On Oct. 3, Kenyon Students for Justice in Palestine (KSJP) released the first issue of its new newsletter, the Sunbird. The issue described the editors’ goals and intentions for the newsletter and provided a summary of past and future KSJP events.
KSJP is an activist group on campus dedicated to “supporting the Palestinian struggle for self-determination and equality,” according to the group’s Facebook page. It hosts events promoting education on the history and politics surrounding the Israel–Hamas war. The Sunbird, edited by Kayla Downer ’27 and Benji Rothman ’26, is named after the national bird of Palestine and will be released bimonthly via all-student email.
The newsletter begins with an introductory piece by Downer. Quoting Malcolm X three times throughout her article, Downer outlined KSJP’s goals for the newsletter as increasing consciousness on Palestinian liberation and allowing KSJP to communicate in a more accessible and effective way than lectures and group discussions. “As much as we hope to serve as a safe space where students who wish to learn more about the cause to grow as a community, we stand to challenge the ideas and conceptions of those who may be apathetic or think it serves them well to be ‘objective’ or ‘unbiased,’” she wrote.
At the end of her article, Downer gave three bullet points summarizing her intentions for the newsletter: to be an archive for KSJP events, a forum for the exchange of ideas and a source of unbiased and straightforward news regarding the Israel-Palestine conflict.
The newsletter also had its first article from a guest writer, Simon Gaines ’28. The article, titled “Know This Name: Amira Hass,” detailed the career of Hass, author of Drinking the Sea at Gaza: Days and Nights in a Land under Siege and Reporting from Ramallah: An Israeli Journalist in an Occupied Land. Gaines describes Hass’ time living in Gaza and documenting life for Palestinians in the West Bank, as well as her awards, accolades and the legal struggles she faced over her reporting.
The events section lays out KSJP events going back to March 30, providing a short description of past events and detailing attendance, conversation topics and fundraising goals. Under future events, it lists seven more KSJP lectures and demonstrations all the way up to a lecture on Oct. 17 with Miko Peled and a Palestinian cultural night over family weekend.