Students hold pro-Palestine sit-in at Utah State University, pro-Israel attendees respond

LOGAN, Utah (ABC4) — Students gathered at Utah State University on Wednesday to hold a public demonstration in support of Palestine, just days after a pro-Palestine protest at the University of Utah in Salt Lake was met with police response.

Roughly 20 people were arrested on Monday and Tuesday in connection to the U of U protests. On Tuesday, the U of U passed out flyers on how to keep protests lawful and there were fewer arrests made on the second day of protest.

The USU demonstration had rules for public demonstrations posted on the campus when students gathered on Wednesday. People attended the event both in support of Palestine and in support of Israel, and protesters with both viewpoints provided numbers and statistics to back up their perspectives.

RELATED: University of Utah ‘commends’ pro-Palestine protests for ‘peaceful nature’

“It’s not an issue between Judaism or Islam. It’s not one side or the other,” one protester said. “It’s humanity.”

The first rule on the list at the USU demonstration was to not disrupt the university’s events or operations. There were also rules against “unlawful harassment” and destroying/defacing university property.

Demonstrators were also warned against placing tents or other structures on campus and told to not block sidewalks, building entrances, roads and walkways.

Samson Calderon Diltz was one of the organizers of Wednesday’s protest, saying the group that organized the protest was inspired by other student movements across the county and across the world.

“We wanted to focus specifically on Palestinians and the martyrs in solidarity with people here to build a community,” Calderon Diltz said. “We didn’t want anything that could potentially cause issues, and we want to have safety so that no one here can feel like they’re at risk.”

Calderon Diltz said the demonstration at USU was designed to coincide with graduation, and was not intended to disrupt the ceremonies but provide passersby the chance to stop and learn more if they wanted to.

“We want to build a space where people can eventually feel safe coming to events like these,” Calderon Diltz said.

People with various opinions attended Wednesday’s event, including Steve and Ona, members of the Jewish community who recently returned to Utah after spending time volunteering in Israel. Ona said she believes protests should have two sides of an argument.

“I don’t want to argue, I just want to be a kind of quiet presence to say that we don’t agree,” Steve said.

Ona said she wanted to hear what people had to say at the protest.

“You can be critical of Israel without being antisemitic,” Steve said.

A pro-Palestine protester told ABC4.com that they don’t want to hurt anyone or cause any pain.

“We want to spread our message,” Mahmoud Ghabayen said. “We want to speak truth on the matter and nothing but the truth.”

Ghabayen was born in Gaza and now resides in North Logan. He and his immediate family permanently came to the United States in 2013, but he said all his extended family still resides in Gaza.

Ghabayen said he is protesting to fight for more opportunities to be spread to Gaza. He said his extended family is suffering from famine and a lack of electricity.

Communications between the U.S. and his family in Gaza are significantly delayed, Ghabayen said. He said it took almost 10 hours for him and his parents in Utah to learn about 25 of their family members dying in an airstrike in Gaza.

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