Students join faculty in pro-Palestine protests
Hofstra faculty and students, including Professor Salim T.P. Daniels and members of Student Voices for Palestine, lead a protest on Thursday, April 25. // Ethan Albin / The Hofstra Chronicle.
On Thursday, April 25, a faculty-organized protest in support of Palestine gathered for four hours in front of Hofstra Hall. The protest was made up of an estimated 100-plus Hofstra students and faculty.
Students observing the protest – a fluctuating group of about 20-50 people – were invited to join protestors with the option to wear a mask to protect their identity.
Student Voices for Palestine also participated in the event. SVP’s constitution states that its purpose is “to educate others on the matter, raise awareness and foster civic engagement” and “to bring attention to the ongoing violence, to advocate for and to celebrate the history of the Palestinian people.”
The protestors made speeches and led chants, including, “Not another nickel, not another dime, no more money for Israel’s crime,” “Disclose, divest, we will not stop, we will not rest” and “Judaism yes, Zionism no, apartheid has got to go.”
Speakers at the protest included English professor Lee Zimmerman, anthropology department chair Salim T.P. Daniels, and several members of SVP, including Alisha Paracha, a freshman political science major who is the public relations manager for SVP.
“I’m tired of watching people continuously die, and I’m tired of going to a university where the president has not called for a ceasefire, where the president has not reached out to the Palestinian students or anyone who has been affected by this,” Paracha said during her speech.
In an interview with the Chronicle, Paracha said a goal for the protest was to reach the Hofstra community and beyond.
“We need to make sure that people know that there are people who are supporting Palestine, who don’t support their apartheid, who don’t support the occupation and are here and will stand for that,” Paracha said.
“I think this club, Student Voices for Palestine, has been doing some really awesome stuff fighting for human rights and human lives, and I love seeing people working for it,” said Toby Turner, a freshman film studies and production major who attended the protest.
According to Daniels, the faculty reached out to SVP, where Daniels serves as the faculty advisor and sponsor, to collaborate on the protest.
“We don’t want any investments from Hofstra going to support Israel and companies that support Israel and occupation and inhumanity and apartheid. We don’t support that. And we want an end to it,” Daniels said in a speech during the protest.
Hofstra’s 2022 tax forms, found on ProPublica’s nonprofit explorer list, listed foreign investments in Europe (including Iceland and Greenland) and Central America and the Caribbean for a combined total of $163 million. However, as a private university, Hofstra’s other investments are not publicly available.
Public Safety and other Hofstra administrators were also present during the protest, including Geraldine Hart, the associate vice president of public safety and community engagement; Jessica Eads, the senior vice president for student enrollment, engagement and success; and Rabbi Dave Siegel, a university chaplain and the executive director of Hofstra Hillel.
Other members of the Hofstra community, including Russell Strachan, a junior video/television major and the treasurer for Hofstra Hillel, expressed uncertainty and concern about the protest.
“It’s disheartening to see professors and classmates use certain rhetoric that makes Jewish students feel unsafe,” Strachan said. “‘From the river to the sea’ is one example of the chants that was said.”
“From the river to the sea” has a storied history that can be perceived as antisemitic.
“I believe that people have the ability to say what they want. That is the beauty of our country, and we have the right to do that,” Strachan said.
He noted that the experience on Hofstra’s campus “has been much better than other schools around the country.”
According to SVP, several students submitted discrimination complaints in mid-March through Hofstra’s nondiscrimination forms and have not received a response from the administration. SVP has allegedly faced online harassment and doxxing by Hofstra students and have continued to submit complaints to the university “as the harassment continues,” Paracha said.
Jewish students have also encountered discrimination in relation to the Israel-Gaza conflict, according to Strachan.
The Chronicle interviewed a Hofstra spokesperson via email, who wrote, “Hofstra has a long tradition and mission of supporting informed and robust discussion about important issues of the day through civil discourse. The ability of student groups to peacefully gather to discuss and express their opinions is an integral aspect of Hofstra’s educational mission.”
On Wednesday, May 1, Hofstra President Susan Poser acknowledged the peaceful actions taken by the entire campus in an email to the Hofstra community: “While members of our community are permitted to gather peacefully and express their views, as university policy allows, we remain vigilant regarding the potential for antisemitism and Islamophobia, as well as any kind of discrimination or harassment. We have maintained a long-standing policy to this effect, and we will continue to stand by it.”
Previously, Poser released a statement on Oct. 18, 2023, acknowledging concerns voiced by the community following Hamas’ attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Approximately 35,000 Palestinians have been killed over the past seven months due to Israel’s response, according to Reuters. Poser encouraged students who experienced harassment to report it and directed students to attend a Vigil for Peace held on Oct. 18.
Daniels and Paracha alluded to difficulties with scheduling the protest.
“Organizing events or anything that’s Palestine related has been so difficult,” Paracha said. “With numerous meetings, sleepless nights, a lot of harassment and literal tears, we have finally decided that enough is enough.”
