USI rally against war in Gaza remains peaceful as unrest hits other campuses in Indiana
EVANSVILLE – Unlike protests at scores of other universities across the country, a rally at the University of Southern Indiana calling for a cease-fire in Gaza went off without arrests or violent scenes of police interruption.
Between 25 and 40 students, professors and community members gathered in front of the David L. Rice Library on Tuesday afternoon to chant, give speeches and hand out literature.
Some waved Palestinian flags while others held hand-written signs bearing phrases such as "Wage Peace" or "Eyes on Rafah" − the latter referencing a city in the south of Gaza that's currently bracing for a possible invasion by Israel, even as hundreds of thousands of uprooted Palestinians have gone there to seek shelter, the Associated Press reported.
Israel declared war on Hamas on Oct. 7, after a Hamas attack left more than 1,200 Israelis and foreign nationals dead. Since then, Israeli bombs and ground operations have killed more than 34,000 Palestinians in Gaza, including thousands of children, and displaced more than 1.7 million people, the Congressional Research Service states.
The U.S. has since provided billions in military assistance to Israel, as well as $1 billion in humanitarian aid for Gaza.
On Tuesday, the protesters accused President Joe Biden of aiding and abetting the suffering. And they decried the recent upheaval at Indiana University in Bloomington, where state police positioned snipers on rooftops over the weekend, arrested dozens of protesters and students against the war in Gaza, and broke up a brief encampment demonstrators had set up in Dunn Meadow.
"Biden, Biden, you can't hide! We charge you with genocide!" they chanted.
"IU! Shame on you!" another went.
USI student Emily Dauphin was "part of the group that got it together," which included students from USI and the University of Evansville, as well as members of the local Veterans for Peace chapter. She said she was confused and curious about the war, and has since done her best to understand what's going on.
"I was able to go onto social media and see other people's stories my age who have lost their entire livelihoods – their entire families," she said. "It really struck a chord in me."
Some Jewish groups have accused campus protests around the U.S. of spreading anti-Semitism, while other groups have disputed that and supported the efforts. At USI, John O'Leary, an associate member of Veterans for Peace, read a message near the start of the protest that spoke out against Anti-Semitism, Islamophobia and "anti-Arab hate" in equal measure.
Dauphin, who's Jewish by heritage, said "it's a big knot of things you have to untie. There's a lot of geopolitical things that go into this."
"But at the end of the day, we're not here for that," she said. "We're here to make sure more innocent lives aren't lost."
'When I see children being slaughtered I have a problem with that'
A small group of USI public safety officers stood in the shade of the USI quad trees as protesters chanted, staying out of the fray and occasionally speaking with students who stopped to watch. Due to finals week, the foot traffic on campus was sparser than usual.
It stood in stark contract to the issues at IU and other campuses such as Columbia, where students took over a campus building, and the University of Texas, where police in riot gear pepper-sprayed demonstrators.
On Tuesday, Khaled Elkhal, an associate professor of finance at USI, was on his way across campus for lunch when he saw the group gathered on the library steps. He wasn’t aware the protest would be happening, but he joined in support.
The Courier & Press asked Elkhal what made him join the students and members of the public spur of the moment.
“When I see children being slaughtered I have a problem with that,” he said.
Elkhal also engaged with what appeared to be the single person there in counter-protest — a local pastor with Israel’s flag around his neck and a Bible in his hands. For those watching, it looked like a civil, but impassioned, conversation.
It was normal discourse, Elkhal said. It’s not conversation itself that is difficult, but when people have the wrong information.
“I think a lot of people in America are supporting Israel because they’re being lied to by the media,” he said.
Elkhal said Americans would change their minds if they were given correct information.
A native of Tunisia, a country in North Africa, Elkhal said he knows many Palestinians, including a friend he plays soccer with.
“One day a few months ago, he told me 27 (members) of his family got killed,” Elkhal said.
The protest on campus, conversation about the war, it's good, Elkhal said, but he also thinks it’s starting a bit too late.
“Six months into the genocide,” he said. “We should have started this a long time ago, but hey, it’s a good thing.”
He also wasn’t sure what to expect as far as reaction to the protest on campus. He said he hadn't talked to many people at USI about the war. The Courier & Press even overheard a passerby openly ask, "what is Palestine?"
“I don’t know why everybody is so silent," Elkhal said. "It seems they are afraid of something.”
This article originally appeared on Evansville Courier & Press: University of Southern Indiana rally calls for cease-fire in Gaza
