As tensions erupted at UNC pro-Palestinian protests, reaction from Jewish groups varied

As pro-Palestinian protesters removed the American flag from the Polk Place flagpole at UNC-Chapel Hill, a smaller group stood at the northern end of the quad, watching and holding Israeli flags on the steps of South Building.

The removal of the flag around 2 p.m. Tuesday marked the beginning of an hours-long standoff over which flag would fly above campus — the Palestinian flag, which the protesters raised, or the American flag, which interim Chancellor Lee Roberts reinstalled under a police escort and was then quickly removed once more by the protesters.

The scene, and others throughout the “Gaza solidarity encampment” that stood on campus for four days, also illuminated the varied reactions Jewish students, faculty and community members displayed throughout the protest.

Both the encampment and counter-protests included Jewish participants, and some of those on both sides described their Jewish identity as central to their views on the protest and the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.

Throughout the life of the encampment, which was dismantled Tuesday morning after police detained 36 protesters, counter-protesters were sparse. At times, none were seen. At other times, they came in handfuls — typically no more than 25 people.

Jewish counter-protesters who spoke to The News & Observer said they came in small groups because many others were afraid to be near the protest.

“Jewish faculty, Jewish students, many of them are scared to be here,” UNC School of Medicine professor Adam Goldstein said Monday, standing on the outskirts of the encampment as he held a sign depicting a news article about hostages being held by Hamas. “They’re scared they’re gonna be accosted.”

For several minutes Monday, Goldstein stood outside the encampment while a pro-Palestinian demonstrator inside its boundaries held a sign that, using profane language, denounced Zionism.

Brendan Rosenblum, one of the students who held the Israeli flag at South Building Tuesday, described students feeling unsafe on campus and having trouble concentrating on their schoolwork during the encampment and associated protests.

“It’s very hard to focus and be happy to be on campus when this is going on,” Rosenblum said.

But some Jewish students, faculty and groups vocally supported the encampment, with organizations hosting a Shabbat service on the evening that the gathering began and later denouncing the police’s actions in disbanding the encampment.

Where some Jewish people saw threats, others saw such claims as “part of a strategy to undermine the movement for Palestinian liberation,” as described by the national and Triangle chapters of Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP). The organization is self-described as “the largest progressive Jewish anti-Zionist organization in the world.”

Campus was calm Wednesday as students prepared for their final exams of the academic year.

The American flag remained barricaded by chain-link fencing, and workers installed additional fencing — made of metal and rising about 8 feet up from the ground — around the grassy area that surrounds the Polk Place flagpole.

Timing of encampment

By Monday, the fourth and last full day of the “Gaza solidarity encampment,” the gathering had grown to hundreds of students from UNC, NC State University and Duke University, as well as faculty, staff and people not associated with the university. It spanned nearly one-third of the Polk Place lawn.

The UNC chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine formed the encampment on April 26, after an initial effort by the group to do so disbanded April 19 in a matter of hours. The group formed the encampments, like those seen on college campuses nationwide in recent weeks, to protest the ongoing war in Gaza and to call on UNC to disclose and divest any investments it holds related to Israel, among other demands.

The war began Oct. 7 when Hamas, which has controlled the Gaza Strip since 2007, launched a terrorist attack that killed more than 1,200 Israeli civilians, with 240 hostages being taken. Since then, Israel has dropped thousands of bombs in Gaza, killing over 32,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

The encampment came during the Jewish holiday of Passover, which some Jewish people and groups denounced. North Carolina Hillel, which includes campus chapters for Jewish students at universities across the state, claimed in an April 27 social media post that the timing was intentional. Passover, a major holiday in the religion, celebrates the ancient Hebrews’ liberation from slavery in Egypt.

“This happened during Passover, which is one of the most sacred holidays of the Jewish calendar, Jewish religion,” Rosenblum told The N&O. “It’s also during finals week. And the truth is: this, as Jewish students, is not something that we can just put in the back of our heads.”

Jewish Voice for Peace denied assertions that the encampment was tied to the Passover holiday.

“Rather than ‘intentionally planned during Passover,’ the encampment at UNC-CH, supported by students and faculty from Duke University, NC State, Meredith College, and other NC institutions of higher ed, is part of a student-led, nationwide movement protesting our campuses’ complicity in the murder of over 35,000 Palestinians in Gaza,” JVP said in a news release.

Feeling ‘threatened on campus’

The timing of the encampment remained unsettling for some on campus, including Rosenblum.