According to Daniels, in a timeline sent to members of the Hofstra community and the Chronicle, students met with Poser in Dec. 2023 to discuss her statements and seek club recognition as Students for Justice in Palestine. Poser recommended changing the name to ensure recognition. SVP was officially recognized by Hofstra University’s Student Government Association on March 1.
According to the timeline, students attempted to organize a vigil in remembrance of Palestinian lives in Dec. 2023. After meetings with the administration, “students were pressured and forced to sacrifice their desire for a public presence,” Daniels wrote. Daniels said they were placed in the Student Center Theater for the vigil, but the administration did not assist in advertising for the event because they “did not accept the language of the student message.”
After the protest on April 25, “Several faculty participants in the protest received a letter from Provost Riordan warning them that student participants could be punished for joining faculty-led demonstrations that ‘become for all practical purposes’ student-led demonstrations,” Daniels wrote. Student participants received a similar email instructing them to follow guidelines in the Guide to Pride and apply for approval five days in advance of any planned protest.
Public Safety looks on as students, faculty and community members participate in the May 6 protest. // Ethan Albin / The Hofstra Chronicle
On Monday, May 6, eleven days after the original protest, faculty and SVP hosted a second protest in front of Hofstra Hall. The chants at this protest included “We will free Palestine within our lifetime” and “Hofstra, Hofstra, you can’t hide, you’re supporting genocide.”
The protest featured heightened tension between the protestors and administration. Leaders of SVP claimed that the administration verbally threatened the executive board with suspension if the protest carried past 2:25 p.m., which marks the end of common hour.
When one student brought out a bullhorn, she was approached by Hart and Eads, who informed the protestors that the bullhorn created a disruptive environment on campus. The protestors responded by chanting “The more they try to silence us, the louder we will be” but stopped using the bullhorn. Later additions to the protest included a drum and a whistle, which did not lead to confrontations with administration.
At 2:25 p.m., the executive board of SVP departed and Daniels began leading.
After receiving additional warnings from administration for conduct charges if students continued to assemble, faculty encouraged students to sit on the steps leading to the Unispan.
“There are classes in session, and you are disrupting classes. We can talk about that through the conduct process if you’d like to continue in this way,” Eads said to the protestors who asked for more details about the disciplinary consequences.
A small crowd of faculty continued to lead the protest until approximately 3:20 p.m., with chants that included “We support our students’ rights.”
“I understand why they’re doing this,” said Michael Moerdler-Green, a sophomore clinical psychology major who is Jewish and wore a kippah to watch the protest. “This is not the position I would take to try to make change, but I respect them exercising their First Amendment rights to do what they believe in, and I appreciate very much how they’ve done it within the rules of Hofstra, as opposed to a lot of other groups which haven’t.”
Moerdler-Green said that the protest did not make him feel unsafe. “[The protestors] kept it to the time they said they’re going to do; we have Public Safety here; none of their chants were explicitly violent as there had been at some of the other [protests],” Moerdler-Green said. “So yeah, I felt a little uncomfortable but not unsafe.”
May 5 and 6 mark Holocaust Remembrance Day, also called Yom HaShoah in Jewish culture. On Wednesday, May 8, Hofstra Hillel will host “6 Hours for the 6 Million” to commemorate Yom HaShoah in front of Hofstra Hall.
At the conclusion of the May 6 protest, Daniels called attention to another student-led protest that will take place at Pride Park on May 8.
The Chronicle witnessed members of Hillel receive backlash while walking by the protest. Hillel chose not to comment about that incident.
“I know many students are scared and anxious about this situation with fear that it may escalate to what we see on other college campuses,” said Hillel president Lily Siegel, a junior economics and labor studies double major. “Hofstra Hillel will continue to be a safe space, and every student is always welcome to join our community.”
Protestors chant during the May 6 protest. // Ethan Albin / The Hofstra Chronicle
SGA, which had representatives overseeing both protests, provided the following statement to the Chronicle following the April 25 protest: “The Student Government Association is committed to the right of students to express their views on campus. The faculty-organized protest on Thursday was a peaceful demonstration. We are here to support and advocate for the safety and rights of all students which will continue to be our priority. The ongoing tragedies in Israel and Gaza deserve the attention of the Hofstra community through engaging, educational, safe and productive dialogue.”
The protest on Hofstra’s campus fits into a larger context of protests and encampments in support of Palestine at universities worldwide, including Columbia University, Harvard University and UCLA. At Columbia and a growing number of campuses, students have faced police violence, arrest, suspension and eviction from campus.
Anna DeGoede and Madeline Sisk wrote and reported for this article with additional contributions from Ethan Albin, Nell Stultz and Michelle Rabinovich. The Hofstra Chronicle acknowledges that one member of the editorial staff is a member of Student Voices for Palestine, but they did not contribute to the reportage of this article.
