The long-running Israeli/Palestine conflict has recently been renewed, and many at WCU have chosen a side.
On Nov. 9, WCU students walk out in the “Shut It Down for Palestine” protest. Around 30 students and community members gathered at the Catafount. In the hour during the rally a small group of students stood with the Israeli flag showing their pro-Israel support and staying silent.
The war between Israel and Hamas started on Oct. 7, when Hamas attacked Israel from the Gaza Strip. The attack killed approximately 1,000 people and took over 200 people as hostages. Israel responded to the attack by launching air and ground operations into the Gaza Strip, killing over 10,000 people while wounding and displacing many others.
Israel’s actions have drawn widespread criticism and outrage from the international community.
The walkout appears to be a local manifestation of a national movement. The protest in Cullowhee was organized by the Answer Coalition, a group that organizes demonstrations against wars and injustice. They also partner up with other pro-Palestinian groups who are part of the “Shut It Down For Palestine” movement. A similar protest occurred at UNC Chapel Hill on Oct. 13.
The demonstration lasted from noon to 1 p.m. and featured a number of Palestine supporters. A number of protestors spoke before the crowd discussing the conflict with intermittent chants of slogans such as “From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be set Free!” and “Not one Nickel, Not one Dime, No More Money for Israel’s Crimes!” The demonstrators held a number of signs with slogans such as “Genocide is never Justified” and “Free Palestine!”
Organizer of the event, Sarah DeArmon, a former student who works with the ANSWER coalition, said she organized the event “because over 10,000 people have been brutally killed by an apartheid regime.”
“I’m a human being and I can’t sit by and watch that suffering happen and, to also know that it’s something that’s being funded by our tax dollars, by our government. Israel would not be able to support the oppressive apartheid regime without the U.S.,” DeArmon said.
A group of Israeli counter-protestors formed close by. The group stayed mostly silent, rallying around a single Israeli flag that was, temporarily, joined by a second Israeli flag late into the demonstration.
While the counter-protest had no definitive organizer, Seth C. Penn, chairman of Digali’i at WCU, was the first to demonstrate on Israel’s behalf. “I stood about an hour alone, and one by one the Jewish students and other Pro-Israel advocates began to gather,” Penn said. “I felt the need to let the Jewish community know at WCU that they were not alone, that they don’t have to be afraid and not everyone here is against them or their country,” Penn said.
