Students gather on the Mudd Field and wave Israeli flags at a rally on Friday morning (Jamie Nicholson | Student Life)

Two rallies on Washington University’s Mudd Field were scheduled for Friday morning in response to the latest Israel-Hamas war: One to show support for Israel, and another to protest the Israeli government’s blockade of food, water, and electricity in Gaza. 

Hours before the scheduled times, the rally supporting Palestinian citizens was canceled due to organizers’ concerns for the safety of the protestors, leaving only the pro-Israel rally to gather on Mudd Field as planned. 

Recap of the Pro-Israel Rally

Members of the University community gathered to show their support for Israel, pray for Israeli citizens and soldiers, and condemn antisemitism on Mudd Field at 9:45 a.m., Oct. 13.

Roughly 100 students, professors, administrators, and staff members attended the rally, many of whom wore blue and white and carried Israeli flags. 

The event was organized by student leaders from the Jewish Student Association (JSA) and the WashU Israel Public Affairs Committee (WIPAC), but was not affiliated with any particular student group due to the range of beliefs that exist within each organization, according to junior and JSA President Sonya Kest.

The rally began with everyone singing the American and Israeli national anthems, followed by prayers for soldiers in the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) and Israeli hostages taken by Hamas.

Kest said in a speech to the rally that Hamas exists to destroy the Jewish nation of Israel, and that support for Hamas is antisemitism masquerading as anti-Zionism.

“There is zero moral equivalence between a Jewish nation, who dreams of peace with her neighbor, and Hamas, the evil terrorist regime hell-bent on destroying Israel, even at the price of its own citizens,” Kest said.

Kest said she organized the rally to demonstrate support for Israel and provide a space for Jewish people to feel proud.

“What’s going on with the Palestinians in Gaza who are under a terrorist regime is unfortunate, but it doesn’t mean that Israel doesn’t have the right to defend itself against terrorism,” Kest said.

Junior Rayna Auerbach, Co-President of WIPAC, spoke to the pro-Israel crowd about the important role that Israel has played in her life.

She said that Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East and a defender of women’s and LGBTQ+ rights. She added that she feels not only safe, but also celebrated for her identities in Israel.

After the speeches, the attendees broke out into song and dance to end the rally on an optimistic note.

Following the event, a source, who chose to remain anonymous for safety concerns and will be referred to as X, said to Student Life that they decided to come to the rally because of their family’s history of experiencing and resisting antisemitism.

“My grandma is a Holocaust survivor, so it’s always been embedded in my family to support the Jewish people and their history, like being here and making sure that something like that doesn’t happen again,” X said.

Like others at the rally, junior Zev Kupferman has close family and friends in Israel. He said he feels helpless being so far away.

“It’s really hard to walk around campus right now and see everyone going about their productive, normal day — and me not being able to work,” Kupferman said. “It’s just tearing at me to see everyone so normal, and my whole world is on fire.”

Kupferman said that he had originally not planned to come to the rally because he believed it was not productive to uniting the community. He offered a message of unity and support the night before at the vigil for Israelis killed by Hamas. 

“Why provoke?” Kupferman said. “Right now, we just need to spread love and unity. But I think [the pro-Israel rally] ended up doing that.”

He said that he decided to come to the rally after hearing of a pro-Palestine event happening at the same time on Mudd Field.

Intentions behind the delayed Pro-Palestine Protest

Until early yesterday morning, a pro-Palestine protest was planned to take place on Mudd Field at 10 a.m., fifteen minutes after the pro-Israel rally began.

The idea for the protest began as an off-campus effort organized by Muslim student leaders at multiple St. Louis universities. First-year Hadia Khatri said that the event was going to peacefully protest the Israeli blockade on food, water, and electricity going to Gazan civilians, of which approximately half are children.

Another student, who chose to remain anonymous for safety concerns and will be referred to as Z, said that the organizers had planned for the events to briefly overlap to show that differing perspectives could coexist.

Khatri echoed this sentiment and said she hoped that the protest would show the presence of Palestinian students on campus.

“The way the conflict has been addressed has been very one-sided,” Khatri said. “[The pro-Palestine protest organizers] wanted WashU students to see that we have a voice too.”

Z said the protest was postponed after much deliberation amongst the organizers.

“[The protest’s organizers] came to a consensus at 2:00 a.m. [to reschedule the protest],” Z said. “It was a horrible night, and our hearts were super heavy doing this because this is not something we need to be quiet about.”

According to Z, the protest was delayed because of the harassment and threats of violence directed at Muslim and pro-Palestine students at several universities, including Washington University.

Khatri said that many students were afraid to be involved because of potential repercussions, pointing to the recent backlash faced by students on other college campuses for expressing pro-Palestinian support. 

Both Z and Khatri described how several Muslim students they knew had been doxxed or harassed in the last few days, and many fear being blacklisted by Canary Mission, the site that publicly identifies and profiles any individual determined to “promote hatred of the U.S., Israel and Jews on North American college campuses and beyond.”

“That’s why we’re being so careful about this, and so careful about this protest and trying to follow every single rule on this campus [to ensure the protest is totally peaceful],” Z said.

Multiple students at the pro-Israel rally stated that what is going on with Palestinians in Gaza does not mean that Israel doesn’t have the right to defend itself against terrorism. In response, Khatri said that Gazans have lived in the conditions of an “open-air prison” and did not choose to be ruled by Hamas. 

“There’s a difference between defending yourself against terrorism and completely banning food, water, and electricity from an entire ethnicity,” Khatri said. “It’s not a war if you can cut off [these resources] from the people you’re fighting against.”

Editor’s Note: Hadia Khatri is a contributing writer for Student Life but had no influence on the reporting, writing, or editing of this article.