Students lead Palestine vigil and march in the Art Quad on Oct. 7

• 150 people attended a student-led vigil and march on Oct. 7, organized by Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) and Students for Quality Education (SQE), for Palestinian lives lost in the Israel-Palestine conflict.
• Organizers of the event initially reserved the University Quad and the Art Quad, but due to a conflict, the administration denied the reservation for the University Quad.
• SDS officials criticized the denial by the administration and the TPM for restricting their freedom of speech. The administration claims to have worked with event organizers to ensure that their freedom of speech was respected without conflicting with prior reservations for the main quad.

Around 150 people gathered for a student-led vigil and march on Oct.7 to pay respect to the Palestinian lives lost in the ongoing Israel-Palestine war. The vigil began in the Art Quad and protestors marched throughout campus and LK Wood street. The demonstration was organized by Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) and Students for Quality Education (SQE). The event was held on the second anniversary of the Oct. 7 attack in Israel that has led to an escalation of violence in Palestine since. 

The event included speeches, chalk art and a mid-day march through campus. A memorial display was set in the center of the Art Quad listing the names and photos of some of the Palestinian people, mainly children, who have lost their lives. Speakers at the vigil included SDS, a member of the Jewish Voice for Peace, President of the California Faculty Association Humboldt chapter and other students. 

Under the Time, Place and Manner policy, demonstrations must be approved by the university in advance and submitted two weeks prior to the event in order to reserve the space. SDS Vice President Fletcher Edwards, spoke about how the organization initially requested to use the University Quad, but was denied due to a conflict with another scheduled event. The upper section of the University Quad had previously been reserved for “Sukkah on the Quad for Sukkot” hosted by Chabad HSU, a Jewish Student organization. According to the CPH events calendar, this event is reserved in the University Upper Quad from Oct. 5-14. 

Instead, the demonstration was approved by the university to be held in the Art Quad. 

“The thing is, we had no issue with having a Sukkot, and we would absolutely have been open to and able to do both events in the same place,” Edwards said. “There was pushback from the Chabad as well as from administration as a result of that, they said we would not be able to have it in the same spot.”

Rick Toledo, another SDS organizer, believes that the TPM policy was being used as an excuse for the administration’s real reason for the move.

“What it comes down to is they’re able to fall back on that through their policy. But at the end of the day, that’s not the real reason it’s being canceled,” Toledo said. “The real reason it’s being canceled is because they don’t feel comfortable with us being near a Jewish event that’s being held by Zionists, even though it’s in a different space.”

In an email to El Leñador, the university’s Executive Director of Strategic Communications, JoAnn Yamani said, “The University did not deny the group’s ability to hold a demonstration or restrict their right to free speech.”

Yamani said that the administration worked with organizers to ensure that they would have a location to hold their demonstration. According to the administration, these are the key reasons as to why the event was moved to the Art Quad. 

• The reservation was submitted outside our standard 2-week advance notice window. Reservation requests are reviewed and granted on a first-come, first-served basis for space reservations.
• Other events were already approved for the Quad on October 7 through timely requests.
• We offered the Art Quad as an alternative venue and worked with organizers to determine a march route.

“Now we need to get past this like TPM restrictive policy, and start actually allowing people to assemble on a public university in the way that it used to be, because this university has a long legacy of activism, and we believe that it’s worth preserving,” Toledo said. “And, we think, some would say, ‘Well, you’re not centering Palestine now,’ but we would say, if we can’t sufficiently organize for Palestine on our campuses and our communities, then how are we supposed to stand with Palestine?”

El Leñador reached out to Chabad HSU Jewish Student organization for comment and has not received a response as of Oct. 9 at 10 p.m.