Students for Justice in Palestine, formerly known as the Student Coalition for Palestinian Liberation, will hold a sit-in from noon to 2 p.m. Thursday in the Oklahoma Memorial Union.
According to a press release on the group’s Instagram, SJP will demand OU divest and cut ties with fossil fuel companies, intelligence companies and weapons manufacturers profiting from the war in Gaza.
“The University of Oklahoma is the bloody lifeline of these corporations,” the press release writes. “OU conducts their research, buys their stocks and develops their future workforce.
“We call on our university to align its investments with the values of integrity and justice that it claims to represent.”
OU Daily sent an email to OU Marketing and Communications asking for clarification regarding the university’s protest procedures. OU Marketing and Communications responded with links to the university’s policies on expressive activity and special events.
According to OU’s expressive activity guidelines, the university reserves the right to discipline or remove speakers who incite violence, violate the law or violate university policies. The guidelines add special events — which include any activity that alters a property’s original use and applies primarily to events involving third party groups — do not apply.
“OU is committed to upholding free speech while ensuring a respectful campus environment,” OU Marketing and Communications wrote.
On Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas, a Palestinian militant group, attacked southern Israel, reportedly killing around 1,400 people and kidnapping over 200 others. Israel later revised the death toll to around 1,200.
Since then, Israel has occupied the Gaza Strip for nearly a year. According to the Associated Press, 40,000 Palestinians have been killed as of August.
SJP’s first protest against the war in Gaza was held in October, when around 150 students walked out of class, carried signs and chanted down the South Oval to Evans Hall with calls for OU to divest from weapons manufacturers.
In March, SJP hosted a protest against the war in Gaza in the Oklahoma Memorial Union food court, attracting over 150 student protesters. Pro-Israel counter-protesters attended the rally after OU College Republicans Chairman Anthony Diulio and OU professor Gary Barksdale sent a mass email advertising a counter-protest.
At a May Day rally in late spring, the SJP and the Student Socialist League rallied with over 100 protesters on the South Oval. Speakers protested Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt’s dissolution of DEI in higher education and the closure of OU’s Gender + Equality Center. Protesters also demanded divestment from OU’s corporate partners, including Boeing and Lockheed Martin.
The May Day protest included chants that have been used nationwide, like “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” Alongside chants such as “from the river to the sea,” chants with the use of the Arabic word for rebellion, “intifada,” have also been popularized.
OU Daily asked OU Marketing and Communications for the university’s opinions on the use of such chants. They did not answer.
SJP declared in its post it will continue to organize and mobilize until OU divests from weapons manufacturers.
This story was edited by Anusha Fathepure and Ismael Lele. Natalie Armour and Mary Ann Livingood copy edited this story.
