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Maryland governor Wes Moore, a Democrat, said he will honor the federal ruling to allow a student-led “vigil for Gaza” at the state’s flagship higher ed institution Oct. 7, but added that he considers it “inappropriate” to host such an event on the anniversary of Hamas’s attack against Israel, The Hill reported.
U.S. District Judge Peter J. Messitte ruled in favor of a Students for Justice in Palestine chapter at the University of Maryland on Tuesday, declaring it was unconstitutional for the university to revoke the organization’s reservation of campus space to host the memorial event.
The university’s actions “came about for reasons that the Constitution simply does not countenance: fear of disruption, and anger of opponents,” Messitte wrote.
But Moore believes that whether the student activist group can and should host a vigil in honor of Palestinians on the day when Israel was first attacked are two different concepts.
“Terrorists target civilians, and that’s what Hamas did a year ago on Oct. 7. And that’s what that day should be remembered as,” he said in a statement to The Hill, “a heinous terrorist attack on Israel that took innocent lives.”
