About 125 students joined a walkout in front of the UT Tower on Thursday in the final event of the Palestine Solidarity Committee’s Week of Action, a series of events held to mark the one-year anniversary of Oct. 7.
On Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks killed nearly 1,200 Israeli citizens. Israel’s subsequent military invasion of Gaza has killed over 42,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
After the University called in state law enforcement to subdue the committee’s protest on April 24, leading to 57 arrests, the University placed the committee on interim suspension, but its members can still gather on campus because it is a public place. The Week of Action, which included a study-in, a teach-in and an art build, was the committee’s first on-campus call for action this semester. The committee continues to be suspended and is not recognized as an official student organization, but can gather on campus because it is a public space.
The Week of Action primarily demands the University divest from weapons manufacturers involved in Israel’s invasion of Gaza, such as RTX and General Dynamics. Divestment has been one of the committee’s main goals since at least November 2023, according to the committee’s Instagram.
“These are weapons that are being used against Palestinians as we speak,” one anonymous Palestine Solidarity Committee member said. “As students, we have not only a right, but a responsibility to continue to demand that our tuition money is not spent on apartheid and genocide.”
Nearly six months after the University called in law enforcement to quell April’s pro-Palestine demonstrations, many students said they felt uneasy about attending the walkout, but still wanted to show their support for the committee.
“After last semester, I didn’t know if it was going to be safe,” said one anonymous biology junior who attended the walkout. “That goes for most of these students — they risk a lot by coming out to these things.”
Other speakers at the walkout called on the University to reinstate the Palestine Solidarity Committee as a registered student organization and encouraged attendees to continue organizing for Palestine on campus.
“Speech is not a right granted to you by this University, by this country, or by the Constitution,” said Pavithra Vasudevan, an assistant professor and member of Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine who spoke at the walkout. ”That is a birthright. Freedom is a birthright. The ability to speak the truth — no one can take that from you.”
