Pro-Palestine Students Stage Walkout as Israel Supporters Stand By
Organizers chanted ‘intifada intifada,’ which some view as an incitement to violence
Editor’s note: This story was updated from its original version on Oct. 26 after people on campus brought PAW new details and a video taken at the walkout event.
About 400 people, predominantly students, gathered on the north lawn of Frist Campus Center at noon on Oct. 25 for an hourlong walkout in solidarity with Palestine, organized by an ad hoc group of graduate students and promoted by Princeton Students for Justice in Palestine. While the event was orderly, some of the language used by protesters, including a chant calling for an “intifada,” sparked complaints in the hours following the walkout.
About 50 students in support of Israel staged a counterprotest nearby, and Public Safety placed temporary fencing between two sides. The pro-Israeli group stood silently and held signs with photos of individuals killed or kidnapped by Hamas. At Nassau Hall, a man wrapped in an Israeli flag was standing at the top of the steps when the walkout group arrived. Students with Palestinian flags joined him on the steps, and a campus staff member directed them to stand apart.
The pro-Palestinian group chanted, “We want justice, you say how? End the siege on Gaza now,” and, “Brick by brick, wall by wall, apartheid has got to fall.” The most divisive chant was “Intifada, intifada, long live the intifada,” which some people view as an incitement to violence. Clem Brown ’21, in an opinion column for The Daily Princetonian, wrote that “Intifada means civil uprising. Intifada in the context of Israel means mass slaughter of Jews in the name of resistance — men, women, and children.”
Aditi Rao, a graduate student who helped to organize the protest, said that the chant was meant as a call for the liberation of Palestinians. In an email to PAW, she acknowledged the need “to be honest and careful with our terms,” adding that “Intifada, honestly and carefully, comes from generations of Palestinian thought, intellectualism, and activism to define the lifespan of the liberation movement and struggle for decolonization. I think it behooves us, living in the West, to turn towards Palestinians to seek terms to define and describe their own liberation.”
A student who identified herself as Gemma led the “intifada” chant and read a statement on behalf of “a concerned and agitated group of graduate students,” which denounced U.S. support for Israel and condemned “ethnic cleansing, collective punishment, and ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people in Gaza and the West Bank.” (Gemma declined to be interviewed after the walkout.)
The statement also criticized Princeton’s treatment of Palestinians in the campus community, urging the University to “begin supporting them and making them feel seen and safe by offering the same support that they have offered Israeli students on this campus.”
President Christopher Eisgruber ’83, in an Oct. 10 statement to the campus community, said that the University had “reached out to students and other community members from Israel and the Palestinian territories” and listed counseling and support services available on campus.
Less than half an hour before the walkout event, the University sent a campus-wide alert that said the Department of Public Safety “became aware of a threatening social media post” that referred to the walkout. Several uniformed Public Safety officers and Princeton administrators were present throughout the protest, following the pro-Palestinian group as it marched to Nassau Hall at about 12:30 p.m.
This was Princeton’s first large demonstration related to the conflict in Gaza since students returned from fall break. Before the break, students gathered at two campus vigils, one hosted by Chabad at Princeton and the Center for Jewish Life and another organized by Students for Justice in Palestine.
Rao said it was “profoundly encouraging” to see the turnout and the atmosphere of the event.
“As soon as it became clear that the demonstration would be larger than [just the graduate student organizers], we reached out to the free speech office that the University has,” Rao said.
The fence, she said, helped to set boundaries, “but I don’t want this to ever feel like it’s an us-versus-them situation. … This was about the freedom and safety of people living in Gaza and Palestine right now.”
“It’s very important that students feel safe and comfortable participating in demonstrations like this,” Rao said. “[I feel] like I, as a graduate student will not be retaliated against for planning an event like this. That’s not the atmosphere at every campus.”
3 Responses
T.J. Smith ’20
11 Months AgoPrincetonians Standing Up for Palestine
It is heartening to see Princetonians standing up for Palestine and denouncing the actions of the Zionist theocratic ethnostate as it bombs hospitals, refugee camps, and other civilian infrastructure in the name of wiping out a nebulous terrorist group that is, at once, so easy to track and impossible to pin down with military action that lessens the devastating number of civilian causalities. Princeton itself, which was quick to denounce the actions of Hamas on Oct. 7, has been eerily silent about the bombardment of these civilians in Gaza. One can only hope they discover their humanity soon. I hope that Princetonians will continue to stand with Palestine and that, soon, we will see a liberated Palestine.
Norman Ravitch *62
11 Months AgoOn Taking Sides
Undergraduates, even from the Ivies, have little enough knowledge with which to take sides in the current war in the Middle East. The mistakes go back over 100 years between Jews seeking their homeland back and Arabs or Palestinians their homeland as well. The solution at the start of the 20th century ignored the needs and rights of both communities, and we now somewhat late have the terrible results. Both communities have legitimate claims which with good will could be solved.
Richard M. Waugaman ’70
1 Year AgoTruth Is Complex
It is crucial that we all do everything we can to eschew the “us versus them situation” Aditi Rao wants to avoid. It’s said that the first casualty of war is the truth. Truth is usually complex, and can’t be captured by placards. We need to interrupt long cycles of revenge.
It’s been said that the Palestinians are the victims of victims. That succinctly acknowledges the catastrophic horrors of the Holocaust, as well as the Nakba and its aftermath.
I unequivocally denounce Hamas and all terrorists. I also denounce Netanyahu, who, according to several credible reports, wanted Hamas to remain in charge in Gaza precisely because then the Palestinians in Gaza could not work with the Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and the Palestinians who are Israeli citizens to work toward a peaceful two-state solution with Israel.