EDITOR’S NOTE: The following article contains themes of violence, post-traumatic stress, and death. Reader discretion is advised.
As images of rubble and mourning saturated screens across the globe, the University offered space for the stories behind them. Last June 20, the Palestine Collective—in collaboration with DLSU Southeast Asia Research Center and Hub, the College of Liberal Arts, the Office of Student Leadership Involvement, Formation and Empowerment, and the Philippine Center for Islam and Democracy—hosted Stories of Displacement: Palestine & Beyond, bridging global grief with local memory.
Students, faculty, and advocates gathered at the Philippe Jones Lhuillier Conference Room for a half-day dialogue on the human cost of the ongoing genocide in Gaza. More than a forum, it was a congress of voices that refused to be silent. Through testimonies and analyses, the event wove stories from Gaza into the Filipino experience of conflict, migration, and survival.
Amplifying a voice for hope
A story that took center stage that day was Mahadia Abu Dalal’s, a Filipino-Palestinian educator who was displaced to Batangas, as she recalled how her life in a Gaza refugee camp took a different turn the moment the bombs fell. She had a colossal task: identifying her deceased students’ limbs while also consoling their classmates during class. Their childhoods, she realized, would never be the same.
She narrated an instance when one of her fourth-grade students expressed hopelessness as he witnessed her father’s passing: “He told me, ‘So if we escape, what will we do? Nowhere is safe. Where are you going to take us? We’re going to die anyways.’”
Seeing the documentary From Ground Zero helped her find hope in her people. The 22-diaristic film compilation of Gazan stories painted humanity over the ruins, giving justice to her students as a reclamation of the Palestinian voice.
“We always used to say that art is our borderless passport, [it] takes you [to] places that you can’t go. A film like that gives a voice to the silenced people. It asserts our existence,” she posited.
Her status as a Filipino-Palestinian permitted her to flee the warzone with a foreign passport. However, guilt lingered. Her community, including her pure Palestinian husband and relatives, without such privilege, was left behind.
In closing, Dalal asserted that “to be biased is not [always] a bad thing,” especially in the face of iniquity. “But make sure to be biased on the side of justice, dignity, and humanity—then you will understand how the world works. Then you will understand the suffering of others.”
Seeking the solution for ‘coexistence’
What followed was a panel discussion of insights on the ongoing war starting with United Nations (UN) Resident Coordinator of the Philippines Arnaud Peral who shared how the UN has been in circles pushing for the two-state solution, a contentious proposal that safeguards Palestine as an independent state and its right to self-determination, helping to avoid a “greater system of violations [on] these incremental rights.”
However, Ambassador of Palestine to the Philippines Mounir Anastas pointed out that Israel’s actions make their answer clear. Even with a one-state solution, which seeks to unify both Palestinians and Israelis as an encompassing state, they are adamant in refusing the very existence of a Palestinian.
Carrying the voices of the millions of displaced Palestinians, Anastas stands firm on their nation’s truth of these injustices: they’re committing genocide, segregation, and displacement within Israel’s intentions. “We consider truth and rights as the most powerful weapon[s] that we possess. And Israel can never possess such a weapon.”
As state actors and institutions navigate deadlocks, civil society steps in to amplify awareness and push for action. Co-founder Lobna Abu-Hmaidan of youth-led community care group Handala Project PH stressed the role of education and collective consciousness in driving policy change. “The civil society…plays a really big impact on how government policies change and how policies overall in the country evolve.”
She also emphasized collective action, thus the need to “grow more and more young individuals to actually know about the Palestinian cause.” Knowledge, she said, is essential because knowing what to fight for fuels the drive to take a stand.
Solidarity beyond statements
While the forum focused on Palestine, the accounts of exile, loss, and persistence did not feel foreign; they echoed in the lives of Filipinos shaped by storms, conflict, or the need to work oceans away. It became clear: this was not just about witnessing people’s struggle—it was about naming the shared conditions that push communities to respond not with silence, but with solidarity.
During the forum, Samira Gutoc, co-founder of the advocacy group for the rights of internally displaced persons, Ako Bakwit, Inc., reminded the audience that Filipino Muslims have also faced historical erasure and militarized suffering. Drawing Marawi-Gaza and Mindanao-Nakba parallels, she framed Palestine as part of a global pattern of marginalization. Gutoc stressed that hatred is cultivated “through literature, through indoctrination,” and called for educational balance and empathy as paths to peace.
Haifa Halapit (I, BSMTH) echoed the call in an interview with The LaSallian, urging a deeper and more urgent approach to education campaigns, grounded in “empathy, understanding, and humanity.” From Mindanao to Gaza, the call is the same: don’t look away.
Commitment beyond witnessing
The Palestine Collective—co-founded by Assistant Professors Dr. Susan Kurdli of Political Science and Development Studies, Dr. Ma. Angela Labador of Communications, and Dr. Crisanto Regadio Jr. of Sociology and Behavioral Science—was presented as a space for interdisciplinary dialogue. Kurdli underscored that the group’s role is to provide information rather than prescribe viewpoints, while Labador highlighted upcoming refugee-centered research and coursework on empowerment and support. Regadio reaffirmed the collective’s mission of “continuing to provide space for [the voices of Palestinians].
In a world carved by borders and sustained by silence, the event dared Filipinos to recognize the echoes between Gaza and our own histories—not just to empathize but to act. The question is no longer whether we see but what we will do with what we now know. Silence is no longer neutral; it is a stance. And solidarity is no longer optional—it is a demand.
