University of Wisconsin Students for Justice in Palestine held a walkout and picket protest on Friday morning. This protest marks the end of SJP’s Week of Rage, a series of pro-Palestinian events during the week of Oct. 7 — the anniversary of the war in Gaza.
The protest started shortly after 11:00 a.m. when around 50 protesters, many wearing traditional Palestinian scarves, gathered on Library Mall to start chanting pro-Palestinian slogans — stopping occasionally to let protest leaders give short speeches.
One speaker, UW student Dahlia Saba, is one of two students facing disciplinary charges for involvement in the encampment last spring.
“This university should be responsive to us,” Saba said. “… They [UW] go after students — like myself — for writing op-eds.”
Saba co-authored an opinion article published in The Cap Times that criticizes the university’s response to pro-Palestinian protesters.
Saba said the university has allowed police to use physical force against protesters — “like these guys over here,” Saba said, gesturing toward a few UW Police Department officers standing nearby.
Saba also criticized UW’s new expressive activity policies — which restrict physical violence, noise disturbance and large hand-held signs — to which the crowd booed in agreement.
Protesters resumed chanting following Saba’s speech.
“MPD, KKK, IOF — they’re all the same,” protesters chanted.
UWPD executive director of communications Marc Lovicott said the department works with various organizations and groups on campus to stay informed about what and where protests will take place.
“Our goal is to enforce laws and the First Amendment and to make sure everyone is safe,” Lovicott said. “So we would take action if we were concerned about any of those things, but our presence out there is mainly just to make sure everyone is safe.”
Another protest speaker said SJP met with the UW System Board of Regents to accuse the university of a human rights violation for investing in Israeli companies. The Board had said they would respond to this complaint by Friday, but SJP has not yet heard back, according to the speaker.
Protesters then resumed chanting in English, Spanish and Arabic.
Two protesters held a large banner that called for the university to divest from colonization from Palestine to Teejop. Teejop is a word in the Ho-Chunk language that refers to Madison, Wisconsin.
One individual held a sign that read, “Kamala, Gaza is speaking too.”
At 11:50 a.m., protesters started to leave Library Mall and continued their chants while walking up Bascom Hill.
