The university’s chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) has shown that summer vacation has not weakened dedication to its cause, holding its first protest of the 2024-25 school year Sept. 16.
The protest, intended to put pressure on the university to meet the demands SJP put forth last semester, consisted of a march from Trabant Student Center to Hullihen Hall, an administrative building on The Green.
The flyer for the protest, posted to SJP’s Instagram, read “UD Invests in Genocide.”
SJP’s demands, also known as UDivest, consist of four main actions from the university: calling for a permanent and immediate ceasefire in Gaza, publicly divesting, increasing financial transparency and instating “protections for Palestinian students, staff, faculty and Palestinian human rights activists.”
According to SJP’s UDivest Summer Report Card, two meetings took place over summer between the university’s administration, Young Democratic Socialists of America (YDSA), Sunrise Newark and SJP.
In these meetings, it was agreed that university President Dennis Assanis would “initiate a conversation with the UD Board of Trustees to create a human-rights-based investment strategy or Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) policy for the endowment,” along with other steps to increase transparency between administration and the student population.
In a statement to The Review, SJP highlighted why they plan on continuing their protests into the coming school year.
“We have previously spoken to The University in regards to divestment, this demonstration is to reiterate the urgency of our demands,” the statement read. “As the board of trustees meets this Wednesday, we hope that The University will heed our call, and take significant steps to completely and publicly divest from companies complicit in human rights violations: particularly those aiding and profiting from ‘Israeli’ apartheid policies.”
Many of Monday’s protestors made it clear that they plan to continue pushing for action from the university.
“At the very least, [a statement] about not being in support of genocide would be the bare minimum,” a student protestor going by Rose said. “I would love to see some sort of action taken towards maybe charity, donations, philanthropy, anything like that, but at the bare minimum, just some sort of statement about it.”
Local activist Phillip Bannowsky took a different route, more in accordance with UDivest.
“The University of Delaware hides its whole financial structure,” Bannowsky said. “I’d like to see them open their books and divest from apartheid, and really all military spending, and pull back from military contracts as well.”
As far as a statement from the university goes, there have been a few memos sent out to students, but none in such explicit terms as Rose would like. Previously, the university has released a statement to The Review supporting the rights of students to protest following an SJP march.
Assanis also released a statement following the Oct. 7 attack, asserting that “we at the University of Delaware unequivocally condemn the horrific attacks by Hamas terrorists upon Israel that have shaken the world.”
In an email sent out just over three hours before the SJP protest’s 2:22 p.m. start time, Assanis asserted a new position from the university on international issues, saying that the administration will be releasing fewer statements moving forward.
“Focusing on one group or viewpoint could make others feel overlooked or marginalized,” Assanis wrote. “Increasingly, the University is urged to pick a side in an ongoing debate and potentially silence dissenting opinions. Quite simply, this practice has become unsustainable and, more importantly, problematic for our community.”
The same email vowed that the university will only make statements in the future if an event or issue directly affects the university community’s safety or the administration’s ability to “uphold our shared values.”
Some protestors argued that the situation in Gaza has become too dire to be ignored by anyone.
OCHA reports that over 41,000 Palestinians have been killed since Oct. 7, along with an estimated 95,000 injured and the destruction of over 70,000 housing units, leaving an estimated 1.9 million people displaced.
Additionally, 1,200 Israelis have been killed, with over 5,000 estimated to be injured.
“I’m here because, to use a non-professional term, I’m pissed off at the United States government for supporting what I consider to be a genocide in Palestine,” protestor and retired university mathematics professor David Colton said. “For a long time, I’ve felt this is one of the major moral issues of our time.”
Colton says that he was the faculty advisor for SJP “many years ago.” He also is Jewish and is a member of Jewish Voice for Peace.
Both Bannowsky and Colton voiced frustration with the ongoing strife in Gaza, urging people to stand up for what Bannowsky calls “a basic issue of human rights,” citing Article I of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
“I just feel like in this country, it’s a consensus among the political class that Palestinians are not entitled to full human rights,” Bannowsky said. “So I think the United States needs to completely cut off all military aid to Israel. That’s the only way to really stop this unfolding genocide.”
Colton agreed, emphasizing that the fight for Palestine transcends identity.
“It’s not a Jewish-Arab issue, it’s a human rights issue,” Colton said. “I’m here as a Jew to point that out.”