Over 100 community members gathered in front of the Paresky Center at a Rally for Palestinian Life on Oct. 25.
Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), which has existed intermittently at the College for over a decade, organized the event, during which members also announced the group’s revival.
At the rally, student organizers read statements declaring their solidarity “with the Palestinian assertion of their right to self-determination and national liberation,” denouncing the U.S. government’s financial support for Israel, and stating that condemning Hamas without also condemning the actions of the Israeli government is “deeply hypocritical.”
“We’re here because we are grieving and in despair, and because we want to show our solidarity and love with Palestine,” an organizer said to the crowd at the opening of the event.
The event follows weeks of intensified violence in Israel and Gaza, which has sparked fierce debate on the international stage, at the College, and at peer institutions.
In an email to the Record, a spokesperson for SJP — who requested anonymity due to concerns about their safety — explained the impetus for the rally.
“Several students across campus were quietly mourning by themselves and feeling silenced by the institution due to the intimidating power asymmetries that make activism for Palestine a risky endeavor,” the spokesperson wrote.
“The rally then emerged as the coming together of several of those students who wish to increase Palestinian visibility on this campus, stand against the genocide of Palestinians, call students to action, and demand that the College take note of student sentiment and join global calls for an immediate ceasefire,” they continued.
After brief opening remarks, an organizer held a moment of silence for Palestinian casualties over the past few weeks.
“We grieve the entire families and bloodlines extinguished from the Earth, for the unspeakable agony and loneliness of survivors who must bear the deaths of so many of their love while anticipating their own,” the organizer said.
During the rally, student organizers distributed a flyer which included SJP’s demands to the College and campus community, as well as a QR code that linked to an online form where community members could sign to the organization’s statement, both anonymously and not.
Among SJP’s demands are transparency about the College’s investments in weapon manufacturers tied to Israel; increased protections for students, faculty, and staff “who speak in support of Palestine”; and for the College to “end its silence and join the call for an immediate end to the genocidal siege in Gaza and all U.S. funding for Israel.”
In an all-campus email on Oct. 12, President of the College Maud S. Mandel explained her decision not to issue a statement regarding the ongoing violence in Israel and Palestine.
“When the topics are national and world events — even events that affect us personally, and on which we feel great moral clarity — I do not believe it is the president’s job to speak for the whole community, or even that it is possible to do so,” she wrote.
At the event, organizers also announced the revival of SJP.
“We noticed a sore absence of any voice of advocacy for Palestine on campus amid recent geopolitical developments,” wrote the organization’s spokesperson, explaining the reason that they re-launched SJP.
The name “Students Against Genocide,” which advertising posters listed as the group behind the rally, was a “forerunner” to SJP as student organizers waited for “certain logistical and bureaucratic arrangements about its RSO [Registered Student Organization] status,” the spokesperson added.
Toward the end of the rally, a student in the crowd appeared to film organizers and continued to do so even after organizers, rally attendants, and College staff repeatedly requested that the student put their phone down.
In response, roughly a dozen members of the crowd stood in front of the student, blocking their camera. Over the last few weeks, students at peer institutions have been doxxed after speaking out about violence in Israel and Gaza.
“As our friend is demonstrating, it can be very difficult and scary to be out here because people do not take our statements in good faith and are attempting to intimidate us into silence,” an organizer said over the microphone as community members moved in front of the student. “But we will not be intimidated.”
According to the SJP spokesperson, it plans to continue organizing following the rally. “SJP hopes to mobilize further intentional and accountable activism on Palestine at Williams,” they wrote.
