Editor's note: This story was updated at 6:37 p.m. on Feb. 28 to include a statement from Rhona Seidelman. This story was updated at 11:29 a.m. on March 1 to correct the spelling of Motorola.
OU Students for Justice in Palestine announced it will protest the OU Board of Regents meeting to advocate for the university’s divestment from Israel on March 10 in a Friday Instagram post.
The protest will be held outside of Bizzell Memorial Library at noon. The next Board of Regents meetings will take place on March 10 and 11 at the Oklahoma Memorial Union.
“We call on the student body, faculty, staff, and all people of conscience to show up and protest at the next Board of Regents meeting. This board has the power to end our universities’ complicity and we demand our calls are heard,” the post reads.
In the post, the organization stated it is demanding that the university divest from companies linked to the war in Gaza, specifically three organizations SJP refers to as the “OU Triangle of Death,” — Lockheed-Martin, Chevron and Motorola.
“Students at the University of Oklahoma have been advocating for disclosure and divestment from companies complicit in genocide and occupation for years,” the post reads. “Yet our university has failed to meet the demands of its students and continues to invest in the OU TRIANGLE OF DEATH.”
Cruz Richardson, an international studies and Arabic major and member of SJP, said he hopes the protest will lead to acknowledgement and a response from the Board of Regents. Richardson said he wants the regents to give students an opportunity to voice their concerns about the university’s investments.
“We're really just here to ask them to put us on the agenda. We want to talk a little bit about why our investments should go back to the students, why my money shouldn't be spent on killing innocent people across the seas,” Richardson said. “My money should be spent on better parking, cheaper tuition, a happier campus life.”
Richardson said the outside of Bizzell Memorial Library was chosen because it is a central point on campus, and if the location of the Board of Regents meeting changes, protesters will be able to quickly plan accordingly.
Rhona Seidelman, director of the Schusterman Center for Judaic and Israel Studies, wrote in an email to OU Daily that she sees the upcoming protest as harmful.
"From a moral standpoint, I will consider boycotts as being in good faith when they do not focus solely on the one Jewish state in the world. Until then, I see this obsession with Israel as pernicious," Seidelman wrote.
OU SJP is the local chapter of National Students for Justice in Palestine, an organization that, according to their website, “seeks to empower, unify, and support the Student Movement for Palestinian liberation.”
SJP’s background
SJP became a registered student organization at the beginning of February. In January, SJP held an art demonstration in Gallogly Hall as part of a larger event by the national organization.
On Oct.7, SJP and Oklahoma Hillels, an organization founded on campus that supports Jewish students, both held vigils for victims of the war in Gaza on the South Oval. SJP has held other protests over the past year on the South Oval; outside Dale Tower; and inside Evans Hall, Bizzell Memorial Library and the Union.
On Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas, a Palestinian militant group, launched a series of attacks on Israel that killed around 1,200 people, according to the U.S. Department of Defense. The attack set off a series of retaliations by the Israeli Defense Force, including a siege of Gaza, that characterized the war in Gaza. According to Al Jazeera, 61,709 Palestinians have been reported as dead or presumed dead.
This story was edited by Anusha Fathepure and Peggy Dodd. Ryan Little, Avery Avery and Grace Rhodes copy edited this story
