Students and community members rallied in support of Palestine on Saturday evening, following  Students for Justice in Palestine’s recent reinstatement as a club by a federal judge.

About 100 demonstrators gathered at Schenley Plaza to show their  solidarity with Palestine. The group marched down Forbes Ave. to Chancellor Joan Gabel’s residence, where demonstrators held “Genocide Joan” signs depicting blood on her hands. 

The march took place days after a United Nations commission concluded that Israel has committed genocide in the Gaza Strip, urging the international community to end the genocide and take steps to punish those responsible. 

Since the Hamas-led attack on Israel nearly two years ago, about 64,000 Palestinians have been killed and an estimated 20 living Israeli hostages remain in Gaza.

Speakers from pro-Palestinian organizations including SJP, Pittsburgh Palestine Coalition and Pittsburgh Boycott, Divestment Sanctions Coalition spoke and led chants such as “Pitt, Pitt, you can’t hide, you’re committing genocide” and “While we chant in Schenley Plaza, there are no schools left in Gaza.” 

Standing outside of Gabel’s residence, Omid Shekari, an assistant professor of studio arts at Pitt who has been outspoken about the University disclosing and divesting possible investments in Israeli weapons manufacturing, said the University should in general be more transparent about its investments. After receiving little response from writing letters and meeting with various administration officials at the University, Shekari said the protest took place in front of Joan Gabel’s house because “there’s no other avenue for having a conversation” with her.

“I joined this crowd to come here in front of Joan Gabel’s house to tell her that she has to come to the table and talk to us, and find a way to divest from weapon manufacturers and those institutions who work with the state of Israel,” Shekari said. “The University is an educational and research institution. It has nothing to do with war and weapon manufacturing.”

Jonas Caballero, who was president of SJP at Pitt in 2008, spoke at the protest about the University’s alleged role in the conflict in Gaza.

“The University of Pittsburgh is not a neutral player. Through research partnerships, financial investments and ties to the war industry, Pitt enables the machinery of genocide to continue,” Caballero said. “At the same time, the administration attacks its own students and staff for speaking out to stop this livestreamed genocidal atrocity. Repression here mirrors repression abroad.”

In an interview with the Pitt News, Caballero said he came to the protest to commend SJP for winning their recent lawsuit against the University. Caballero added that the “crackdown” student organizations are currently experiencing is different than when he was involved as a student. 

“We were able to host most, if not all, of our events. But now, because of the crackdown on First Amendment rights — the crackdown on free speech and assembly — Pitt SJP is going through a lot more because of the time in which we’re living,” Caballero said.

Alejandro Tellez, a first-year finance and political science major who attended the protest, said protesting is a small step in the right direction. 

“I don’t think we can stand by and watch genocide happen and not go out into the streets and talk about it,” Tellez said. 

Draped in an Israeli flag, Matan Rieger, a junior mechanical engineering major, held up a photo of Omer Neutra, an Israeli killed in the Hamas-led attacks on Oct. 7th, 2023. Rieger said he showed up at the protest to advocate for the release of all the hostages in Gaza living and dead and specifically spread awareness of Neutra’s story.

“He was 22 years old — a year older than me. He followed a very similar path to me in life. It could have been me then,” Rieger said. 

Rieger said he came to raise awareness about all of the victims in the crisis, including the Israeli hostages.

“My goal is that the war stops as soon as possible and everyone returns home,” Rieger said. “Their goal seems to be more focused on ending the war and not worrying about the people that are being held hostage.”

On his way to a performance of Pitt Tonight, Jacob Love, a first-year undecided student, stopped to join the protest. Love said he had never been to a protest before, and this encounter will persuade him to attend more in the future out of concern for the conflict.

“It’s important that [pro-Palestinian] are heard, and we give a voice to the people who don’t have a voice,” Love said. “It’s a horrendous act, a horrendous genocide that’s happening, and I’ve got to be against that.”

Attendees began marching along Forbes at about 7 p.m., with Pittsburgh police vehicles trailing behind. Jamie Rogers, a community member from Monroeville who attended with his wife and two sons, said his wife is half-Palestinian and has family living in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

“Everything that’s going on with the kids really tears me apart. We hear about all these kids that are starving, all these thousands of kids that are dying. And every day we think, ‘what if that was our kids?’” Rogers said.

Carl Redwood, a former adjunct professor of social work at Pitt, said he believes the climate of free speech has shifted since Trump’s second term, causing more people to fear speaking out. Because of this, Redwood said, people may be deterred from protesting when they see prominent voices being censored. 

“If you see Students for Justice in Palestine getting banned on campus, then other students say, ‘Wow, that might be us too,’” Redwood said. “We have to take a stand for justice and stand for people to live. If we don’t, the same thing that happened in Nazi Germany could happen and is happening as we look at it right now.”

John Thompson, who is a staff person with the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America, said the union’s delegates recently passed a resolution calling to end the genocide in Palestine. 

“Justice is universal,” Thompson said. “If there’s people being oppressed, whether in Palestine or wherever, then all people are oppressed.”

The march down Fifth Avenue came to a halt at Bigelow Boulevard at about 8:30 p.m. and dispersed shortly after.