Dozens of K-State students and Manhattan community members on Wednesday evening marched through campus carrying handmade signs and Palestinian flags in protest of the university’s ties with Israel.
The demonstration was part of a larger national movement of college students urging their institutions to divest from companies supporting the Israeli government in its war against Hamas, though unlike at some other universities, the K-State protest remained peaceful and eventually dissipated.
More than 50 demonstrators gathered in the quad near Hale Library before making stops in front of Anderson Hall, the administration building, and at the intersection of Bluemont and North Manhattan avenues, where some cars passing by honked in agreement or vocalized dissent.
The group chanted for disclosure and divestment of K-State’s investments supporting Israel, a free Palestine and a ceasefire as well as criticizing President Joe Biden’s policies toward Israel. Speakers called on attendees to keep up pressure on university leadership to remove its financial and academic support from the Israeli war effort, which they framed as a “genocide” against the Palestinian people.
The Palestinian Health Ministry says more than 34,000 of its citizens have died since the war began after a terrorist attack by Hamas killed more than 1,000 people in southern Israel on Oct. 7.
Protestors at K-State, many of whom wore facemasks, carried a large banner reading, “‘Cats Against Genocide, Boycott and Divest from Israel,” while other individuals held signs expressing support for Palestine, condemning the war or calling for action from university administration.
A K-State graduate student, who gave only a first name, Nick, said the turnout was unexpected and would help students and community members who support Palestine know they’re not alone in their views.
“I felt very isolated and alone being here in Manhattan, especially here in Kansas,” Nick said. “I felt like I was the only voice speaking out for the Palestinian cause. I didn’t expect very much from this. With the turnout like this, I’m pleasantly surprised.”
Counterprotesters wave Israeli and U.S. flags Wednesday, May 1, 2024, near Aggieville.
A few counterprotesters carried a U.S. and Israeli flag but kept their distance from the demonstration. At one point, two community members who had been with the protesters went to converse with the counterprotesters.
A handful of K-State police officers monitored the situation, visible but not engaging with it directly.
K-State Young Democratic Socialists of America on Monday sent an open letter on behalf of seven other student organizations to university president Richard Linton demanding the school disclose its investment portfolio since 2014, divest from Israel-supporting companies, boycott academic research with Israel and cut ties with athletics organizations supporting the Israeli military.
K-State YDSA is not listed as an official student group at the university, nor is it on the national YDSA’s registry of official chapters. Manhattan has an officially registered organizing committee with the Democratic Socialists of America, the national organization for which YDSA is the youth section.
The letter asked the university to disclose its investment portfolio from the year 2014 onward and for K-State to be transparent about its investments. It also called on Linton to step down from his role as a board member for the Binational Agricultural Research and Development Fund, which is a joint U.S.-Israeli program funding strategic and applied agricultural research.
Nick said the aims of the protest were the same as those listed in the open letter.
“There’s the connections with Israel through the grants that we receive, through the investments that are directly funding and profiting off of weapon manufacturers or different companies that help aid and abet the genocide,” Nick said.
A K-State alumnus, who would only give the name Noah, said the protest also was intended to raise awareness.
“We have to speak up,” Noah said. “We have to say, at the very least, ‘Stop giving them money.’ They don’t need money. They don’t need bombs. That’s the very least. That’s what we want.”
Nick said the goal moving forward is to “see more pressure on campus to try to get (university administration) to at least release a statement and then go from there.”
