Students march for Rafah, demanding UNC divestment from companies with connections to Israel

More than 100 pro-Palestine protesters gathered on the steps of South Building on Monday morning. People held large banners that said “Divest Now,” “Grad Students Against Genocide” and “Free Palestine,” while campus community members gathered around them.

Almost all of the demonstrators wore masks and many donned keffiyehs, a garment symbolizing solidarity with Palestine. Some held up handmade signs, and a few waved pictures of Palestinian children and hostages.

The protest was hosted by UNC's chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine. It began around 11 a.m. before participants marched down Franklin Street. UNC SJP held the event to raise awareness to the Israeli strikes on Rafah, a major southern city in Gaza and to urge UNC to divest from Israeli products and companies.

“Rafah is currently Gaza’s most populated area, where 1.5 million people also are sheltering as their very last resort,” a UNC SJP executive member said. "And over half a million of these people are children.”

The crowd began marching down Franklin Street at noon. The protesters turned at the intersection of Franklin Street and East Columbia Street before returning to campus at the intersection of East Columbia Street and Cameron Avenue.

Prior to marching, six speakers addressed the protesters in front of South Building. They included members of the local community, UNC SJP, N.C. State University SJP and UNC Graduate Students for the Liberation of Palestine. 

Rania Masri, who taught in Lebanon for 17 years and has previously spoken on panels at UNC related to the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, was one of the event's speakers.

“Jews need to be safe everywhere, Christians need to be safe everywhere, Muslims need to be safe everywhere, and there can be no crime anywhere that can justify the genocide and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians for the past 75 years,” Masri said. “We say enough is enough. Divest now.”

Masri is named in a complaint that sparked a Department of Education’s Office for Civil RightsTitle VI investigation related to discrimination against Jewish students in late December. In the complaint, Jewish American attorney David Weisberg claimed that Masri called Oct. 7 a "beautiful day" during a roundtable discussion on Nov. 28 titled “No Peace Without Justice: A Round-Table Talk on Social Justice in Palestine." 

UNC SJP said it has three demands for the University concerning divestment.

First, that UNC divest from all products and contracts that it maintains with Israeli, Israel-supporting or anti-Palestine companies, specifically Sabra, Hewlett Packard Technologies, Caterpillar Inc. and Starbucks. They also demanded an open dialogue with UNC administration, preferably in the form of a commission, regarding a “divestment from apartheid.” Its final demand is that the UNC Investment Fund, LLC become more transparent to state taxpayers and the UNC community.

As they marched, SJP members led chants including “Not another nickel, not another dime, no more money for Israel’s crimes,” and “Ceasefire now.” They also chanted “Boycott Starbucks” as they passed the business' Franklin Street storefront.

Chapel Hill Police Department cars were present at intersections but did not interact with protesters. There was at least one counter-protester present.

At around 12:40 p.m., the demonstrators returned to the steps of South Building. UNC SJP asked attendees to email and call members of the UNC Board of Trusteesdaily and donate to aid efforts in Gaza through their Linktree.

One protester said they think the students, faculty, staff and community members who marched showed that UNC has a large community that can make a difference.

“We give everything to this University: our voices, our money, our youth, our intelligence,” the protester said. “It’s us — so we’re the ones who should be showing up.”

CORRECTION: A previous version of this article had incorrect information about a counter-protest presence. The Daily Tar Heel apologizes for this error.

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