability. In Gaza, parents wrote their children’s names on their bodies. Not for fashion, for dignity, so that when bombs fell and homes collapsed, when bodies were dismembered beyond recognition, their names would survive, their humanity would survive.”

Hadeel had family members killed in Gaza most of whom were children. She read the words of the poem “Write My Name on My Leg, Mama” by Zeina Azzam, words that echo the cries of every child who asked to be remembered:

“Write my name on my leg, Mama. Make the lines thick and clear. Add your special flourishes so I can take comfort in seeing my mama’s handwriting when I go to sleep. Write my name on my leg, Mama, and on the legs of my sisters and brothers, this way we will belong together, this way we will be known as your children. Write my name on my leg, Mama, and please write your name and Baba’s name on your legs too, so we will be remembered as a family. Write my name on my leg, Mama, don’t add any numbers like when I was born or the address of our home, I don’t want the world to list me as a number, I have a name and I am not a number. Write my name on my leg, Mama, so when the bomb hits our house, when the walls crush our skulls and bones, our legs will tell our story, of how there was nowhere to run.”

I was crying then as I am now sharing these words again with you.