About 65 students and faculty on Tuesday participated in a “die-in” on Main Mall, organized by Graduate Students for Justice in Palestine, to commemorate the first anniversary of Oct. 7. 

Students and faculty, many wearing keffiyehs, laid on the ground for exactly 12 minutes to remember 12 months since Israel invaded Gaza after the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks. Israel’s invasion of Gaza killed approximately 42,000 Palestinians in the last year, according to Palestinian health officials. 

Graduate Students for Justice in Palestine is not an official student organization but a coalition of graduate students opposed to the University’s handling of April’s pro-Palestine protests, graduate student and event organizer Alex Norris said, which led to 136 arrests for criminal trespassing across two days. 

County Attorney Delia Garza has since dropped all criminal trespassing charges.

Participants also called on the University to divest from weapons manufacturers, reinstate the Palestine Solidarity Committee and drop all disciplinary proceedings against student protesters. 

“We are here to say this is our University and that support for Palestine has a central place on this campus,” Norris said. “We oppose the administration’s attempts to dispute that or enforce silence on this issue.”