Pitt students, spurred by Gaza, pledge days of divestment activism on campus

Protestors participate in an encampment for Palestine outside the Cathedral of Learning on the University of Pittsburgh campus in Oakland on Tuesday, April 23, 2024. (Photo by Pamela Smith/PublicSource)

In Oakland, 50-plus students and community members raised voices in support of Palestinians and demanded Pitt divestment from Israel, amid Gaza-focused campus protests nationally.

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Students at the University of Pittsburgh are staging a multi-day demonstration in support of Palestinians, a protest mirroring campus movements erupting nationwide that have led to hundreds of student and protester arrests. 

At least 50 students, faculty and community members had gathered on a portion of the lawn outside the Cathedral of Learning by early Tuesday afternoon, at one point leading chants of “free, free Palestine” and “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” The students are going to avoid arrests and comply with any university orders to leave, said organizer and recent Pitt graduate Samuel Weiner. 

The protest is planned to last through noon on Friday. It was organized by a collective of students that have posted under the name “Pitt Divest from Apartheid,” according to a press release and Instagram post about the demonstration. The organizers are demanding the “full disclosure of all university investments in the Israeli apartheid regime.”

“What’s happening in Gaza is nothing short of soul-crushing. And the fact that universities here in the United States have decided that war is more valuable to them than the education of their students, is also soul-crushing,” said Ilyas Khan, a student at Carnegie Mellon University who attended the protest.

“Today is a test for Pitt to say, ‘Do you as an institution care more about your student body than war?,’” Khan said.

A small number of pro-Israel students also assembled nearby but did not directly engage the protesters.

“I think that everyone deserves human rights. I think the problem that I have is, I lived in Israel for probably over a year, and it just hurts me to see the antisemitism going around other universities,” said student Alexa Jakubowitz, who stood on the sidewalk adjoining the lawn where the pro-Palestine students were protesting.

People on a campus tour walk past an encampment for Palestine outside the Cathedral of Learning. (Photo by Pamela Smith/PublicSource)

The organizers are also calling for Pitt’s “full material divestment” from any entities associated with Israel, as well as “an acknowledgement of genocide” in Gaza from the administration. PublicSource has asked the university to detail any financial ties to Israel and respond to the demands. The university did not respond directly to those questions.

Pitt spokesperson Jared Stonesifer wrote in a statement that the university “affirms the rights of community members to engage in peaceful and orderly demonstrations.”

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