A group of individuals gained access to the roof of University Hall on Mar. 18 and unfurled a pair of banners showing their support of the Palestinian people.
The two nearly 30-foot-long banners were hung from the edge of the roof of Doermann Theatre around 1 p.m. by several protestors. The banners were removed about 15 minutes later by a UToledo employee.
One banner read “UT DIVEST” while the other read “FROM THE RIVER TO THE SEA.”
The Collegian met with four individuals involved with, or who had knowledge of, the banners. Their common message: “Divestment [from Israel] is long overdue.”
“We sort of have to dispel this myth that if we say nothing, we’re being neutral, or we’re being fair to everybody... the issue with that is that when there’s a very clear oppressed party, and you’re silently contributing funds to the oppressor, you’re very clearly not neutral,” said one individual. “We know our university has already taken a side, no matter what they say about wanting to remain neutral. And we know our university is complicit in the genocide of Palestine.”
“I don’t think the average American would want to see their taxes put towards this kind of situation. It’s killing people by the thousands. It’s providing weapons and machinery to a murderous occupation,” said one individual.
Asked if they felt safe on campus, one said, “just not having to be in Gaza is a privilege... how on earth can I complain about being here?”
“It feels like safety is a buzzword, almost,” said another.
“As a Palestinian, we kind of just want the university to say, like, anything,” said one individual. “Stop ignoring us. Say anything about what’s going on in Palestine.”
“Spend less time hunting down banners and more time acting, more time speaking,” urged one individual, “because we know that they have taken a position regardless of their ‘neutral’ stance.”
“We’re doing this for them [the people in Palestine], and we don’t have much time to act,” said one individual.
The group stressed “there is no direct affiliation” between Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and the individuals who hung the banner.
“I loved it,” SJP President Ahmed Amrou, said. “It was really disappointing to see how quickly it got taken down... but the fact that they got put up in the first place was really heartening.”
“SJP obviously isn’t affiliated with the banner drop, but we fully support it. It’s not to say this is something that SJP would do, because we’re not an organization that tries to get in trouble with the university,” Amrou said, “but if doing things that might get us in trouble with the university is the only way that we can publicize, you know, the ongoing genocide and inform people, then that might be the method that we take. But like I said, this wasn’t SJP.”
“It’s kind of a spectacle, right? You don’t see people climb buildings and drop banners from them every day,” said Amrou. “This kind of forced people to start talking about it. And I think it’s likely that whoever dropped the banners probably wanted that to occur.”
“It was time a long time ago for the university to come clean about how they’re not remaining neutral, how they have investments in Israeli-backed companies, and I think UT divesting from these companies is long overdue,” Amrou said.
