Students and Community members gather on Mudd field during a Pro-Palestine Walkout (Daniel Huinda | Student Life)

Washington University students walked out from their classes at 10:15 a.m. to gather with community members on Mudd Field to show support for Palestinians on Oct. 25. 

They also gathered to protest the University’s lack of response to the Coalition of WUSTL Students for Palestine’s published letter of demands, which included cutting ties with Boeing. By 10:30 a.m, over 100 people were gathered on Mudd Field, holding signs, chanting, and speaking about the Free Palestine movement. 

The walkout was part of a national movement that included colleges and universities across the country protesting the United States’ involvement and military support in Israel. The walkout followed a Boeing recruitment event on Tuesday, where members of Resist WashU protested the University’s ties with Boeing.

The walkout was organized by the coalition and attracted a diverse group of attendees and speakers. There were also a number of onlookers sitting on the benches outside of the DUC.

The event began with protestors chanting “Free, free Palestine!” and “Martin, Martin you can’t hide, you supported genocide!” 

Some made and brought signs that read, “No two sides to genocide!”; “Free Palestine now!”; and “Viva Palestina Libre.”

Multiple speakers made personal connections between their identities and the long-term conflict between Palestine and Israel. One of the organizers — a junior who requested to remain anonymous, citing safety concerns — struggled to see how anyone could see this issue “impersonally.” 

“I think that just witnessing, before my eyes, a genocide, it’s impossible not to react to that,” they said. 

In their opinion, it has been difficult to take a stand on social issues on the Unviversity’s campus and persuade the administration to take action. “[The lack of administrative action] makes me think about the long history of other activist actions and suppression on campus […] in the most felt, visceral, and emotional way. It’s just one more thing that makes walking around this campus feel impossible,” the organizer said.

The walkout started with a series of speakers, including the organizers, before opening up to attendees. More than five different people came up to address the audience, stating demands and continuing to engage the crowd with chants. 

Junior Alex Herzig, one of the students who emailed the letter of demands to University administration, called the University a school that “espouses itself to be protectors of truth of research at the forefront of human rights.” 

Herzig expressed anger over that fact that the administration has yet to use “the term genocide to even refer directly to Palestinians and the Palestinians who have been murdered.”

They criticized the University’s latest communication to students about the latest Israel-Hamas war, saying they had received two “lackluster emails that refuse[d] to address Palestinians by name when discussing the murders that have been occurring in Gaza [and] in the West Bank.”

Herzig said that the second email “was even more vague,” and that University administration referred to the recent conflict as merely, “a ‘crisis in the Middle East.’”

Herzig ended their speech by re-stating to the audience that the Washington University community has power to make change happen. 

“We are our administration’s biggest customers. We are the people who are the very reason that this institution exists,” they said. “We have the power, we have the ability, we have the moral obligation to stand in solidarity with Palestinians, with Palestinian students, and to stand against a university that has made amply clear that it will refuse to take a stance as a genocide is happening in front of our eyes.”

Junior Andrew de las Alas, another speaker, said that as a Filipino American, he grew up hearing stories about occupation. He explained that his specific cultural identity and his opposition to Boeing’s weapons sales is why he chose to walk out on Wednesday. 

“I want to express my solidarity with other Muslim, Arab, and Palestinian students who felt like they have not had a voice at this institution,” de las Alas said. “And I also want to be here today because I don’t believe that my tuition should be going towards the research and development of weapons of war abroad.”

He also urged students to continue taking action and putting pressure on the administration.

“We must call on this institution, we must call on the donors, and we must call on future students to not be complicit in this genocide — to not send our talent, our knowledge, our abilities abroad. Instead, we can develop them here.”

Dion Hines is a freshman who spoke at the walkout during the open-mic segment. He described his disappointment in the fact that he was the only one to walk out of his class, a sentiment echoed by several other attendees. 

Hines chose to attend the walkout because of how the Palestinian struggle connected to his own experiences as a Black person from Mississippi. He described his hopes for what the Washington University community would take away from the walkout.

