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Iowa City Palestine protests remain peaceful, community members ‘stand in solidarity’
‘This is a way that students can gain a more thorough understanding’
Vanessa Miller
May. 3, 2024 6:32 pm, Updated: May. 6, 2024 8:27 am
IOWA CITY — Far from this week’s dramatic scenes of baton-wielding police clad in riot gear and bulletproof vests clashing with pro-Palestinian protesters on college campuses coast to coast — a diverse combination of Iowa City students and residents on Friday mingled peacefully on the University of Iowa Pentacrest lawn.
Under pristine skies, surrounded by uninvolved students tossing Frisbees, reclining on blankets, or grabbing lunch with friends between class, the Iowa City Students for Justice in Palestine group shared snacks, made art, and stood in solidarity with their peers under fire and threat of arrest.
“Students for Justice in Palestine here in Iowa City wholeheartedly supports the encampments that are going on across the country,” UI graduate student Clara Reynen, 26, told The Gazette on Friday — just an hour into her group’s weekend of activism planned on the UI campus. “And I think the militarized police response that we have seen to encampments is absolutely deplorable.”
The Iowa City group — which includes and involves not just UI students but area high school students and community members — isn’t camping out on the UI campus, which has policies explicitly barring it. Instead, participants are spending the weekend educating each other, bringing in guest lecturers, and simply getting to know one another through a common cause and passion.
“I think that this is a way that students can gain a more thorough understanding and maybe an increased perspective,” Reynen said.
Divestment
Nationally, student protesters have demanded their universities divest from any financial support or backing tied to Israeli-linked companies or institutions. The Iowa City group has listed on social media similar demands, including full UI divestment from weapons manufacturers arming Israel’s occupation in Gaza, including corporate partnerships with Collins Aerospace and Lockheed Martin.
The group also has demanded UI cut ties with and reject any future invitations from Israel academic institutions.
Iowa Code, since 2017, has prohibited the state Board of Regents from investing in companies that boycott Israel — effectively the opposite of the protesters’ demand to divest from companies supporting Israel. The board, also barred from doing business with companies in Sudan and Iran, annually must scrutinize all business activities and report on any scrutinized companies.
Board spokesman Josh Lehman told The Gazette on Friday, “The universities hold no direct investments with Israel or companies working directly with Israel.”
But Reynen said she and her colleagues want more transparency — to check for themselves.
“We have no way to be certain of that because the universities have no requirements to transparently disclose who they invest in, who they are receiving scholarship funds from,” she said. “I would be curious to see how he was defining investments.”
‘Hate speech’
Although few students and protest participants wanted to speak with the media Friday — fearing reprimand after lawmakers and Gov. Kim Reynolds earlier this week warned “hate speech” and “destruction” will not be allowed — UI police spokeswoman Hayley Bruce told The Gazette, “Community members are permitted to exercise their First Amendment rights in outdoor areas of campus if it complies with reasonable time, place, and manner restrictions, and as long as the conduct is lawful, and does not impede access to a facility or use of walkways, interfere with vehicle traffic, or disrupt the functioning of the institution.”
Despite Reynolds’ comments, UI policy protects “hate speech” — in that it, even when offensive, is protected by the First Amendment — but does not protect speech inciting violence, making threats, or qualifying as harassment, among other things.
Board spokesman Lehman said his office hasn’t heard from or communicated with the governor about what would or should be considered hate speech in this case. The board also hasn’t communicated with state or local law enforcement about enforcement of the protests, he said.
“The University of Iowa is committed to supporting free expression, and the Pentacrest has long been used as a gathering place by members of our campus and the Iowa City community to exercise their First Amendment right,” according to a statement shared by the UI communications team.
But Reynen — reporting reminders from the university not to use any amplification, like a megaphone, or to put up any signs or structures this weekend — said the UI statement feels disingenuous, not just on the UI campus but nationally.
“Many of these universities — University of Iowa included — like to hold up this idea of universities historically being important parts of protest movements,” she said. “For example, you'll hear people here in Iowa City talk all the time about how monumental the draft card burnings were during the Vietnam War. And I think it's very hypocritical to say, ‘We support that historically, but we don't support it now.’”
‘Human rights’
Although the Iowa City group’s Friday-to-Sunday planned Pentacrest event this weekend is its first opposing the violence in Gaza, various protesters have been showing up on the UI campus for weeks — including students from City High, who also held a “school strike” Friday in solidarity with the college protests.
“Our concern regarding this issue is that we stand firmly in the belief that all people are deserving of basic human rights,” City High senior Kalea Seaton, 18, told The Gazette. “We also believe that the situation being carried out in Gaza at the hands of the Israeli government is classified as genocide. As such, we believe that U.S. corporations, institutions, and governments should not be supporting the breakage of international law and the blatant genocide, apartheid, and occupation being faced by the innocent people of Gaza and the West Bank.”
Anbar Barkati, a 16-year-old foreign exchange student at City High, participated in the strike — which then migrated to the Pentacrest in the afternoon. From her personal experience as a Muslim from Morocco, Barkati said she hopes the attention on this issue compels people to think about the issue as a humanitarian one — rather than religious or political or racial.
“It pains me to see how people attribute this issue to racial or religious motives,” she said. “It’s a matter of human rights. And not just a matter of Muslim lives or Arab lives. There's a misconception about the fact that only Muslims die there. But there are Christians and Jews that suffer as well
Vanessa Miller covers higher education for The Gazette.
Comments: (319) 339-3158; vanessa.miller@thegazette.com