Today at 1 p.m., more than one hundred protesters gathered on UCLA campus for a Students for Justice in Palestine die-in demonstration to recognize Palestinians killed in Gaza in the last month and a half. The protest started at UCLA’s Perloff Hall, where several demonstrators gave speeches, and marched to Royce Hall.
There, an organizer who did not give their name gave a statement about being a Palestinian American to cheers from the crowd and vocalized their goal:
Protester: The goal is to be disruptive, but in a different manner, one that speaks to students and passer-bys visually with a framework of nonviolent action. We are asking you to lie down to illustrate the martyrs that deserved to be treated as more than numbers and statistics. This form of protest has been done through generations and we will stay as long as it takes to honor that. We will be reading the names of martyrs and sharing testimonies. So just - to honor the martyrs of Gaza, please find a place, take up space and lie down.
While students passed through the UCLA campus to classes, more than one hundred demonstrators lay down on the brick walkway outside Royce Hall, chanting pro-Palestinian slogans as they protested.
Speakers at the event included voices from the UCLA campus and diversity groups. Ryan, who did not give a last name, gave a statement as a representative for the Jewish Voice for Peace.
Ryan: I am here as an anti-Zionist Jew, speaking of the decades long humanitarian crisis caused by the occupation and apartheid in Palestine. This work has been made difficult by acts of aggression committed by design, a state that weaponizes Jewish fear and greed, and the attempts to conflate anti-Zionism or criticism of the state of Israel with anti-Semitism.
One organizer Layla, who only gave a first name for fear of retaliation, spoke to why they were here today.
Layla: I’m here as a show of mourning for the over 20,000 people that have been killed in Gaza over the past few months. They have been sort of relentlessly bombed and attacked by Israeli military forces. And this has resulted in thousands of children dying and thousands and tens of thousands of adult civilians dying without, you know, the recognition that and empathy and action that they deserve.
Layla felt that the pro-Palestinian students at UCLA had each other’s backs, as shown by the turnout for the various SJP actions that have been organized in recent weeks.
Layla: I have felt incredibly supported by the other members of this of the UCLA community, the people that have been showing up to these actions in the past two weeks. I think there’s many, many students that are resonating with, you know, the that are that are showing empathy and showing our all these emotions and their solidarity with the people of Palestine.
Some students, Layla says, feel unsafe being too visibly Palestinian, pointing to the shooting on Saturday in Vermont of three Palestinian college students who were wearing traditional Palestinian keffiyeh scarves.
Layla: People have been assaulted for, you know, wearing keffiyeh is which is a cultural symbol on campus. And so the die in is not just to encourage university administration to support show support for the people of Palestine, but also for their own students here at UCLA who are unsafe on campus right now, given the - how intense the Islamophobia and anti-Palestinian racism is.
As more than a hundred UCLA students gathered to lie down, the organizers began reading names of the Palestinian dead. The protesters say they object to UCLA and other universities’ alleged investments with companies such as BlackRock, a private investor in the production of military hardware. Their message to UCLA and the UC system: stop what they called the funding of a war in the Middle East.
For Annenberg Media, I’m Marie Louise Leone.