University of Nebraska joins wave of campus protests in support of Palestine, Gaza

Protesters gathered at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in solidarity with Palestinians, joining a host of other campus protests nationwide, demanding dislcosure and divestment of university investments into Israel. May 1, 2024.(Zach Wendling/Nebraska Examiner)

LINCOLN — More than 100 University of Nebraska-Lincoln students and community members gathered on campus in support of Palestine on Wednesday, joining a host of universities nationwide.

Protesters sit during the solidarity protest with Palestinians at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s campus. May 1, 2024. (Zach Wendling/Nebraska Examiner)

UNL’s 10-hour “Liberated Zone for Palestine,” organized as a one-day event by Lincoln and UNL local chapters in support of Palestinians, set a different tone than other campus protests, which have featured multiple days of encampments and students barricading themselves inside school buildings. Many protests faced arrests or condemnation from local, state and federal leaders.

Instead, the Lincoln event focused on short teach-ins, dances, chants and four demands made throughout the peaceful, daylong protest:

• Disclose any university investments into Israel.

• Divest from those commitments.

• End a UNL-sponsored study abroad program in Jerusalem.

• Prohibit future acceptance of grants or funds from Israel.

“We’re here because there are students, professors, administration and staff in Gaza who are experiencing a genocide,” Anna Synya, a UNL senior, told the Nebraska Examiner.

‘We’re here for people in Gaza’

Synya, outreach coordinator for Lincoln for Palestine and a member of UNL’s chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine, said the event was important because of the education it offered. She said that everyone got to leave safely, which hasn’t been true at other campuses.

“I couldn’t really have asked for a better day when it comes to how things ran,” Synya said.

This sign was placed on the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s campus featuring a watermelon, which has been symbolic of freedom for Palestinians in Gaza. May 1, 2024. (Zach Wendling/Nebraska Examiner)

She also emphasized that while protesters are concerned about students at other campuses, the reason UNL students came out was for Gaza, where every university has been bombed.

“People seem to think we’re doing it in solidarity with Columbia (University) or something — I mean, I guess, we’re for freedom of speech, and it’s concerning when certain things happen — but really, we’re here for people in Gaza,” Synya said.

As of May 1, at least 34,568 Palestinians had been killed and another 77,765 wounded since Israel’s retaliation began after the Oct. 7 terrorist attack by Hamas, according to the Gaza health ministry.

A small group of counter-protesters, one wearing an Israeli flag, briefly showed up at the protest but quickly left. The UNL Police Department maintained a minimal presence all day.

Balancing expression and UNL’s mission

UNL Chancellor Rodney Bennett, in a campuswide email just before the 9 a.m. gathering, said the leaders of the event met with campus administrators and were told they could not jeopardize public safety, disrupt academic activities and campus operations or destroy property. He said UNL would also not allow tents or the formation of an encampment.

“It has been my determination, and that of other university leaders, that this is the kind of ‘careful, deliberate and nuanced balance of interests’ called for by our university policy,” Bennett said. 

“My commitment to you is that both today, and in the days and weeks to come, we will work diligently to protect the freedom of expression, which we hold so dear, while ensuring that we continue to advance our mission of teaching, research and service,” Bennett continued. “Doing so is central to our identity and vital to our future.”

University of Nebraska-Lincoln Chancellor Rodney Bennett speaks to Nebraska lawmakers on his campus. Dec. 7, 2023. (Zach Wendling/Nebraska Examiner)

University officials declined to comment on the protesters’ specific demands because they had not been presented to administrators and officials didn’t want to discuss how UNL would respond before that time, although the demands were publicly available before Wednesday morning.

Synya said the demands were shared in person with campus leaders so she doesn’t know if they were “maybe just misremembering.”

“As students we’re stakeholders in this community — we’re the customer here — so we’d like a response,” Synya said.

Disclosures and investments

Melissa Lee, a spokesperson for NU’s central administration, pointed to the university’s endowment holdings posted online and said anyone could review those reports. 

The “Fund N” reports — the portion of investments that NU has direct control over and includes donations and gifts made directly to the university — started in December 2020 in response to calls that year for NU to divest from fossil fuel industries. Other investments are managed by the NU Foundation.

The most recent Fund N report was issued Dec. 31, 2023.

“The endowment exists to support all students and the broad mission of the university,” Lee said. “It is not an advocacy tool.”

Thousands of people attend the March for Israel on the National Mall on Nov. 14, 2023, in Washington, D.C. (Courtesy of Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

The Jewish Virtual Library details some of the State of Nebraska’s partnerships with the Middle East nation. It also outlines grants and research UNL faculty have collaborated on with researchers overseas, which came under fire from at least one protester.

