Enrollment wasn’t the only elephant in the room during Interim President Matt Schroeder’s state of the university address. The student organization Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) organized a silent demonstration during the address, where members held signs with slogans such as “UT funds genocide,” while others held up their hands covered in red paint.
After a student referendum calling for divestment won the majority of the student vote in the spring, SJP has expressed frustration with the university’s continued investments in the state of Israel. Ohio Revised Code Section 9.76 prohibits state entities, including public universities, from divesting from Israel.
When the new Rocky and Rocksy statues were found vandalized on Oct. 8, along with several spots across Centennial Mall, SJP commended the “brave person who took this action” via Instagram.
The president’s office emailed out a statement on Oct. 9, which reported that the incident was being investigated as felony vandalism and criminal damaging with an ethnic intimidation component. SJP, while declaring no responsibility for or association with the crime, responded via Instagram.
An anonymous student posted a screenshot of SJP’s response to the anonymous app YikYak, captioning the post, “They are all in on it and all support the vandalism. It’s not one rogue member, expel them and deport them.”
“We have no problem with the statement that comes out that says, you know, vandalism is bad, don’t do it, things like that,” said Omar Heif, SJP president. He said the application of the ethnic intimidation charge was “loaded language.”
“If you see a lot of the messaging of what was actually spray painted,” Heif said, “it was things like, ‘Israel’s committing genocide,’ which is a fact that many human rights organizations have attested to internationally... If that is hateful, then I honestly—I don’t know what to tell you.”
Hoda Elahinia, Vice President of SJP, said the ask is pretty small when compared to other universities.
“We have, from the numbers that we were given, less than a million dollars invested in Israel,” Elahinia said. She called on the university to work with SJP to either adjust the language of the resolution to account for Ohio law that prevents divestment from Israel, or acknowledge student government and the student body’s vote to divest.
“This is clearly the will of the students,” Elahinia said.
