About 100 UW-Madison students walked out of classes this afternoon to protest the current crisis in Gaza and the university’s reaction. Protestors took to Library Mall and made a circle around all available walkways to block them off, and chanted with the intention to gain the attention of the university to meet their demands.
Among the demands were a boycott, divestment and sanction (BDS) from Israel, a statement from the university, protection for their right to protest on campus and transparency in how the university is investing their tuition.
“If I’m paying tuition to the school, I’m not going to also pay for my grandmother to get expelled from her house or even killed,” said Shafiq, President for Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP).
Shafiq, and many others, were not comfortable sharing their full names until the university would guarantee the protection of protestors. The concern arises from the experiences of protesters at other universities like Harvard, where a conservative group posted the faces of students on digital billboards and online for being linked to a letter condemning Israel, CNN reported.
“We want to make sure that by standing up for what we believe in that we’re not going to get (expletive) over. That’s been really scary for a lot of the members of SJP,” Shafiq said. “Am I putting myself in total jeopardy by speaking out? So we want to make sure that they are not going to be punishing people who do decide to come out and speak.”
The students also pushed attention to the response from the university. The Office of the Chancellor issued a statement on Oct. 11 and took a both sides approach — which protesting students took issue with.
This is not the first time that the university had taken a both sides approach to issues that garnered protest from students. This past spring, after a video of student making racial slurs and the university’s lack of action with its two sides approach, caused students to protest for action.
Other student organizations like the Pakistani Student Association, the Blk Pwr Coalition, and a few others came out to voice their solidarity with the cause. The Blk Pwr Coalition expressed the fruitless attempts to reason with the university to meet demands but encouraged the SJP to persist.
More protests will be held by the SJP. Other protests are still being planned but the group aims to keep it going until their demands are met.
