Around 50 students joined OU Students for Justice in Palestine and the Muslim Student Association Tuesday evening to recognize the two-year mark of the war in Gaza with an art demonstration and Muslim prayer in front of Evans Hall.
Students wore black and white keffiyehs and carried Palestinian flags, as they called for the OU Board of Regents to divest from its corporate partners with ties to the war in Gaza, including Lockheed Martin, Motorola and Chevron.
Seven posters with photos of OU regents were lined up on the steps of Evans Hall, where OU’s administrative offices, including the offices of the president and regents, are housed. The signs read, “Wanted for: Genocide.” Children’s clothing covered in red paint was draped across the steps, and stuffed animals were wrapped in white sheets to symbolize dead bodies.
“Every child killed in Gaza is me,” said Yasmine Ali, an SJP member. “Every mother and father in Gaza is my mother and father. Every mosque lost is my sanctuary.”
On Monday, SJP placed white flags across the South Oval, representing each family that died during the war in Gaza. Ali told OU Daily that Student Affairs staff asked SJP to take down a Palestinian flag it had placed on the South Oval. When the organization didn’t, facilities staff removed it.
OU Daily reached out to OU Marketing and Communications about the removal Tuesday afternoon, but it did not respond by the time of publication.
Art demonstration on the South Oval on Oct. 6.
Student Affairs notified SJP that its display of white flags staked in the South Oval violated the code of conduct, according to Ali. She said SJP was threatened with student conduct charges if it set up white flags for Tuesday’s event.
Ali said the university was acting unfairly and biased against SJP for removing the flags.
“(It) shows a clear bias towards what rules they choose to enforce,” Ali said. “For OU to take that down and leave almost no room and no flexibility for us when they leave flexibility for other (student organizations), it's really disappointing.”
Ali wrote in a text message sent to the Daily Tuesday that taking down flags and “defacing” names of Palestinians killed proved the university’s complicity in genocide.
“Our university is complicit in every single life that has been taken,” Ali told the Daily. “By continuing and choosing this day to gather our community together, we're continuing to push those same demands and making ourselves unavoidable.”
David Surratt, dean of students and vice president for Student Affairs, was present at Tuesday night's event. He declined to take questions but said he was there to watch and protect students’ right to free speech.
Demonstrators fasten Palestine flags to Evans Hall at the protest held by Students for Justice in Palestine on Oct. 7.
During the event Talal Ali Khan, a kidney doctor and OU professor of internal medicine, spoke about his time in Gaza as a volunteer doctor with Palestinian American Medical Association last year.
“I have witnessed this myself, seeing the death and the destruction,” Khan said. “It is like a concrete graveyard, and what you see is people's families, children under that rubble. Imagine there were laughters, smiles, families under that rubble.”
Khan said Palestinian children have been targeted for genocide, and future generations of Gazans have been eliminated. According to UNICEF, more than 50,000 children have been killed or injured in Gaza since October 2023. Khan said there are 50,000 to 60,000 children in all of the school districts in Oklahoma City and Edmond.
“If after 731 days, you cannot call this genocide, then you have no soul left. You have no heart left. You are nothing but a hypocrite,” Khan said.
Khan said students must take action by protesting, posting online and emailing their legislators to urge them to fund aid to Gaza. He ended his speech with two words, repeated three times: “Free Palestine. Free Palestine. Free Palestine.”
Khan told OU Daily after his speech he has seen malnourished children and horrifying deaths while working in the hospital. Khan said he tried to get back to Gaza three times but has been denied by authorities, most recently 20 days ago. A few weeks ago, Khan said he learned the floor of the hospital he worked on was bombed.
Following Khan’s speech, three members of OU Muslim Student Association — president Mohamed Elgouhari, outreach chair Ayan Zubair and secretary Ayah Hammoud — read verses from the Quran and briefly spoke about the necessity of taking action.
“As Muslims, it is not enough to feel sympathy or sorrow for those who have sacrificed their lives for the truth,” Hammoud said in her brief speech to the crowd.
Mohamed Elgouhari, a biology and economics senior and Student Government Association secretary of strategic initiatives, said all Muslims are responsible for speaking up.
“The people of Gaza are writing history with their blood,” Mohamed Elgouhari said. “Our job is to ensure the world remembers it with its truth intact. We must teach our children, our friends and our institutions that Palestine is not just a cause, it's a moral compass.”
Mohamed Elgouhari spoke about the importance of student advocacy.
“Having students out here showing that there is support, showing that it’s OK to stand for what’s right, even if it’s scary, even if you think that you might get in trouble, to stand for the truth and to stand for justice, is worth it,” Mohamed Elgouhari said.
Students praying at the protest held by Students for Justice in Palestine on Oct. 7.
Around 30 students and community members also participated in Maghrib prayer, the fourth of the five daily Muslim prayers, which happens at sunset and lasts until just after dusk.
Ashraf Elgouhari, a freshman studying public health, said he attended the event to join in calls for the university to stop funding its partners in Israel. He said the university is complicit in genocide, which embarasses him as a student.
“I love the school and I want nothing but the best for it, and those people up there aren't what's best for this school,” Ashraf Elgouhari said, motioning to the Board of Regents posters.
The evening concluded with attendees sharing stories of victims and injured citizens of Gaza. Ali encouraged students to join them in protesting at the Nov. 10 Board of Regents meeting.
Alan Levenson, a Judaic and Israel Studies professor, wrote to the Daily in an email Tuesday that he is hopeful all hostages will be returned home.
“On the second anniversary of the brutal massacre that Hamas carried out on October 7th 2023, I pray for the return of the remaining Israeli hostages and peace for everybody, beginning with the people of Gaza,” Levenson wrote.
Rhona Seidelman, director of the Schusterman Center for Judaic and Israel Studies and a history professor, told the Daily in an email Tuesday that she agrees with Levenson’s statement.
This story was edited by Anusha Fathepure, Ana Barboza and Thomas Pablo. Mary Ann Livingood copy edited this story.
