Purdue students march in support of Palestine

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Over the weekend, the national chapter of the Students for Justice in Palestine made a “call to action” for student chapters across the country to hold demonstrations at their colleges in support of the Palestinians on Thursday.

Over a hundred people answered that call and marched through Purdue University’s campus waving Palestinian flags and chanting pro-Palestinian remarks.

On Saturday, Hamas attackers opened fire at the Tribe of Nova music festival in Israel, leaving at least 260 dead and an undetermined number taken hostage, the Associated Press reported. The Biden Administration said Thursday that the death toll of American citizens rose from 22 to 27 with still more unaccounted for and an undetermined number possibly held hostage.

"I think we all need to steel ourselves for the very distinct possibility that these numbers will keep increasing," said John Kirby, a White House spokesman on national security. "We might find out that more Americans are part of the hostage pool."

Since Saturday’s surprise attack, Israeli Defense Forces responded by declaring war on Hamas, which controls the besieged Gaza Strip. This led to Israel bombarding the Gaza Strip as of Thursday. Israel also imposed a blockade that cut off supplies of food, water, electricity and fuel to the area.

Two days of remembrance, support

To ensure that students were able to express their right to free speech in a safe manner, Purdue University did not interfere with the organization of Wednesday’s vigil honoring those killed and abducted or Thursday’s “Stand with Palestine” march.

Wednesday's vigil was organized by Purdue Hillel, while Thursday's march was hosted by Purdue Young Democratic Socialists of America and Students for Justice in Palestine at Purdue.

The university noted that enforcement would be present at both events, a safety measure witnessed by the Journal & Courier,

March in support of Palestine

Students and community members gathered at Purdue University’s Engineering Fountain before they began their march to Krach Leadership Center.

Organizers of the event could be seen advising their fellow demonstrators to keep things peaceful and civil as they marched.

“Today we are the active voice advocating for Palestine,” Johnny president of the Students for Justice in Palestine Purdue chapter said. “Today we are ambassadors for the Palestinian people, we are speaking on their behalf.”

Johnny requested the newspaper not to use his full name due to safety concerns after receiving several threats in the past few days, he said.

Demonstrators marched to Krach Lawn as they chanted pro-Palestine statements along the way.

“From the river to the sea. Palestine will be free,” “No to bombing, no to hate” and “Benjamin Netanyahu. War Criminal,” were a few chants that could be heard.

As marchers moved through the campus, there were several students recording the march and a few could be seen laughing, but the non-demonstrating students did not try to interact with the demonstrators.

Once demonstrators made it to Krach Lawn, students started to speak over the megaphone to their fellow demonstrators.

Arjun Janakan, a member of the Young Democratic Socialists of America Purdue Chapter, spoke about his concerns of hypocrisy in regards to how the leaders have reached to the attack on Israel.

Janakan made it clear that he condemned the actions of Hamas in regard to the killing of innocent Israelis. But he also questioned why it seems like the killing of innocent Palestinians seems to be justified, due to the actions of Hamas.

“The Jewish community has asked us to confront anti-semitism, and that is a fair claim when considering the history of the Jewish people,” Janakan said.

“Yet you must also ask, why is the loss of innocents on the Israeli side of the border is treated with the gravity and seriousness it deserves, the merciless attack on the Gaza Strip… is treated as nothing more than the natural order of things.

“Make no mistake: the treatment of Palestinians by the IDF is not natural. It has been proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that this conflict and all of these problems faced by Gazans has arisen as a direct result of colonialist policies implanted by the Israeli government.”

Janakan also expressed his appreciation for Purdue University reassuring and taking care of its Jewish students after the attack of Israel, but also criticized Purdue for not doing the same with its Palestinian students.

“We must also express, however, that your words calling for peace ring hollow, as long as defense companies such as Lockheed Martin, which directly profit off of bloodshed have a home on campus,” he said.

“How can Purdue as an institution claim to be in support of peace, when weapons of war are made on this very campus.”

After the march had concluded, Johnny expressed the importance of the march went beyond offering students an event for Palestinians to showcase their beliefs, but also as a way to give others who hold opposing beliefs an opportunity to question those beliefs.

“As a club, all we’ve tried to do is support the Palestinian people and advocate for their rights, especially since there’s not a lot of representation for Palestinians here on campus and in the U.S. in general,” Johnny said.

“Here on campus, what spurred this event was the recent events that happened three days ago. We wanted to gather and challenge people’s energy here on campus. The people that have a lot of strong feelings and we wanted to generate a good cause for them to express themselves in a peaceful way.

“As a community, we also wanted to show everybody that we were one body fighting for the same cause with all of our allies.

“We wanted all of us as a community to show unity and fight for what is right.”

Johnny also shared how he felt the moment when he learned about the events on Saturday.

“It was a very sad moment when everything happened in Palestine, because we know at the end of the day, the people who are going to suffer the most are the civilians at the end of the day.

“There was also an angry feeling, because we knew how the U.S. would react. It would be one-sided, Purdue is going to be one-sided. We knew we were going to get a lot of backlash.”

Beyond a few hecklers, there was only one individual who appeared to be a counter-protestor at the event.

After all of the speakers were done and demonstrators broke into smaller groups to converse, an individual who had been recording the march approached Johnny and asked for the name of the professor who was hosting the “Palestinian 101 course.”

“He’s already on the Canary Mission,” Johnny replied to the man.

Canary Mission is an online blacklist that compiles public dossiers of student activists and organizations it deems to be anti-Israel.

The man rebutted by asking what that was, and then immediately left the area, about an hour after the march began..

The Journal & Courier could not confirm if the man knew or was a part of the Canary Mission.

Purdue: Both gatherings properly registered

Purdue University also released a statement regarding Wednesday’s and Thursday’s events.

“Concerning the barbaric terrorist attacks that targeted Israeli civilians and also killed citizens of our country, Purdue University has extended support to the many Purdue students whose families and who themselves are directly impacted. Generally, student support and counseling are available for anyone in need,” the statement reads.

“Wednesday's vigil in honor of those killed and abducted, as well as Thursday’s march, are planned and registered with the proper university channels, with full consideration for the safety of those involved, and law enforcement is on alert against antisemitic threats, as observed in other cities.”

“While the university refrains from extensive comments on sociopolitical matters as an institution so as to maximize freedom by individual members of the university to express their opinions, messages by student groups or by individuals associated with these groups do not represent the university.”

“While the right to free speech is protected on campus for everyone, even when the content of the speech is abhorrent, any act of physical violence ceases to be speech and will be promptly addressed by the university along with police departments or federal law enforcement, with a focus on the safety of all students.”

This article originally appeared on Lafayette Journal & Courier: Purdue students march in support of Palestine