Sacramento State’s chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine held their “Step Into Gaza” exhibition Tuesday evening, showing the state of Gaza after its initial conflict with Hamas and Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. The event featured a series of exhibits meant to emulate the conditions faced by Palestinians as Gaza descends into famine.
Amal Al-Sheikh, a member of Sac State’s SJP chapter, said he wanted attendees to put themselves in the shoes of people affected by the famine.
“[The exhibit] is a way to honor the people who’ve been martyred and the people who are still dealing with all this,” Al-Sheikh said. “We’re trying to show that right now, [the issue] is the famine.”
This exhibit follows a similar one the SJP held at the Capitol last year, where they built an exhibit showing the stages of evacuations that many Palestinians faced.
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“It went from a young girl’s bedroom to her life in the tents, and then at the end of it, you walk through a bunch of suitcases and backpacks,” Al-Sheikh said of this year’s exhibit. “You got to see the physical representation of this process of the genocide.”
The first piece at the exhibit shows Gaza from the days preceding Oct. 7 through Oct. 9, 2023 – the day Israel’s defense minister, Yoav Gallant, declared a “complete siege” on Gaza and initiated a blockade on food and water. At this point, while some Palestinians did experience food insecurity, conditions were fairly normal.
The exhibit progressed, showing representations of dwindling food stores and the conditions faced by Palestinians.
Thad Geffore, a second-year electrical engineering major who attended the event, said he was surprised to learn the amount of water available to the Palestinians. Following airstrikes in Gaza in November 2023, the amount of water available to Palestinians has dropped dramatically.
“I found the numbers for how much water they have surprising. It was 1.5 to 2 liters a day,” Geffore said. “You need 3 to live, 50 for sanitation or for hygiene. I knew that they didn’t have enough water; I just didn’t know how little.”
The fourth phase shows Gaza completely out of food, with children’s belongings strewn across the floor. Arman Hatt, a senior environmental science major who attended the event, said he found this phase particularly impactful.
“What almost made me gag a little bit was the exhibit with the [blood] stained comforter. Seeing how genuine of a reality it was that there’s so many things that just belong to children that no longer have a home to go back to,” Hatt said. “It’s the fact that it doesn’t exist anymore.”
The last phase of the exhibit was meant to demonstrate that the famine in Gaza is not natural; it has been perpetrated by the Israeli government’s blockade of food and aid from entering the country, according to Al-Sheikh. The exhibit’s final phase memorialized those lost in the famine, and featured empty chairs covered in flowers as well as shattered plates on the floor in front of them.
SJP said they wanted to remind attendees that there is still an ongoing problem in Gaza and put statistics into perspective.
“We want to re-center what we’re advocating for,” Al-Sheikh said. “All the tragedies that are happening are one thing, but going through it and [picturing] it yourself is much different.”
