In below freezing temperatures, the Rowan Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) held their rally at the Owl Statue in response to their interim suspension on Feb. 18. 

Together with Rowan Young Democratic Socialists of America (YDSA), Muslim Student Association (MSA), and South Jersey for Gaza more than 40, with more joining and leaving as the hour went on, stood in solidarity against an opposition that did not show up.

A megaphone blared and filled the windy walkway surrounding the Owl Statue. Sidewalk chalk was dispersed to students who drew an array of images from the Palestinian Flag, “Free Palestine,” and flowers.

Titles were given in the form of anonymity granted to organizers due to threats of doxxing and harassment from outside agitators.

“Imagery of the slingshot in the Palestinian Liberation Movement emerged from the First Intifada,” said the president of SJP over a megaphone. “When Palestinian youth, often armed with only stones and slingshots, confronted heavily armed Israeli tanks.” 

Speeches and chants filled the hour of the rally. Members of YDSA spoke alongside SJP, telling stories of the history of Palestinian struggle and recent events regarding the conflict and the new presidential administrations stand on Palestine.

“Earlier this month, Donald Trump and Benjamin Nentanyahu met at the White House, the first foreign leader to visit DC under the new administration,” said the Rowan YDSA speaker. “[Trump] said level the site, get ready to destroy buildings, level it out and create economic development. His intentions have been clear since the beginning, this is not about peace, it’s not about security, it’s about ethnic cleansing.”

Cristian Moore, 20, a junior exercise major, caught a glimpse of the rally from his classroom in James Hall and stopped to observe.

“Why wouldn’t I stop and listen? I’d like to educate myself about it. I want to know what’s going on on my campus,” said Moore. “I certainly don’t know what the right thing is because I’ve been finding out more things about my own government that scare me.”

Some faculty came to watch the rally as well. Many stood across from the group clapping as each one spoke, one such person was Ted Howell, associate teaching professor in writing arts and  geography, planning, & sustainability.

“I think they’re protesting genocide. And I think they have a right to do that,” said Howell. “I think it’s important to not capitulate to these hate groups where the environment we live in right now feels like they have a lot of power. So I think universities should completely resist that.”

The group in question is Make NJ Red. The Whit has independently verified claims of SJP and found posts in the groups page telling members to call the Dean of Students office and updates later on celebrating its success and saying “…The fight has only just begun.”

“The reason we’re here today is that we already had the rally planned, and yeah, even though we’re reinstated, it was an issue that we were suspended in the first place,” said the president of the SJP. “It was an issue that the university had all these right-wing bigots call, complain and they conceded to them instead of investigating the claims before giving sanctions.”

Dean of Students Kevin Koett pointed to the imagery of the flyer SJP handed out as a key cause for the investigation and interim suspension.

“Not this (image of the man with the slingshot on the SJP flyer) is, but anytime there is weaponry we have to investigate it as a potential concern,” said Koett. “If there was an event flyer with a gun on it, we’d do the same thing.”

 Koett explained the reasoning behind the university’s response.

“We received allegations on Feb. 5 of concerns and questions about how SJP was funded by an outside organization,” said Koett. “No substantive evidence was found, but anytime there’s intentional harm we’re going to investigate.”

The outside organization alleged to have been funding SJP was National SJP. Rowan’s investigation found there was no funding connection. 

The rally ended at 1:15 p.m. The President of SJP and an organizer of YDSA agreed on the message they wanted to get to students.

“I want students to be less apathetic,” said a member of YDSA. “If it’s happening to us now, it’ll happen to them too. It’s not just their right to organize, but their right to learn, their right to do what they came to college to do.”

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