The University of Delaware chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine joins other college students across the country protesting the war in Gaza.
The pro-Palestinian protest drew around 300 University of Delaware students, faculty and staff who walked from the Trabant Student Center to the Biden School of Public Policy.
UD SJP President, Jess, who requested her last name not be used, says the protest is a show of solidarity with the Palestinian people.
“This die-in is just signifying the amount of people, the amount of civilians, the amount of children that were killed in this war," she says.
She adds SJP chapters are calling on their universities to divest from any engagements that support what she calls “an Israeli apartheid state.”
Jess says they will continue to protest and “camp out” if the university does not respond to students’ requests for financial transparency.
UD student Khalid Khider was among the protesters.
“I’m Muslim and the Palestinian people are Muslim too, so why wouldn’t I? They’re humans just like us, why shouldn't they get their freedom?” Khider says.
Several students, faculty and staff expressed disappointment in how other universities like Harvard, Columbia, UT Austin and NYU are handling student protests, citing suspensions, students losing their housing, and physical violence from police, but UD’s protest remained peaceful.
Nancy Boyer, an adjunct assistant professor in the Geography department, joined students Wednesday. She teaches in the Peace and Justice Studies minor and says reaction from administrations at other universities has been “outrageous.”
“And now it’s just so outrageous that the U.S. government is providing arms and aid for a genocide," Boyer says. "The United Nations laid out a plan, more-or-less for peace, and the United States and Israel have been ignoring both of those.”
In a statement, the university says as a campus welcoming diversity of opinion and embracing everyone’s right to freedom of expression, they are proud to support students in a shared commitment to civility, respect and peace.
On Oct. 7, Hamas-led militants killed 1,200 Israelis and took roughly 240 others hostage, according to Israeli authorities. Israel then launched a war against Hamas inside Gaza. According Gaza's health ministry, Israel's military response has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians, a majority of them women and children.
