Veronica Gelfman waves Israeli and American flags to counterprotest a pro-Palestinian rally on UNLV’s campus Wednesday, May 1, 2024.
Wednesday, May 1, 2024 | 5:13 p.m.
Calls for a cease-fire in Gaza and a conversation with UNLV administration on the university’s investments with companies that support Israel in its war with Hamas terrorists were sounded during an on-campus demonstration Wednesday.
Many of those in attendance hoisted banners, signs and Palestinian flags. Some beat drums. Their chants were steady.
“UNLV, hear our pleas / stand up and stop the war machine”
“Media, you’re a liar / we demand a cease-fire”
“Hey hey, ho ho / the occupation’s got to go”
“Free Palestine / free, free-free, free Palestine”
A spokesperson for the pro-Palestinian coalition, who only gave a first name, Nick, said protesters were trying to “bring the administration to the negotiation table to talk about demands for disclosure and divestment.” UNLV leadership said it has met with that group and other groups for months and will continue to do so.
Nick said a meeting was planned for Tuesday. Until then, some of the protesters will go on hunger strike and rallies will continue, but he doesn’t think an encampment is called for at this point.
“We need to give them the shot and the opportunity to say students are starving themselves, just like the people in Gaza are starving, and we’re going to put our students above our investments and listen to them,” Nick said.
Encampments have taken root indoors and out on campuses like Columbia University, UCLA and the University of Texas-Austin, and been the sites of violence, tense standoffs, heavy police presence and mass arrests, and university discipline of participating students.
Right now, in Las Vegas, the protesters want to use nonviolent tactics, Nick said.
“We’ll be building that pressure and building our coalition here with various other student organizations, as we already have,” he said. “There’s a lot of student organizations here to meet with the administration and demand that they hear our pleas.”
Wednesday’s rally started with about 75 people in the grassy amphitheater in the heart of the UNLV campus and grew to about 200 people as the afternoon went on.
The demonstration had none of the pitched hostilities as seen at larger college protests around the country. University and Metro police officers, with relaxed body language and not carrying riot gear, were present but largely stayed on the perimeter of the activity or on the wide paved pedestrian walkway that separated rallygoers from a small group of counterprotesters.
Occasionally, officers interceded when verbal skirmishes arose. While passionate, those interactions defused quickly.
Pro-Israel counterprotesters shouted back their arguments. One yelled that the pro-Palestinian group’s use of the term “intifada” as a reference to uprising and resistance really called for death to Jews. He called the pro-Palestine demonstrators “cowards” and exhorted them to remove their face coverings — either surgical masks or keffiyeh, the traditional Middle Eastern scarves.
Miriam Borvick held a sign that said “Believe Israeli women.” She spoke for Israeli women who have been assaulted and raped by Hamas militants.
“I am a Jewish woman and I am appalled that the UNLV Feminist Club hasn’t condemned the sexual violence against Israeli women,” she said, referring to one of the student organizations backing Wednesday’s rally.
Other members of the local Jewish community said the national wave of protests makes them feel unsafe on campuses and in their communities, and that several of the protesters’ statements and chants about Israel were often interpreted as antisemitism.
“I think the feeling is that it’s one thing to express support for the citizens of Gaza — Jews, non-Jews, we have empathy,” Las Vegas Rabbi Sanford Akselrad said. “But what’s going on as it then turns into anti-Zionist rhetoric, ‘from the river to the sea’ rhetoric, ‘Israel commits genocide’ rhetoric, all of those kinds of comments, besides being unhelpful, the Jewish community views them as antisemitic. I’m not sure whether the students are aware that those are trigger words in the Jewish community.”
“From the river to the sea” refers to the Jordan River on the eastern flank of Israel and the occupied West Bank and the Mediterranean Sea on Israel’s western border. Zionist and Israeli people view the chant as a call for the destruction of Israel.
“I think the lack of empathy for what went on in Israel (in the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks by Hamas), and the immediate rally toward the Gazans and making Israel the villain really has rattled the Jewish community,” Akselrad said.
The ACLU of Nevada, which this week reminded colleges around the state of freedom of speech rights, sent observers to monitor Wednesday’s activity.
“Students have a right to protest and to advocate for causes they believe in, activity that lies at the core of the First Amendment. The speech protections of the First Amendment would actually pose no value if only speech that was agreeable to policymakers or elected officials were permitted,” ACLU of Nevada executive director Athar Haseebullah said in a statement.
Afterwards, UNLV released a statement about university policies regarding on-campus gatherings. It said in part, “Today, students and members of the community at-large came to campus to exercise their First Amendment right of free speech and assembly, expressing their views in a passionate, but civil manner on the war in Israel and Gaza.”
The statement reiterated that UNLV “rejects any statement that is antisemitic or Islamophobic in nature,” adding, “We will continue to work with specific affinity groups on campus to help ensure our university policies are followed and continue our dialogue to hear different perspectives on this complex issue.”
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