By Vince Gasparini | March 4, 2023
The University at Albany’s academic podium was once again the site of student protestors calling for the university to “divest now” from its relationships with Israeli universities. The protest was organized by the UAlbany chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and the Young Democratic Socialists of America (YDSA).
Students rallying at UAlbany’s academic podium on Thursday.
Photo Credit: Vince Gasparini / The ASP
The rally, which was organized on Instagram under the name “Emergency Rally 4 Palestine,” was called after students from both organizations met with UAlbany administration on Wednesday (Feb. 28) to discuss the university’s study abroad programs in Israel, during which they were told that the university had renewed its study abroad agreement with Tel Aviv University in January.
UAlbany has also offered study abroad opportunities to Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in the past, however, both programs are pending renewal.
Currently, there are no students in these programs, and there have not been since last spring as a “practical matter,” according to UAlbany spokesman Jordan Carleo-Evangelist
Students from both organizations spoke at the rally, in which they aired their grievances with both the university and with the United States on their actions taken during Israel’s nearly five-month long military campaign in Gaza, which began after Hamas-led militants stormed Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people, according to Israel’s foreign ministry. The death toll in Gaza since Oct. 7 has surpassed 30,000 people, according to Gaza's health ministry.
Speakers called on the university to end their relationships with Israeli universities, as part of the broader Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) Movement.
BDS calls for “organizations and people of conscience all over the world to impose broad boycotts and implement divestment initiatives against Israel similar to those applied to South Africa in the apartheid era,” according to an open letter posted on their website.
“We demand that the world not be complicit in genocide,” Munir Nayfeh, a member of SJP who is of Palestinian descent, said. “And even if those demands are met, we are still 30,000 dead civilians too late.”
“I’m here today to support my Palestinian brothers and sisters,” Nayfeh said after speaking to the crowd. “And also to demand that us as an institution, as a university, and as a nation take better action in support of humanity.”
“Our university does not stand with Israel,” Mirabel, a YDSA member and speaker at the protest, said. “We stand with the Palestinian people. We stand against genocide, we stand against ethnic cleansing, we stand against occupation.”
Rabbi Mendel Rubin, director of Shabbos House, a Jewish community center that serves UAlbany students, commented on the protest, saying that it is “deeply upsetting to see these efforts by some to delegitimize and dehumanize Israel.”
Rubin continued to say that Shabbos House’s focus at this moment is to “support, uplift and connect students, in positive, constructive and meaningful ways and not become mired in toxic negativity.”
UAlbany President Havidán Rodríguez stated in a letter to the university community in November that the university “stands strongly against anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, and any and all forms of prejudice and discrimination.”