By Francisco J. Roman III

(Francisco J. Roman)

College campuses across the country stand divided this semester as the entire world has its eyes on the rising tensions in the Middle East. Tulane University is no exception. 

On Thursday, October 26^th, 2023, an intended peaceful protest organized by Tulane Students for Palestine, ended in a brawl that resulted in three students assaulted, one hospitalized, and several who had no affiliation with the university arrested.

The event intended to raise awareness to the humanitarian violations experienced by Palestinians in the Gaza strip, and “demand that Tulane condemn genocide, divest from Israel, and protect Arab students” as was indicated on the official rally flyer that was posted around campus. Intended to start at 12:30 on the south side of the Freret Street sidewalk, the rally was populated initially by Tulane and Loyola students– who waved flags, held signs, and chanted about the genocide being experienced by the Palestinians. It did not take long however for non-students to join the rally and push its numbers to more than 100 people. 

Shamiso Zuhimo, a Tulane student athlete, recalls the protest as “initially quite unified and grew exponentially as time went on. There were a lot of students, many of them Jewish identifying, who provided their own testimonies and opinions in support of Palestine. As the Palestine supporters rallied together on the sidewalk, the group started to garner the attention of the greater New Orleans community. A counterprotest began to ensue consisting of Israel supporters who dawned flags and congregated on the north side of the intersection, directly outside of Devlin Fieldhouse.

“Counter protesters turned the rally into a competition of who was ‘right’. Spewing obscenities and raising their middle fingers to Palestinian protesters,” Zuhimo explained how the rally began to spiral out of control. She expressed that until this point, the event was without conflict and support was able to be given to Arab and Muslim students, which is who the event was intended to highlight. As tensions between the two groups began to rise, chants and obscenities were hurled back and forth, neither group truly able to hear, let alone understand, what the other was saying. Zuhimo states, “Chants like ‘Netanyahu you can’t hide, we charge you with genocide,’” which is in reference to the Israeli Prime Minister, who is spearheading the resulting attacks on Gaza. These “chants were misquoted to things like ‘Zionism you can’t hide we want Jewish genocide’ which is absolutely absurd and used as a tactic to vilify not only protestors, but the movement itself.”

Through the duration of the rally, Israel supporters state they heard chants that were “extremely vulgar and antisemitic,” as one contributing writer Nathaniel Miller explained his perspective in an article published by the Tulane Hullabaloo. He wrote that “protestors screamed antisemitic chants: “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” which he explains is a “call for the elimination of the 7 million Jews who live in Israel — more than were killed in the Holocaust”. Miller said the chants were deeply offensive by the Jewish population at the rally, and do not count as “engaging in political dialogue.” Nathaniel agrees that there is room for debate on “how to ensure Israel’s security while helping Palestinians build a better life,” however he sees the demonstrations shown on Thursday as the wrong way to go about this dialogue. 

The culmination of the protest, however, came not even an hour after the rally had begun, around 1:15 pm when a red pickup truck sped through the intersection and came to a screeching halt right in the middle of both groups. The truck, which contained a driver, passenger, and two men who rode in the bed of the pickup with a Palestine flag, “was not a student or affiliated with the rally, decided to change the narrative of the rally into something extremely hateful by attempting to burn the Israeli flag” Zuhimo said. The University issued a statement that none of those arrested were students. Upon its arrival, one of the men in the back attempted to light the Israel flag on fire. Before he was successful, members from both sides, including Miller rushed the vehicle to seize the flag from him before it was lit. In his article, he expressed the intense wave of emotions that came over him as he looked at what was ensuing before him. “The next thing I knew, I was charging at the truck and the flag was in my hands,” he writes, explaining that he had little time to think about his actions before charging the truck to seize the flag and put a stop to the attempt to burn the Israel flag. Miller was struck with the flagpole and another student with a megaphone. “​​My head throbbed, and one of my peers’ faces was bleeding. Jewish blood was spilled on the street at Tulane.” After he stormed the truck, and got away from the brawl, he “calmed down and made sure my friends were okay — unfortunately, one was injured and is still recovering.” They were later hospitalized with a broken nose. After students were struck, members from both sides stormed the street and a brawl ensued. TUPD and NOPD broke up the fight, two arrests were made, and the red pickup truck fled the scene. 

