USC community walks out, marches for Gaza
A demonstration Thursday raised awareness about thousands killed in Gaza and called for an immediate ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war.
By JUSTIN HA
(Jordan Renville / Daily Trojan)
Hundreds of protesters gathered around Tommy Trojan Thursday calling for “an immediate ceasefire, cutting all aid to Israel and lifting the siege on Gaza,” according to an Instagram post from Students for Justice in Palestine at USC, which is not a recognized student organization, and USC Student Coalition Against Labor Exploitation. The protest was part of “Shut It Down for Palestine,” a national movement of demonstrations raising awareness for the aforementioned demands.
The Israel Defense Forces quietly began a ground invasion into Gaza Oct. 27 amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. An ongoing siege of the region by Israel has left Gazans in dire need of food, water and electricity. Before the walkout began, student organizers laid out a list of 5,000 names of people killed in Gaza since Oct. 7 on 240 feet of paper, shortened from a list of more than 10,000 people killed in the war published by the Palestinian Health Ministry.
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“We recognize that it’s hard as students who have limited exposure to things out in the world to understand what it means to see 10,000 people killed, especially if they haven’t been seeing it on their phone screens already,” said an event organizer and senior majoring in global studies who, like other students interviewed for this article, requested anonymity for fear of their safety.
Organizers also set up tables with QR codes linked to informational resources, a list of companies to boycott who financially support Israel and a donation page for the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund.
SJP and SCALE’s Instagram post demanded that USC protect Muslim, Middle Eastern, North African, South Asian, and pro-Palestinian students, staff, faculty, alumni, and workers, as well as to cut ties with Israel and Israel-adjacent companies and reinvest the money into community needs, such as housing and food insecurity.
Pro-Palestinian student organizations, including SJP, USC Graduates in Solidarity with Palestine, Trojans for Palestine and SCALE called on students and faculty to walk out of class and work at 1:15 p.m. to join the protest.
Demonstrators gathered in front of Tommy Trojan and began chanting “Free, free Palestine” and “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” while carrying signs, including one that read “Long live Palestine.” Many of them wore face coverings to protect their identity.
“USC can do better with aiding their Middle Eastern students, especially ones that are Palestinian,” a senior said. “They’re not allowed to fight, but they are also scared for their lives.”
An Instagram post from USC’s chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine and USC Student Coalition Against Labor Exploitation demanded that USC cut ties with Israel and Israel-adjacent companies and reinvest the money into community needs. (Marissa Ding / Daily Trojan)
Several campus organizations showed solidarity with the demonstration. The National Lawyers Guild at USC held a workshop in the morning to make buttons, collages and posters for the march later in the day. Protesters also crossed paths with the Graduate Student Worker Organizing Committee, which was out on a “last chance picket” amid ongoing negotiations for its first contract with the University.
“Organized labor is historically rooted in international solidarity,” a union member said in a brief speech after meeting the pro-Palestine protesters.
A few students stood to the side of the memorial holding an Israeli flag. One of them, Ezra Judanin, a senior majoring in business administration, said he was disappointed President Carol Folt allowed a demonstration to take place where protesters chanted slogans such as “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” — statements that he said called for the “extermination of the Jewish nation.”
“It’s really horrible to see, and it’s really horrible that President Folt and the [Undergraduate Student Government] and everyone in charge of the school is allowing these atrocities on my campus,” said Judanin, a Jewish student from Germany. “Me and my Jewish friends don’t feel safe on campus right now.”
An event organizer from Jordan said USC’s response to the Israel-Hamas war has been ambivalent: He said the Department of Public Safety has been supportive, and that he heard an “amazing” speech by Dean of Religious Life Varun Soni at a night of remembrance for people killed in Gaza Wednesday night.
“It made us feel confident,” the organizer said. “On the higher level, Folt’s office and those who work with her, I haven’t known about any sort of support.”
DPS officers stood around the memorial and followed the walkout until its conclusion. A barricade protected the paper lists of the people killed in Gaza.
“We want them to listen to us and support us in asking for people to not be killed,” one protester said in a speech near the end of the protest. “It is the most basic thing that we are doing right here — defending humanity, defending the tens of thousands of people who have been murdered.”
