Hundreds of Case Western Reserve University students gathered in a pro-Palestine walkout Monday expressing “no confidence” in CWRU President Eric Kaler. Among signs held by students, some read “Undergrad has spoken. Divest from Israel,” “Stop funding genocide with my tuition,” and “Kaler, their blood is on your hands.”
Student leaders spoke about Israel’s ongoing military campaign in both Gaza and the West Bank–which has killed more than 10,000 Palestinians to date according to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, more than 4,000 of whom were children–and called on Kaler to resign, saying the university isn’t safe.
“President Kaler sent out an email addressing, of course, the victims of the tragedy, the lives lost, but in that email, he failed to mention anything about the historical background of this crisis,” Raissa Rih-Reh, a senior biology major involved with Students for Justice in Palestine, told Scene.
“He failed to mention the 75 years of occupation, the 15 years of siege on Gaza…on October 13, after about 3,000 Palestinians were killed, he released another email condemning Hamas but said nothing about innocent Palestinians, anything about students on campus that have been trying to advocate for Palestinians and Palestinians right to autonomy and the right to life,” said Rih-Reh.
Members of SJP met with Kaler to express their concerns on October 26 but, according to Rih-Reh, the meeting was unproductive.
“In that meeting, he proved that he had no concerns about protecting Palestinian lives or Arab lives or any marginalized groups on campus that speak out against genocide or ethnic cleansing or anyone who’s speaking out for peace,” Rih-Reh said, “and we were conflated with anti-Semitism, which is very dangerous.”
In recent weeks, posters have gone up around the CWRU campus equating SJP members with Hamas and, according to SJP, its own informational fliers were torn down. The group also canceled a dinner for “meaningful connection and understanding” after organizers received a threat.
“Calling us terrorists for speaking out against violence, which is unacceptable. That’s not what this school stands for and that’s what Eric Kaler is creating an environment of. We can’t even say, ‘free Palestine,’ without being called anti-Semitic, which I think is horrible because Judaism is not a religion that agrees with disenfranchising people, with killing innocent people.”
In addition to SJP, the walkout featured groups like the Black Student Union at CWRU, Jewish Voices for Peace Cleveland, CWRU Partners in Health Engage and the CWRU Ohio Students Association. One group that wasn’t represented at the walkout was the university’s Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Center, which was originally featured on a digital poster for the event.
“The appearance of the LGBT Center’s logo on social media posts announcing the walkout resulted from an inadvertent miscommunication. Like every other student affairs organization, the LGBT Center exists to serve all students. As part of that responsibility, the center does not endorse campus political activities. The University supports the LGBT Center in its efforts to be a safe space for community and education,” the university said in a statement.
SJP has alleged that the center was compelled to withdraw support as part of “intimidation tactics” by university administration. The center did not respond to Scene’s request for comment.
Despite the center’s non-involvement, organizers say they’re proud of the students who joined the walkout.
“Over time, as a whole, students have realized that their voice actually matters. People talking about these issues, bringing awareness about these issues, it’s making a change…people are being informed, people that didn’t even know what Palestine was know about this crisis because of people using their voices, using their social media platforms to speak up for the people who aren’t being heard,” said Rih-Reh.
Aside from the statement about the LGBT Center’s involvement, the university did not respond to questions from Scene about the walkout or campus safety.
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