'No business as usual': UNC community reflects on SJP walkout

Hundreds of students and faculty members participated in a walkout organized by UNC Students for Justice in Palestine on Thursday to call for University divestment from Israeli-sponsored businesses and companies. 

The “Walk out for the West Bank” began in front of Wilson Library with speeches listing SJP’s demands, including the boycott of products and businesses supporting Israel and the removal of UNC-sponsored travel to Israel.

Protestors then entered various academic buildings on campus. Some demonstrators defaced buildings with spray paint, with phrases like “Abolish admin,” “Free Gaza” and “Blood on you.” 

At the walkout’s end, protestors vandalized the exterior of the UNC NROTC Naval Armory building, spraying graffiti on its walls and neighboring gun turret, which was later draped with a Palestinian flag. The American flag in front of the building was also taken down by demonstrators. 

“While SJP could have had another rally that can be easily ignored, something had to be done that cannot be ignored,” an SJP representative, who requested to remain anonymous due to personal safety concerns, said. 

Oren Rosen, a teaching assistant professor of military science at the University, said in an email that he was not present at the armory during the protest but noticed that the graffiti had been painted over by campus facilities workers by 3:20 p.m. 

Professor and Department Chair of military science Lisa Klekowski said in an email that she was grateful for the University community and leaders that have reached out to check on the safety and well-being of the ROTC cadets. 

Klekowski declined further comment due to an ongoing investigation into the walkout’s vandalism. 

The SJP representative said the demonstration’s original plan was to have students and faculty leave their classes and work at 12:40 p.m. and stage a walkout by marching, chanting and handing out flyers through academic buildings. 

“The goal was to be disruptive,” the representative said. “There is no business as usual while UNC is committed to investing in genocide and ignoring students and the campus community.”

However, the representative said their plan did not include spray painting and taking down the American flag, which were performed by “autonomous actors.” They also said that, to their knowledge, no classrooms were entered during the walkout, although flyers were slid under doors. 

In a written statement published on Sept. 19 and linked in a University-wide email on Sept. 20, Chancellor Lee Roberts said those who damaged University property or violated state or University law may be subject to criminal prosecution and disciplinary processes. 

“Free expression and peaceful protest are, of course, in line with Carolina’s best traditions,” Roberts said. “We cannot tolerate, however, vandalism of public property or disruption of classes. We’ll pursue every avenue possible to hold people accountable.”

This July, following SJP's "People's graduation" on the day of Spring commencement, UNC Police obtained a search warrant for UNC SJP's Instagram account basic subscriber information.

UNC junior Roxanne Weis said she was in a lecture at Peabody Hall when protestors opened doors and threw flyers into her classroom. She said her class was dismissed early as a result of the protest and was able to see demonstrators spray painting the main lobby of Sitterson Hall. 

Weis, a public policy major, said it was difficult for her to learn of the walkout’s main goals with protestors "screaming and yelling." She said she thinks the protestors’ actions can alienate others from understanding SJP’s goals.

“I know that no longer supporting the protest doesn’t mean that I don’t support their cause or anything,” Weis said. “I just think that they hit students in the wrong way.”

While Weis said she felt she had a choice to interact with the pro-Palestinian encampment organized in the Quad during April, she added that she felt forced to interact with Thursday’s protest while she was in her classroom. 

She also said she thinks students have the right to feel safe, something she said was not upheld during Thursday’s demonstration. 

“I think that there really are some ways to have a good, peaceful protest not on campus,” she said. “It should be handled somewhere else, there's so many other places, and I think that you should leave students who don't want to be in it out of it.”

The SJP representative said that feeling uncomfortable and being unsafe are not the same.

"We recognize that some students may have felt uncomfortable or uneasy as protestors marched through the hallways, but the actual safety of the students in the classrooms was never compromised," the representative said. "SJP would never tolerate any behavior that would endanger students' physical safety. While I sympathize with feelings of unease, it pales in comparison to the death and destruction that is being experienced by the Palestinians who are living through a horrific genocide in Gaza."

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