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Jacob Rice

Attendees gather during the ISU Students for Gaza demonstration in front of Parks Library, May 1, 2024.

Editor’s note: Lu chose not to provide a last name.

Students and community members gathered outside Parks Library on Wednesday for an “ISU Students for Gaza” demonstration to demand Iowa State’s support for Palestine, which resulted in interaction with pro-Israel attendees.

Members of the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL) joined Color of Love, a student organization, to speak out against the Iowa Board of Regents’ support of the Israeli government and Iowa State’s partnership with defense contractors.

In a petition being circulated by organizers, the groups listed the following demands for Iowa State University and university President Wendy Wintersteen:

• Divest from companies and programs supporting and arming Israel, including but not limited to – Boeing, Collins Aerospace, Lockheed Martin and the Binational Science Foundation
• Full transparency of all university financial partnerships, investments and donations
• Release a statement of solidarity with Palestine and their liberation

During the demonstration, attendees stood together with signs and Palestinian flags to hear from speakers from the PSL and engage in chants led by organizers.

Some chants included:

• Free, free, Palestine
• From to river to the sea, Palestine will be free
• ISU, what do you say? How many kids did you kill today?
• In our millions, in our billions, we are all Palestinians
• Resistance is justified when people are occupied

Delaney Graef, a sophomore in forestry, told the Daily she felt it was her “moral obligation to speak out” in support of Palestine.

In recent days, student protests and encampments in support of Palestine have popped up on college campuses across the country, with some being met with a police response.

Lu, a member of the PSL, spoke to the Daily about his opinion on the police response against students.

“The university system has long been known for free speech,” Lu said. “But, as we’re increasing this… we’re seeing an intense fascist response to our protected protest themes. These are protestors who are not engaging in violence but they’re rather reacting to the violence of the police.”

Iowa State students ‘show up in solidarity’

Lyric Sellers, a sophomore in communication studies and treasurer of Color of Love, shared some takeaways from the demonstration.

“It just reiterates the fact that the power lies within the people,” Sellers said. “[They] are liberating each other’s voices and just taking a stand on things.”

Duncan Burnett, another member of the PSL and graduate of Iowa State, told the Daily about his thoughts on the demonstration.

“I think we’ve had an excellent turnout,” Burnett said. “People are quite energized. There’s a good variety of speakers… I hope the movement will grow and I imagine this is only the start.”

Bela Banegas, a senior in data science and member of Color of Love, told the Daily that she felt it was “disheartening to see that people can really disagree with something as simple as [the lives] of innocent children.”

“Something that I noticed with the counter-protesters is they choose this as a time to discuss and show resistance,” Banegas said. “But we have been holding conversations. We’ve been holding town halls. We’ve been advocating for this stuff and they just choose to show up when they can get their face in the picture.”

Professor ‘not intimidated’ by demonstration alongside other students

Along with pro-Palestine demonstrators, several people in support of Israel were also outside Parks Library.

Kirill Tuchin, a physics professor, told the Daily he attended because he was “not intimidated” by the pro-Palestinian demonstrators, as he held up the flag of Israel.

“We believe the truth is that Israel has a right to exist and the terrorists have no right to exist,” Tuchin said. “We believe that Israel is being victimized here by the terrorists… they don’t want free Palestine, they want to be free from Jews.”

Some attendees at the demonstration in support of Israel verbally clashed with student demonstrators as they stood near the entrance of Parks Library.

Lochland Monahan, an Iowa State graduate, engaged in debate with multiple members of the PSL during the demonstration, asking “how do you plan on freeing Palestine?”

“You have a group of people wanting to be included in what’s going on, but completely unaware of the implications of ‘Free Palestine from the river to the sea,’” Monahan told the Daily. “The only way to accomplish that is the elimination of the Jews.”

Michael Cook, a graduate student in agronomy, was outside Parks Library to support Israel.

“I came here today because this is all out of ignorance,” Cook said. “This was never an issue until it involved Jews. There was no protests when Syria was bombing its own. There was no protests when Jordan was involved in fighting. There’s no protests about Yemen.”

Cook also spoke about the events of Oct. 7 and said he felt the demonstrators were, “on the wrong side of this.”