By SHANNON O. WELLS
As the U.S. and its allies called for a 21-day ceasefire in the Middle East while deadly fighting continues between Israel and Hezbollah, a group of pro-Palestinian demonstrators — comprising students, including some from Pitt, alongside citizens representing a wide age range — gathered on the Cathedral of Learning’s east side on late Sept. 25.
It was one of the first such demonstrations on campus since early June, when a pro-Palestinian encampment lingered on the Cathedral lawn for about 36 hours before peacefully dispersing. Another similar rally was held Oct. 3, which drew about 250 students, alumni and community members who marched down Forbes Avenue from the Carnegie Museum of Art and to Morewood Avenue where they turned onto Fifth Avenue and ended at the intersection of Fifth and Bigelow Boulevard, according to The Pitt News.
Many of the approximately 150 participants at the Sept. 25 protest chanted while hoisting signs conveying pro-Palestinian and anti-Biden administration sentiments — as well as those critical of University investments in Israeli-related interests. The event featured several bullhorn-wielding speakers elaborating on such ideas, including calls for an immediate ceasefire.
Unlike the encampments and incidents of vandalism that characterized some pro-Palestinian protests and demonstrations last spring, the Sept. 25 gathering was peaceful and orderly. University spokesman Jared Stonesifer said no arrests were reported at the demonstration, which eventually gravitated from the Cathedral lawn across Forbes Avenue to a corner of Schenley Plaza, which is city property.
With Pitt Police officers standing at the Cathedral steps behind the gathering, chants led by speakers expressed ideas including “Silence is violence! Free, free Palestine! From the belly of the beast, hands off the Middle East! Israel bombs, USA pays! USA, you can’t hide, you are funding genocide,” and “Cease-fire now!”
Karim Safieddine, a doctorate student in Pitt’s Department of Sociology, shared his thoughts via bullhorn on the still-escalating Middle East crisis. He referred to the recent killing of a child in Lebanon, where Israeli forces have launched raids targeting Hezbollah forces.
“We live in a world where the lives of hundreds of our children are considered cheaper than the life of a soldier occupying and protecting a settler in the West Bank,” he said. “If Fatima can't have peace, then no city in the world deserves the silence of our voices. If Fatima can’t get sleep without bombs, without death and destruction … then our voices have to grow louder and louder until the criminals are put to justice.”
Safieddine condemned Israel’s treatment of Lebanese citizens.
“The Israeli army distributes flyers onto south Lebanon telling people to leave their homes, and they think it's that simple to leave the only place you can live in peace, the only place you can live in fulfillment,” he said. “They wanted them gone and expelled, because — as simple as that — they need the genocide to continue.”
Safieddine concluded that “only one side” can stop murders and bombings taking place in Gaza and Lebanon, “and that is the criminal (U.S.) White House that we are paying taxes to,” he said.
After about 45 minutes by the Cathedral, many demonstrators crossed Forbes Avenue and regrouped on the corner of the city-owned Schenley Plaza closest to The Porch restaurant. As the assemblage continued chanting and listening to short speeches, a group of Pitt students holding an Israeli flag looked on, some directing pointed questions toward the pro-Palestinian gathering.
"Where are the Israeli hostages? Where is your condemnation of Hamas?” asked one, referring to the global terrorist group that attacked Israeli communities on the Gaza border on Oct. 7, 2023.
The attack left 1,200 people dead and approximately 250 hostages in Gaza. Close to 100 of those kidnapped are still in Gaza, with three of seven American hostages believed to be dead, according to news reports.
The pro-Palestinian group, including several who formed a bicycle perimeter around the speakers, did not engage with the pro-Israeli group, which one member described as comprising “just proud Jewish students” at Pitt.
Shannon O. Wells is a writer for the University Times. Reach him at shannonw@pitt.edu.
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