Trent University students, faculty, and community members gathered on the university’s Faryon Bridge Wednesday evening to pay respects to Palestinian children killed during the State of Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza after a memorial containing hundreds of their names was defaced.

Arthur responded to a tip August 5th to find the names of many Palestinian children killed in Gaza crossed out, or written over with pro-Isreali slogans and drawings of the Star of David.

The memorial, which has stood continually since May of 2024, was spearheaded by Students 4 Palestine (S4P) Trent as a means to honour some-then 14,500 children killed by the Israeli military. That number has since increased to 50,000 according to a May 2025 UNICEF report.

Since March 2025, Israel’s occupation of the Gaza Strip has exacerbated already widespread malnutrion and food scarcity, resulting in systemic famine throughout the territories.

The gathering on Wednesday night was organized in partnership between S4P and Faculty 4 Palestine (F4P) Trent with the intention of being "a public act to restore the site to its origins- that is, as a site of conscience in the face of the ongoing genocide in Gaza," per a joint statement from the groups.

"At a stage of the genocide in which Israel’s utter disregard for human life, deliberate campaign of starvation, ongoing flouting of international law and its weaponizing of humanitarian aid have drawn the censure even of states and political leaders that are typically silent on Palestine, it is shocking to see this doubling down on rhetoric and hatred," reads a separate media statement from F4P Trent published Wednesday afternoon.

“I think it's particularly upsetting for those of us who've done this a couple times to see this, to see this happening,” professor Kirsten Francescone told attendees.

“This space has come to serve as a memorial in the absence of such a memorial in Gaza,” said fellow professor and F4P member, Chris Beyers. “In Gaza, any such site would be met with extreme violence. But here too, we see a reflection of that will to annihilate in the deliberate crossing out of the names of the children.”

“This is not simply erasure,” Beyers said. “The names are still visible, but now crossed out—symbolically killed again.”

“To scratch out a child's name after they have been burned, starved or crushed to death, is in a way, to enact violence again; to declare that they never should have existed,” he concluded.

“I see a lot of Arab lives have been dehumanized by the media, by politicians,” said S4P member Juman Zanzoul. “To see [the memorial] defaced makes me extremely uncomfortable and very upset.”

“Honestly, I just can't process how someone has to lack such critical thinking skills to scratch up the names of children,” Zanzoul said.

Francescone added that it was important to faculty members that the initial chalking took place to coincide with the 2024 Trent Convocation.

“Every student that graduated that year had the names of the Palestinian kids who will never get to go to university in the background,” she told attendees. “Their parents had to take photos of their kids graduating with that knowledge.”

“It was a really proud and powerful moment for us,” she said.

S4P member Irene Suvillaga, one of the students originally involved in the chalking of the bridge, shared a few words with attendees about the student group’s intentions in first creating the memorial.

“The takeover of the Faryon Bridge is our appeal to the humanity of the Trent leadership and administration, to stop turning a blind eye and a tone deaf response to the ongoing genocide in Gaza by the Western backed Zionist war machine that is the State of Israel,” Suvillaga said.

Suvillaga said the vandilism of the bridge memorial “is a clear example of the Zionist rhetoric that we are trying to expose and fight.”

“There is no empathy. All I see are roots of hate and violence and xenophobia,” Suvillaga said.

After these remarks from the organizers, Zanzoul read a portion of the names subject to vandalism aloud for those assembled. Many of those in attendance, Zanzoul included, became emotional as she said "The names of the children I just read—they were three years old." Attendees then lit candles, and Francescone handed out rags to begin the task of wiping the vandalism off the bridge.

Though Trent University President Cathy Bruce told Peterborough Examiner reporter Sebastian Johnston-Lindsay Wednesday afternoon that she was aware of the vandalism of the bridge memorial, neither she nor Trent provided a statement until 5:38 PM Wednesday night. Trent Communications staff were unavailable to provide comment when Arthur called the university Wednesday afternoon.

In the statement eventually provided to both Arthur and the Peterborough Examiner, Trent said “The University recognizes the importance of spaces for reflection, dialogue, and expression. We support the right of students and faculty to engage in respectful acts of conscience, including temporary chalking on the bridge.”

“All messaging must remain non-destructive, inclusive, and considerate of others’ expressions,” the statement continues. “The University is committed to fostering a campus environment where diverse perspectives can be shared safely and respectfully.”

At the memorial event, S4P members were critical of the university’s statement.

“They're clearly showing their stance,” Suvillaga told Arthur. “This was not a dialogue. I don't know how they’re not accepting that this is a very overt case of aggression and racism.”

“[The vandals] are even vandalizing the Truth and Reconciliation signs, which is a statement on its own,” Suvillaga added. “If [Trent] have nothing to say about that…then that is an issue, and that's clearly picking a side, in my opinion.”

“I think the statement said it within itself that they're supposed to be against destructive speech on the bridge,” Zanzoul told Arthur. “I think that crossing out names of children who have been killed is destructive, so I think it's a counterintuitive kind of statement.”

Trent’s statement echoes a statement from the Trent Central Student Asociation on June 26th about “Convocation Flags,” which indicated that “Regardless of geopolitical relationships, every student deserves to be represented and celebrated at their graduation ceremony.”

That statement followed Arthur publishing a story about the Israeli flag being flown among the flags on the student centre during convocation. Arthur had reached out to the TCSA prior to publication, but received no response at the time.

TCSA President, Iyiola Alade, and VP Campaigns & Equity, Gold Jegede, both attended the event, but declined to provide comment for this piece.

At the end of the night, Francescone thanked attendees and said that F4P would organize another event to re-chalk the bridge before the start of the school year. Francescone also provided copies of stock letters addressed to Peterborough MP Emma Harrisson, demanding the Canadian government enforce an arms embargo on Israel.

Despite claims from the Carney government that they had ceased the provision of weapons to Israel, a July 2025 report from Arms Embargo Now, Palestinian Youth Movement, and World Beyond War demonstrated that Canada had continued to send millions of dollars in shipments of weapons and military equipment to Israel.

Since May 2024, S4P have called on Trent University to disclose and divest from any investments in Israeli companies, or companies complicit in the manufacture and sale of arms to Israel.

While the Trent University Faculty Association has committed to fully divesting from Scotiabank by September 2027 due to their ties to Israeli weapons manufacturer Elbit, despite consistent pressure from S4P Trent, the university itself has yet to publicly divest or disclose any investment ties to Israel.

With files from David King, Sebastian Johnston-Lindsay, and Ian Vansegbrook.