“[I want the University community to know] that we’re [not just] some random students just trying to make noise for no reason,” Hines said. “There is a reason for all of this — movements require physical movement and physical presence, and I hope we set the standard for what should be done in the future regarding the Israel-Palestine war, Hamas murders, and even other humanitarian issues that are transatlantic.”

Another speaker at the event was human- and animal-rights activist Sasha Zemmel, who lives and does advocacy work in St. Louis. Zemmel, who is best known for attempting to stage an animal-rights protest during an NBA playoff game, spoke about her identity as a Mexican Jew before directly addressing the audience to say why she believes that being pro-Palestinian is not antisemitic. 

“Whenever people say ‘You’re being antisemitic,’ I’m sorry, but you know what that sounds like to me? That sounds like some All Lives Matter sh*t! That sounds like some ‘I’m being racist towards white people’ type sh*t! And white people are not oppressed!” Zemmel said. 

Senior Dylan Levy, who spoke at a vigil for lost Israeli lives on Oct. 13 and a pro-Israel rally on Oct. 14, was one of the students watching the protest unfold from the steps just outside the DUC. He had serious issues with Zemmel’s remarks. 

“Saying that antisemitism, or antisemitic remarks, are equivalent to ‘All Lives Matter shit,’ as was quoted from someone, is also just horrific,” he said. 

Another speaker also addressed the students gathered near the steps of the DUC earlier during the protest. 

“I want the people sitting over there on the benches to look around and look at who is standing with you. It’s WashU administration, and it’s WUPD — and yeah, some of your friends. But do you want to call WashU administration and WUPD your friends? I wouldn’t. Come on over, feel free, it’s okay — free Palestine.”

Levy took issue with this claim as well, saying, “It was unwarranted and unfair for them to assume any of our specific positions, merely because of where we were physically standing. I don’t think it’s fair for anyone to assume that without coming and speaking with us.”

For freshman Nikki Nguyen, hearing minority students and community members connect their own identities to current events was empowering. 

“One of the most powerful things for me was hearing a story from the Mexican American, the Filipino American, [and] the Palestinian and to show that colonialism is not just one thing that is happening in Palestine. It’s happened throughout history, and it’s affected so many people,” she said. 

Han Koehle, a PhD student in sociology, was the first person to speak during the open-mic portion of the protest. They have been organizing for Palestine since 2015 and were surprised by the overall turnout for the event. 

“I’ve never seen this many students together for Palestine, in any of the demonstrations that I’ve been to at my previous universities. So I think there’s kind of been a turning of the tide in the last couple of weeks, and it’s really heartening to see people in the U.S. starting to see that,” Koehle said. 

Koehle drew a connection between the events taking place in Gaza and what took place in Ferguson, Missouri following the killing of Michael Brown. 

“When Ferguson was tear-gassed, it was Palestinians on Twitter who showed up and told them how to treat their eyes and save their children. And it is Ferguson that is showing up at the rallies every day over these last weeks because Ferguson remembers.”

Koehle themself is a Jew and not hesitant to say “free Palestine” because for them, it means freeing all oppressed people, and it means that ending colonialism all across the world is a move towards justice and a better world. 

Freshman Carolyn Orenstein, another student who sat near the benches by the DUC, also believes “that the Free Palestine movement is not [antisemitic].” She clarified why she and other Jewish students feel scared. 

“We’re scared because Hamas has, so far, successfully carried out their regime – that’s what scary. I’m scared based on the context in which this is happening.”

Koehle also made an appeal towards peace, hoping that this conflict is not viewed solely through a religious prism because of the two sides fighting against one another. 

“We all deserve lasting peace and lasting justice. And our religions, for those of us who have them, are [a call towards] peace, justice, and valuing each other’s lives. We must come together,” they said. “We must ignore the void and disregard the people who try to say that this is a holy war between Islam and Judaism. Such a thing is not the truth. As a Jew with a Muslim child, we are both in danger because of that narrative.”

Additional Reporting from Mireya Coffman, Tanvi Gorre, and Joel Swirnoff 

Editor’s Note: Dion Hines is an illustrator and contributing writer for Student Life but had no influence on the reporting, writing, or editing of this article.