Dressed in keffiyehs and sparkly embroidered dresses, University of Maryland community members sang and clapped on Sunday evening as a musician played the oud, a Middle Eastern stringed instrument.

The about 225 people gathered in this university’s Samuel Riggs IV Alumni Center as part of the Palestinian Culture Club’s inaugural culture night, which featured music, speeches and vendors.

Club president Sarah Edwan said the event, “Palestinian Culture Night: The Olive Tree Still Stands,” aimed to share Palestinian culture because “Israel is constantly trying to erase [it].”

“We’re here tonight to share our stories, share our traditions, show everyone that we’re alive,” the sophomore Arabic and information science major said. “They can’t get rid of us.”

Israel’s military forces have killed more than 50,000 Palestinians after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack that killed about 1,200 people and took about 250 people hostage in Israel, the Associated Press reported on Monday.

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Edwan said that like herself, many of the attendees’ family members have been killed by Israel’s military offensives in Gaza. The event provided an opportunity for those who had their family members killed to “breathe,” she explained.

She added that “it is important to acknowledge the genocide that is happening in Gaza.”

Senior government and politics major Omar Sabra said the event helped humanize the Palestinian people.

“Events like these remind people that Palestinians aren’t just numbers,” Sabra said. “They aren’t just a death toll. They’re actually a people with a culture, with a history, with a heritage, and we’re celebrating that here.”

In addition to watching performances and speeches, attendees ate chicken and beef kebabs from Moby Dick House of Kabob.

Vendors selling items such as keffiyehs, watermelon printed socks and books lined the hall outside the center. This included fashion designer Yasmin Al Masri, the owner of ZUZU, a brand that incorporates upcycling and promotes slow fashion.

The Washington, D.C.,-based designer makes a lot of political pieces and came to the celebration to “represent Palestine” through their clothing.

“Bringing attention in a kind of bold way you don’t normally see is easily translated for college students,” Al Masri said of their clothing.

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Miranda Dube, a Palestinian Youth Movement member, gave a speech about Palestinian resistance, culture and activism.

“With each passing generation, the passion and the flame for Palestine only grows stronger, and it’s something that we’re never going to forget,” Dube, a university alum and former president of this university’s Students for Justice in Palestine chapter, said in her speech.

Dube said her family was expelled from Haifa during the Nakba, which means “catastrophe” in Arabic, when about 700,000 Palestinians were displaced from their homes in 1948 because of the Arab-Israeli war after Israel’s establishment, the Associated Press reported. Dube told The Diamondback that it’s critical to celebrate Palestinian culture, especially during Israel’s offensive in Gaza and displacement in the West Bank.

Laila El-Haddad, a Palestinian journalist, community organizer, author and nonprofit consultant, spoke about Palestinian cuisine and how Israel has impacted access to it.

“During a time of active erasure, preserving traditional recipes and food culture can form the ultimate act of defiance and resistance to genocide,” El-Haddad said.

Hani Almadhoun, the co-founder of the Gaza Soup Kitchen, shared a video during the event of his brother, Mahmoud Almadhoun, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike in 2024.Mahmoud Almadhoun was a chef and co-founded the Gaza Soup Kitchen.

To end the night, attendees participated in dabke, a Levantine folk dance from the Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine and Syria area, performed by the dance group Faris El-Layl Dabke.

CORRECTION: A previous version of this story misstated that about 100 people attended the Palestinian Culture Club’s cultural night. About 225 people attended the event. This story has been updated.