He noted that the pro-Palestinian protesters sometimes chanted to promote “intifada,” a term roughly meaning “rebellion” or “uprising” in Arabic — but one that the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) says “is generally understood as a call for indiscriminate violence against Israel, and potentially against Jews and Jewish institutions worldwide.” The phrase also refers to two specific uprisings marked by attacks against Israelis.

“That’s, from a Jewish perspective, a very violent revolution. It was a time where there were bombings and terrorist attacks,” Rosenblum said. “And if that’s what they want worldwide, that’s a scary idea for us, especially on campus, and it doesn’t make us feel safe.”

Max Pollack, a senior at UNC who is Jewish and wears a kippah — a traditional Jewish headcovering that is also known as a yarmulke — denounced another popular chant among the pro-Palestinian protesters: “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” The phrase has become a rallying cry, but the ADL considers it an antisemitic phrase seeking the elimination of Israel and the removal of Jewish people from the area.

Trevor Lan, another student who held an Israeli flag at South Building, said the encampment and the removal of the American flag marked the first time that he felt “threatened” on campus since the war and associated protests began.

Members of the encampment consistently described the gathering as peaceful during the four days that it stood on campus.

“This is about peace,” SJP member Sylvie, who would not give their last name, told The N&O on April 26. “This is about envisioning the world the peaceful world that we want to create.”

In a message to campus Tuesday, Roberts and Provost Chris Clemens said they were “alarmed that we’re hearing more accounts of antisemitic speech, and we categorically denounce that and any other incidents of prejudice.” The university leaders urged students, faculty and staff “who feel they have experienced conduct that goes beyond free speech and is discrimination or harassment based on protected status” to contact the UNC Equal Opportunity and Compliance Office.

Professor says antisemitism is being ‘weaponized’

While some Jewish people viewed the encampment and associated pro-Palestinian protests on campus as threatening, others denounced such accusations.

Signs staked throughout the encampment indicated that the group had the support of some Jewish people and groups. One sign read: “Jews for a free Palestine.”

Michael Palm, a UNC communications professor who is Jewish and a member of the campus Faculty for Justice in Palestine, spoke at a rally Tuesday about the administration’s response to the encampment and the “violent arrests” that had taken place that morning.

“These administrators are failing in their duties to their institution, their faculty, their students and their obligation to our democratic society,” said Palm, who is also the president of the UNC chapter of the American Association of University Professors. “In other words: shame on them.”

Jewish Voice for Peace, in its news release Tuesday, highlighted the group’s focus on “collective liberation” for all people by working to “dismantle antisemitism alongside racism and Islamophobia.”

“UNC’s Gaza Solidarity encampment has demonstrated our commitment to and vision of inclusivity and safety for all, hosting Jummah prayers, Christian communion, and Shabbat services and havdalah,” the release stated, pointing to the Islamic, Christian and Jewish religious ceremonies, respectively, that were practiced in the encampment.

The organization cited the group’s Jewish religious beliefs as central to its mission of speaking out against the war and Israel’s actions.

“Jews, Muslims, and people of all faiths should be safe to express their full identities on campus,” the release stated. “As members of the UNC-CH Jewish community, we assert our right to define ourselves — as both Jewish and in support of Palestinian liberation. Judaism is more than 5,000 years older than the state of Israel and, for many of us, political Zionism does not figure into our practice or identity.”

JVP called on other Jewish people to join the group in its support of the encampment and other pro-Palestinian efforts.

“We renew our commitment to the student movement and invite people of all or no faiths, to participate in calls for UNC to disclose their investments and divest from products that support Israeli apartheid,” the group stated. “We invite other Jewish Tar Heels to imagine that our freedom is connected to Palestinian freedom, to choose solidarity instead of fear.”

Palm, speaking about his own identity as a Jewish person who also supports Palestinians, said Tuesday: “As a Jew, I refuse to let them weaponize antisemitism.”

While protests had died down at UNC — at least for the time being — they continued on campuses across the country. From the White House Thursday, President Joe Biden addressed the debates over antisemitism and other forms of discrimination that have unfolded at universities in recent weeks.

“There should be no place on any campus, no place in America for antisemitism, or threats of violence against Jewish students. There is no place for hate speech or violence of any kind, whether it’s antisemitism, Islamophobia, or discrimination against Arab-Americans or Palestinian-Americans,” Biden said. “It is simply wrong.”

Washington correspondent Danielle Battaglia contributed.