Seeking Justice: The Repercussions of Our Peaceful Protest Against Genocide
By Parker Hovis and Keely Gliwa
One would think in our modern age, with knowledge of past horrors and the everyday people that enabled them, that protesting against genocide would be encouraged. Yet, the reality across the United States is the direct opposite. First Amendment rights are being trampled to conceal growing criticism of Israel’s blatant violations of international law. Such repression occurred at the University of Florida in late April of 2024, as part of a concerted national effort to silence anti-genocide, anti-apartheid, and anti-colonial speech on college campuses. For nine individuals arrested in the Plaza of the Americas, now known as the UF 9, the supposed misconduct which triggered their arrests was sitting peacefully in folding chairs while playing cards. A campaign has begun to demand the frivolous charges, criminal and academic, be dropped immediately. Sign the petition, connect us with legal support, donate to the legal fund, and learn more at https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/drop-the-charges-against-the-uf-9/ – or by following @UF9ForPalestine on Instagram. We are a subset of the UF 9, and this is our story of how our lives were uprooted for engaging in peaceful protest against the US funded genocide in Gaza.
Media misrepresentation reduces the protests and student movement to “pro-Palestine” and “anti-Israel”. In reality, students are protesting against decades of impunity that enables the genocide, of which the United States is the primary abettor by providing Israel with unlimited political, financial, and military backing. This complicity extends to all corners of society, including academia – which student protesters are primarily focused on. As a public institution, UF uses loopholes in transparency laws to avoid disclosing financial information to the public. Citizens are kept in the dark about how UF’s multi-billion dollar endowment is invested. However, we do know UF regularly partners with weapons manufacturers like Lockheed Martin, which sponsored a UF course on ethics in engineering while producing hellfire missiles used on school children and hospital patients. So these students, faculty, staff, and tax-payers gathered to demand their institution disclose its financial ties, and divest from all institutions complicit in genocide.
The “Liberation Zone” (LZ) at the Plaza was a space for a diverse community to grieve together. Christian, Jewish, Muslim, and non-religious students alike gathered, joined in prayer, and shared challah. Elders would drop off food, reflecting on their past – seeing themselves in the protesters and encouraging them to keep up the fight. People regularly stopped and asked what they could do to help. The LZ served as a means of educating people who were unaware of the situation, or had a distorted understanding of the history and reality of the occupation. On one occasion, a Rabbi engaged with a student who questioned a guest speaker’s story about losing family in Gaza. The Rabbi encouraged the student to read about the occupation, and return the next day to discuss further.
Students, faculty, staff, and community members came together at the LZ to share books, watch documentaries, and hold vigils. Despite the nature of these activities, demonstrators were under constant police surveillance. Police incessantly approached demonstrators with spontaneous and arbitrary rules. For example – food and drinks, donated by the community, were suddenly barred one evening. There was no explanation as to why or who this order came from. It became clear that it did not matter what we were doing. The University had decided to find, or create, any reason to discourage our presence on campus. This was embodied by a new, unsigned, and typo-filled list of rules that lacked reference to official UF regulations. It was inconsistent with everyday life in the Plaza – a designated “free speech zone” where students frequently prop up hammocks, chairs, and tables to share ideas, information, and food. Students repeatedly tried to clarify these rules by requesting communication with UF administration. These requests were denied.
Governor Desantis, former UF President Ben Sasse, and UF Dean of Students Chris Summerlin portray us as hostile, disruptive, and a threat to campus safety. In truth, the afternoon at the LZ leading to our arrests was unextraordinary. People studied for finals, ate lunch, or relaxed with friends. The group read eulogies for victims killed in Gaza. One student sat quietly by himself in a folding chair. This chair was indistinguishable from those permitted in previous days at the LZ, and is identical to chairs used by hundreds of tailgaters during football games. After escalation by police over this chair, over 20 UFPD and FHP officers were sent to apprehend the now three people sitting peacefully in folding chairs playing “UNO”. As officers surrounded the group, some with batons drawn, protesters began chanting for the first time that day: “Disclose! Divest! We will not stop, we will not rest!”. Students’ demands for financial transparency and divestment from genocide were ignored, as police made the arrests and confiscated the chairs. The chanting broke out into condemnations of the police disrupting a peaceful assembly. Five protesters were initially arrested: the three in chairs, and two standing nearby. Officers re-entered the crowd several minutes later and grabbed four more individuals, totaling nine arrestees – conveniently the number of seats available in the police van waiting nearby.
The UF 9 were held in police custody for almost 24 hours. All were trespassed from campus, and the six UF students were immediately placed on interim suspension. Dean Summerlin unilaterally overturned students’ conduct boards following the conduct hearings, which recommended far more forgiving punishments – including deferred suspension and probation. Although he did not attend the hearings, he imposed disproportionate three-year suspensions and violated UF policy to overturn any findings of ‘not responsible’ to ‘responsible’. The return of former president Kent Fuchs has not shifted UF’s extreme response, and he has not responded to faculty-led efforts to meet. UF’s drastic retaliation against peaceful protest has significantly impacted our lives. All student scholarships and financial aid were revoked, leaving some individuals to take on thousands of dollars in unexpected debt. Multiple individuals lost their housing, with some being immediately kicked out of on-campus housing. Our personal information has been shared in fervent efforts to threaten our safety and future careers. One student has been denied job opportunities already, while others have been harassed at work. Being banned from campus has uprooted our social lives, preventing us from attending classes and other campus events. The true scope of damage to our livelihoods and futures over a peaceful assembly is immeasurable.
Spread the message and put pressure on UF and the State to drop the charges! We sincerely appreciate the outpouring of support from various faculty, student, and civil rights organizations. Statements from these organizations are listed on the petition page. We must keep up the pressure and not allow the State to punish citizens for speaking out against genocide, apartheid, and colonialism!