UNC Students for Justice in Palestine receive NC Peacemaker Award

At the annual Peacemaker Awards Dinner on Friday, Hashem Amireh addressed the crowd, saying he sees unprecedented cognitive dissonance in the way the United States has responded to the war in Gaza.

Amireh was accepting the Peacemaker Award from NC Peace Action, a nonprofit that advocates for issues like nuclear disarmament and conflict resolution, on behalf of UNC’s chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine. 

NC Peace Action delivered two Peacemaker Awards at the dinner at Highland United Methodist Church in Raleigh. 

“[The award plaque] simply says, ‘For facing arrest and suspension as they protested the genocide in Gaza,’ but it is for so much more,” Anne Cassebaum, the secretary for NC Peace Action, said as she presented the award to Amireh.

Joe Cicero, a board member for NC Peace Action, said the organization's board of directors looked for heroic actionwhen nominating candidates for the award.

He said UNC SJP stood out because of the sanctions they faced from the University following their actions at on-campus protests. He said students stood up for justice in the face of lobbyists pressuring UNC to suspend and expel students from the University.

Cicero also compared the group's activism to protests in the late 20th century that put pressure on the U.S. to stop supporting Apartheid in South Africa.

Amireh said he was involved with the Triangle Gaza Solidarity Encampment last spring. The University suspended him for his involvement with the protest, though Amireh said his suspension was removed after a hearing process.

The award ceremony came just one day after SJP held a walkout that drew more than 200 participants. During the walkout, protesters vandalized academic buildings and the NROTC Naval Armory, spray painting phrases like “Free Gaza” and “Israel is a terror state,” which called for the University to divest from all connections to Israel.

Amireh has  served as president of the UNC Graduate Student Workers Union, and has been involved with UNC Graduate Students for the Liberation of Palestine. As he accepted the award, five other students, who he said are involved with SJP or GSLP, joined him on stage. The group received two standing ovations from an audience of around 100 community members.

Dr. Mark Perlmutter, an orthopedic surgeon who served on a medical mission to Gaza, also received a Peacemaker Award at Friday's ceremony. He praised SJP for advocating for broad political change.

Following their acceptance speeches, the recipients participated in a panel moderated by activist and independent journalist Lauren Steiner. During the group discussion, multiple audience members called out for the speakers on stage to debate their stances about the upcoming presidential election. 

For Amireh, the highlight of the evening was meeting a 10-year-old girl who gave him a misspelled card that read, “Thank You Hashem Amireh and UNC Stp for speaking up for Palestine.”

“This felt a lot more personal, and in that way, very meaningful,” Amireh said. “It made me tear up when I read it.”

Amireh said receiving the award meant a lot to SJP. 

“I think this has been a difficult time for a lot of people, and we've seen a reluctance to expend any sort of capital, whether it's political capital or whatever, from a lot of people around the state to support us,” he said.

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