Mariem Masmoudi, sophomore in political science, reserved a room in the D. H. Hill Learning Commons Thursday devoted to signing letters addressed to North Carolina federal representatives.

The letters urge an immediate cease fire between Israeli forces and Palestinian Hamas, to allow humanitarian supplies to get through, to put pressure on Israel to end the blockade and allow the passage of supplies and strongly encourage the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations to join the international community in condemning the massacre of innocent civilians, Masmoudi said.

She also said the letter calls for opening the border to Egypt.

“Egypt needs to be more involved in humanitarian assistance as well as solving the problem itself,” Masmoudi said.

The inspiration to do the letter campaign came while vacationing in California over winter

break.

“Three days ago I was in San Diego listening to NPR about what was going on and they were reporting that over 800 children checked into hospitals in Gaza for serious injuries,” she said. After hearing about the injured innocent children, Masmoudi said something really clicked inside.

“I went to two protests in San Diego and they were really exciting, but protests don’t really get anything done,” she said.

She said she immediately began planning for the event when she returned home, which was aimed to raise awareness of the Gaza crisis. The campaign was something she had never experienced before, she said, but was now in a perfect position to take action.

“Obviously it wasn’t an event, per say — it was just a way to get people excited and to help them feel empowered,” Masmoudi said.

She said the campaign she created spread so widely, others around the states began to step up and take action.

“The same thing [letter campaign] is going on at [Universtiy of California] Berkley, UCLA,

schools around DC, Florida, UNC, it’s really really exciting,” Masmoudi said.

Masmoudi said she believes Israel has the right to defend itself, but the response to the attacks is outrageous.

“The humanitarian side of Israel’s response is just unacceptable,” she said. “I can’t even begin to justify the loss of their lives.”

Masmoudi said she has many questions and concerns, specifically regarding the banning of international press into Gaza and the opening of an all out war on the people of Gaza.

“It’s a concern because what we know is only coming from the Israelis, we have no way to verify,” Masmoudi said. “Of course I don’t think they shouldn’t have retaliated against Hamas, they have not only the right, but the responsibility to defend their citizens,” Masmoudi said.

The main goal of Masmoudi’s letter campaign was humanitarian aid. She said she wants the government to provide assistance to more than 3,000 citizens who

are injured in hospitals and dealing with dwindling medical supplies.

Masmoudi said all people, regardless of their stancs on the situation, should be concerned

with the attacks that are taking place.

Because of the limited supplies, Masmoudi said the United Nations needs to find alternative ways to get supplies into Gaza, regardless of the blockade.

“The citizens of Gaza need those supplies whether Israel attacked the shipment or not,”

she said.

The letter campaign that began as an idea proved much more successful than Masmoudi imagined.

Nancy Jalal, freshman in First Year College, said she signed the letter because innocent people are being killed and have nothing to do with the problem between the governments.

Heba Oraby, junior in history, said any humane person should be concerned about why innocent lives are being taken.

“You see what happened with the Holocaust — this is like a new Holocaust,” Oraby

said. “They have nothing to go to, their homes are broken, half their families killed and all they have is rocks to protect them, and it’s really hard. It could be Germans, or Americans, it would still be inhumane.”