(Francisco J. Roman)

The happenings of the rally spread like wildfire around campus, reaching social media and generating thousands of views in mere hours, and was covered by multiple national news stations as soon as the very next day. Through all the attention drawn by the media, and the perspectives being painted, Zuhimo reinforces the notion that there was no ill intent by the Tulane Students for Palestine organization. “This action is not a reflection of the students fighting for Palestine and I do not condone any actions like that. The media is taking the action of an unaffiliated individual and applying it to the greater population, while our message is lost in the confusion.” She even goes on to state that many members of the Palestine protest were attempting to stop the men in the pickup as well, as students “immediately responded to this action by attempting to drag the man off the truck and fight him.”

This was not the only instance of the perspective and beliefs of Tulane Students for Palestine and other organizations on campus being misconstrued. It has become common practice when a perspective supporting Palestine is voiced, they are consequently exposed by the surrounding Tulane population as Hamas supporters and “Terrorist Sympathizers”. This is also true for many Israel supporters, made predominantly of the school’s greater Jewish population. Tulane Israel supporters often express grief for the lives being lost amid the conflict but will be accused of disregarding the murders of the Palestinian citizens in Gaza and the West bank as a result of their support for Israel and the Israeli government. The Tulane campus, and the greater college world as a whole has devolved into a state akin to the times of McCarthyism. 

As college students across America watch the day-by-day developments and updates flood their timelines, many of them use the platforms to repost, share information, advocate for their respective beliefs, and take a stance on the conflict. What initially started as a means of raising awareness and spreading information across platforms like Instagram and X, eventually became a spark used to ignite conflict between the opposing sides. Some students on college campuses have fallen into a state of hypervigilance, often looking to “expose” members of their student body for reposting their beliefs online and in some cases making the assumption that voicing support for one side indicates extremist beliefs.

The student population is paying more attention than seemingly ever before, to not only what their peers are posting, but how often they’re doing so as well. Antonio Castanedo, a sophomore at Illinois State University, expresses that at his campus “There’s so much weight centered around what you post. You almost can’t win. If you post pro-Palestine, you’re considered a terrorist, if you post pro-Israel, you support a genocide, and if you don’t post at all you’re seen as in the wrong by everyone.” Through all the backlash however, “it’s important to stand for something regardless. You’re always going to have someone who thinks you should stand somewhere else. It’s important to stand for what you believe in regardless.”

If you are seen posting or reposting information advocating for your beliefs by opposing supporters, it is not uncommon that your profile may be screenshotted and passed around a message board or group chat, which has the potential to not only create problems online but has even put students in physical danger. Senior Anaya Rodgers of Tulane, head of the Black Lives for Palestine group on Tulane’s campus, reported she has “been called names, threatened to be sexually assaulted, harassed, found online and reported for my activism.”

Several students of other universities, including Tulane, are coming out about feeling unsafe on campus regarding their beliefs as the universities themselves do little to nothing to support them and make them feel secure. Mike Damino, a writer for the Boston Globe reported of a student “Natalie Shclover, a senior at the University of Connecticut, scrolled through the dozens of messages that were being posted about her online. One in particular stood out: “This should be a warning for all of the dirty Zionists on this campus.” Following this message was an altercation that occurred at the campus library surrounding the message that had been posted about her online. Following both instances, the university issued no official statement.

Tulane University president Michael Fitts issued a statement about the protest Thursday night which left students on campus feeling “very unprotected on this campus,” as Rodgers had gathered from her debrief with the Black Lives for Palestine group post protest. “NO STUDENT on this campus encourages or condones antisemitism. point blank period. We want everyone to feel safe on campus. but EVERYONE includes us. There must be a place for us in this university to feel safe, to feel supported, to feel valued, to feel human and President Fitts has gone out of his way to create that for some of us and not others.” Reaffirming what Castanedo was experiencing at his university, Rodgers feels as though “people are confusing pro-Palestinian support for antisemitism,” which she reinforces is not the desire for any of the Palestine supporters apart of her organization or Tulane Students for Palestine who were present at the protest on Thursday. “As a marginalized group, we want nothing more than freedom, peace, justice, and as little harm for all as possible.”

(Francisco J. Roman)

The presence of social media in today’s generation can not only educate and advocate for important causes, but even create real world change. Social media has also made misinformation easier to spread than ever before, giving it the ability to be equally as harmful as it can be beneficial. Amidst a situation that grows increasingly more sensitive by the day, the most important aspect to remember is to not lose sight of reality