Renewed protests have started up on Ohio State University's campus calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and the nation's largest public university to divest from Israel.
About 80 protesters marched through campus Thursday evening and unfurled banners on a parking garage citing the thousands of civilians that have died since Hamas first attacked Israel. The group first met up at Moritz College of Law to give speeches, but took to the street, walking to several other parts of campus.
The Oct. 7 attack sparked a war and also sparked protests at OSU. That war is now almost a year old.
The protest and march echoed those from last school year. Chants of "Free Palestine" and other chants criticizing Israel and the university were largely unchanged.
There were also a small group of half a dozen Israeli supporters counter protesting by yelling chants such as "Free the Hostages at the pro-Palestine crowd."
Frustration at OSU and its police force was clearly still present from when dozens of protesters were arrested last semester. OSU police were monitoring the current protest on bikes and squad cars, but did not intervene.
Student organizer and fourth-year student Mohammad Ghassan said the movement scattered over the summer, but the group is back to advocate for Gaza.
"Obviously, Oct. 7 marks one year of the the genocide that was currently going on right now in Gaza. Definitely, you will see us coming out here consistently, even before that date and after that date. We're not going to stop until this genocide is over," Ghassan said.
Ghassan acknowledged a new academic year and people graduating led to some turnover.
Malak Hamed is fourth-year student at OSU and said they are working on pushing the movement and helping to rebuild the momentum.
"We want the voice of Gaza to be heard. And we feel that it is our responsibility. And we've seen it in history. Students have always led the movements," Hamed said.
The two said their main goal is to put pressure on the OSU administration and University President Ted Carter to divest from Israel.
"We want them to acknowledge that one Palestinian child murdered by the Israeli occupation forces is too many," Ghassan said.
Hamed said throughout the year they will have events such as protests, but also other ways to get people engaged.
OSU English professor Pranav Jani is the faculty advisor for the Students for Justice in Palestine Group. Jani, during his speech, was critical of Carter and the university for changing rules this summer in regards to protests. The university updated its "space rules" in August and renamed them "spaces standards."
Carter has said during interviews with media, including WOSU's talk show "All Sides with Anna Staver," that the university respects freedom of speech.
Jani said he thinks Carter's military experience does not lend to helping free speech thrive on a campus.
"You follow the order from above and you carry it through. That's how the military operates. I'm not sure if he understands how campuses operate. I'm not sure if he understands academic freedom and even what free speech is," Jani said.
Carter, in his interview on All Sides, called for protests to follow the rules of the university and not have "Buckeyes protesting against other Buckeyes."
"We know we're going to probably see some protest groups this fall, and I'm hoping that we can do it with, again, a good bit of civil obedience," Carter said.
Jani reacted to Carter calling for "civil obedience" and called on Carter to weigh that against the university's reverence of Martin Luther King Jr. and observing the holiday for the civil rights leader every year.
King was one of the leaders who pushed for equality in the face of Jim Crow laws by calling for nonviolent protests using civil disobedience.
"We thought proper protest is nonviolent civil disobedience. Now they're saying just because it's nonviolent, if it's civil disobedience, that's not protected on the First Amendment. So (Carter) should have to clearly say he disagrees with Martin Luther King. He disagrees with Gandhi," Jani said.
Ghassan, Hamed and Jani claimed they are now probably experts on the university's rules by studying it so much.