That protester’s demands mirrored the information listed through the library, including for UNL to end ties with the US-Israel Binational Science Foundation. They also called for UNL to fire certain faculty and end partnerships with various companies and departments, saying they are “working with war criminals.”

In one case, a grant from the Israel National Academy of Sciences and Humanities, Water Commissioner’s Office, Israel Ministry of Science and the binational foundation supported research on toxic algal blooms in Nebraska lakes.

In total, the virtual library states, Nebraska has received nearly $1.8 million in binational foundation grants, and exports from the Cornhusker State to Israel in 2022 totaled $53.8 million.

Study abroad to Jerusalem

Ari Kohen, a political science professor and director of the Norman and Bernice Harris Center for Judaic Studies, which hosts the one-month study abroad at Jerusalem’s Hebrew University, said the program was designed by multiple Harris Center faculty over many years before its debut in 2019. Students went again in 2022.

“It is a study abroad experience that you can’t really get anywhere else,” Kohen said. “We have curated this education for UNL students, and I’m really proud of it.”

A general view over the Gaza Strip as seen from the Israeli side of the border on Jan. 8, 2024, in southern Israel. (Amir Levy/Getty Images)

Kohen said that while he teaches about the Arab-Israeli conflict in Lincoln, the program means students “have a window” into the conflict, people, cultures, religions, traditions and more and can form opinions for themselves. He said this is better than the Lincoln course. 

He encouraged those interested in Arab-Israeli relationships to sign up and learn firsthand.

However, Synya said, the program is not equitable for all students. She said Palestinians, for example, might not be able to go to Israel or, if they did, they might not be as safe.

“The university can’t ethically provide any sort of academic opportunity that’s not equally accessible to students,” Synya said.

Kohen said he postponed the 2024 trip because he didn’t want to compromise on its goals. Travel in the region is significantly hindered, and many people remain displaced in the north and south.

“As a result, it wouldn’t be the same trip,” he said.

When there’s so much attention and interest, Kohen said, it would be a shame to limit education to one day of protest and cancel the trip, which he hopes “a ton of people” will want to enroll in.

Congressman speaks out against antisemitism

U.S. Rep. Mike Flood, R-Neb., whose district includes UNL, said in a statement Wednesday that “antisemitism has no place in America” and that “the message of the national protests” arrived at UNL on Wednesday.

“University leadership must be decisive and clear that Nebraska will not tolerate the violent and dangerous rhetoric that has shown up on college campuses across the country,” Flood said on X, formerly Twitter.

A Palestinian flag with the phrase “from the river to the sea” is etched with chalk onto the sidewalk outside UNL’s Nebraska Union. May 1, 2024. (Zach Wendling/Nebraska Examiner)

Flood, in a followup statement to the Nebraska Examiner, said the national message he referred to is antisemitic rhetoric and policies, which he said includes the chant “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” 

Congress last month voted 377-44, with all Nebraska representatives in favor, to condemn that phrase as antisemitic.

The phrase was featured at the protest in chants and artwork, along with other chants aimed at Nebraska’s congressional delegation and Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by name, saying, “you can’t hide, we charge you with genocide.”

Protesters also encouraged Nebraska voters to write in “ceasefire” against President Joe Biden during Nebraska’s May 14 primary election.

Synya said her response to Flood or others with concerns is to “come on down and see for yourself” and have conversations because such accusations are taken seriously.

“We denounce all forms of antisemitism,” she said. “That’s not what we’re about at all.”

‘Existence of the human being’

Steve Laravie Jr., a descendant of Standing Bear, joins with two other Indigenous leadersand speaks during a solidarity protest for Palestinians at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. May 1, 2024. (Zach Wendling/Nebraska Examiner)

Multiple Jewish students and community members were also part of the protest, including Jewish Voices for Peace and a woman who said she was a descendant of Holocaust survivors.

Other speakers included a pediatric surgeon who worked in Gaza, professors who spoke about the Arab Spring, artists, the local NAACP chapter and Indigenous brothers and sisters.

Steve Laravie Jr., a descendant of Standing Bear, was one of three Indigenous members who encouraged Nebraskans to pray for Gaza and Palestinians. He said everyone must think of moving forward as human beings because the division is not about race, creed or religion.

“This is about the existence of the human being,” Laravie said.

“You are the majority, remember that,” he told Wednesday’s crowd. “You determine the reality, the life that you want.”

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