About 70 community members, mainly students, attended a protest calling for Chancellor Andrew Martin to make a statement on violence in Gaza, condemn Islamophobia, and cut Washington University’s financial ties with Boeing, Dec. 7.

The Coalition of WUSTL Students for Palestine organized the demonstration, in which protestors marched from Mudd Field to Brookings Hall so they could call for their demands outside of Martin’s office. The protest was part of a “Week of Action” spearheaded by students at WashU, Saint Louis University (SLU), and the University of Missouri, St. Louis (UMSL) to advocate against their university administrations’ responses to the recent conflict in Israel and Gaza.

Organizers directly referenced Martin’s recent statement titled “Free Speech and Responsibility,” in which he wrote that there is hatred associated with the phrase “from the river to the sea” and that it is “beneath the dignity of every member of our community” to use it. Protest organizers criticized the fact that Martin did not mention Palestine in the statement. 

The phrase is viewed by some as a call for Palestinian liberation and by others as an antisemitic phrase that denies the Jewish people the right to self-determination. 

Protestors repeatedly chanted “from the river to the sea” throughout the protest. They also chanted, “Andrew Martin you can’t hide, you’re supporting genocide,” and “free, free Palestine,” while holding up large banners with the words “Divest from Genocide,” and “Boeing Out of St. Louis.” 

The protestors’ demands, which were also outlined in a letter to Martin, included “explicitly condemning Israel’s apartheid and genocide in Palestine,” “holding students and employees accountable for Islamophobic and racist actions,” and “fully cut[ting] ties with and divest[ing] from Boeing.”

One of the organizers of the protest, a senior who requested to remain anonymous for safety concerns and will be referred to as Z, condemned the University’s affiliation with Boeing, an aerospace company that sells military arms, including bombs, to Israel.

“Your refusal to condemn the genocide and cut ties with apartheid Israel flies in the face of your own students, a global consensus, and most importantly, the Palestinian people,” she said to the crowd, looking up at Martin’s window.

Z said that while on-campus activism forces the University administration to listen to the protests’ demands, it will take a long time to actually divest from Boeing.

“It is our responsibility [as students], from our position of relative privilege, to stand up and take risks to protect Palestinian lives, both in the U.S. and in Palestine,” she said.

Z also said that the University has failed to prevent Islamophobia on campus by not speaking out against or firing Professor Seth Crosby, who made a post on X in October calling Israel’s military actions a “much needed cleansing.” 

While Martin condemned Islamophobia and antisemitism in a statement that same month, Z said that the University is refusing to take tangible action against Islamophobia, which leads to violence against Palestinians, such as the shooting of three Palestinian college students in Burlington, Vermont late last month.

Addressing Martin directly, Z said, “You said before that Islamophobia has no place on your campus, but through your continued inaction you show exactly the opposite. Everyday you refuse to take action, you endorse Crosby’s call for genocide against Palestinians.”

Junior Danny Horn, who watched the protest from nearby with an Israeli flag draped over his shoulders, said that the group was within their rights to protest, but that he took issue with their choice of chants. Horn, who is Jewish, said that he sees “from the river to the sea” as an “undeniably antisemitic” phrase. 

“There is no way for a Palestinian state to exist, stretching from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, without implying Israel [would] no longer exist in that space because that’s where Israel exists right now,” Horn said.

He went on to say that unless the protestors explicitly state that they do not want Israel to be harmed in the process, he interprets it as advocating for the destruction of Israel and the establishment of a Palestinian state in its place. 

Responding to the claim that “from the river to the sea” is antisemitic, Z said that liberation of the oppressed does not mean the mass killing of the oppressors.

“What ‘from the river to the sea’ means is that Palestinians should be able to live freely and safely across all of Palestine, across all of the land that’s been stolen from them for the past 75 years,” she said. “It’s not a call for violence against anybody, it’s a call for liberation and for all people to be able to live safely in their homeland.”

Another observer who asked to remain anonymous said she views the phrase “from the river to the sea” as hate speech that makes her feel unsafe on campus.

“I’m very supportive of everyone having a peaceful protest, [but] saying ‘from the river to the sea’ is hate speech…it’s calling for the death of all Jews,” she said. “I personally don’t feel safe hearing [it] on my campus.”

One of the few faculty members to attend the protest was Michael Allen, a lecturer in American Culture Studies. He said that one reason he attended was in response to Martin’s statement about the phrase “from the river to the sea.”

“[The statement] is going further than he said he would do in terms of policing a very specific phrase,” Allen said. “I think it’s important right now, especially for faculty, to show up to these events and protect the right to speech.”

Allen went on to say that he wishes more faculty would engage in dialogue and create spaces where students feel comfortable sharing their perspectives. 

“Obviously, most of our campus dialogue begins and ends in the classroom so I think it’s up to each of us  to create a space where we make it safe for [people with] all views [to talk],” Allen said. 

A first-year, who wished to remain anonymous for safety reasons, said that she attended the event to protest the killing of innocent people.

“As a person of color, it’s important that I can do whatever I can to bring attention to this,” she said. “It’s kind of visible who I am as a person, so if I’m going to be a walking symbol, why would I not talk [about it.]” 

Senior Omaer Naeem said he attended the protest to help elevate the voice of marginalized students. 

“I attended the demonstration today because the University continues to invalidate the voices of a marginalized community on WashU’s campus,” he said, in reference to Martin’s statements to the University. “For example, the fact that the University refuses to name Palestinians in an email is, in and of itself, crazy.”

Naeem added that Martin’s refusal to acknowledge Palestinians and their existence denies them their place and does not recognize their suffering.

“It is a choice to not name them,” he said. “You’re actively excluding these people from the campus community.”

First-year Eli Austin, who watched part of the protest outside of Martin’s office, said he would not march in a “pro-Israel or pro-Palestine protest” because he thinks there is more complexity to the issue than protests recognize. 

“As a Jewish student, it’s really hard to separate my own feelings towards Israel with the actions of the Israeli government and I feel like there’s a lot of nuance that a lot of people don’t appreciate,” he said. “This issue is so much more complex than slogans can encompass.” 

Junior Jack Harris came to the protest to show solidarity and support for Gaza. Harris, who is Jewish, said that many of his Jewish and Israeli friends feel ostracized from fellow Jews who do not acknowledge the travesties occurring in Gaza.

“I haven’t been to [pro-Israel or pro-Palestine] protests because I was in an ideological battle with myself on what it means to go to one or the other,” Harris said. “But ultimately, you don’t have to prove anything to anyone, you can just support humanity, and that is what I’m doing.”