Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) returned to the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Library Mall to continue to call for divestment in its “Week of Rage.”
On Friday, over 50 students came to UW-Madison’s Library Mall to protest its investments in Israeli companies. Protesters took aim at how the university treated ongoing calls for divestment and new rules on free speech that followed late Spring’s encampment. The protest from SJP marks the last demonstration in its “Week of Rage” during the anniversary week of the genocide in Gaza’s start.
The protest began around 11 a.m. with a handful of students. More slowly flocked into more than double its size as onlookers stopped to observe. The group moved to the front of Memorial Library while maintaining enough space to be in compliance with UW-Madison’s expressive activity policies. The policy prevents students from protesting within 25 feet of entrances to buildings on university grounds.
“I think the university should have the primary goal of education and not profiting off injustice,” said Dahlia Saba, student and member of SJP. “I think that we should have a say in how our university uses our money. We’ve been calling on this university to divest, not for a month, not for a year, but for multiple years now.”
Saba and SJP pointed to previous protest efforts renowned at UW-Madison. Previous protests over the Vietnam War and successful pushes to divest in South African countries have been famous efforts students in the past have rallied against for change.
The wave of protests, SJP said, are a way to make UW-Madison more democratic. In response, the university cracked down on students with new policies and disciplinary hearings for involvement in the Spring’s encampment. Saba and Vignesh Ramachandran are two students currently under review for disciplinary action for non-academic misconduct.
Students for Justice in Palestine have continued its efforts to get the university to divest through meetings with the Board of Regents. It cited laws passed from the South Africa divestment protests that would make its current investments in Israel illegal.
“My grandfather fought for apartheid divestment on this campus. He fought for 10 years to get the university to divest from apartheid South Africa,” a member of SJP said. “When that didn’t work, they passed a law in the Wisconsin Assembly that requires that any gift beast or donation to the university not be invested in any company that practices or condones, through its actions, discrimination of any kind.”
The Board of Regents took it to its general counsel to review. Protesters were supposed to hear back Oct. 4, but received no response, according to SJP.
Protesters moved up to Bascom Hall to continue the protest.
