UW-Milwaukee Gaza protests; students stage walkout
MILWAUKEE - Dozens of University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee students walked out of classes in support of Palestine on Wednesday afternoon, Oct. 9.
The protest is one of many walkouts happening across the country this week.
The UWM Popular University for Palestine Coalition is the group that organized the walk out, which lasted for about three hours Wednesday. The group said they won't stop protesting until their demands are heard.
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They are calling for a ceasefire and demanding the university cut ties with Israel.
"I will continue fighting for what is right," Palestinian student Sideen J said. "Fighting every single day to urge UWM to cut these ties and end these atrocities. Several organizations with this coalition have been relentlessly advocating for an end for this violence."
The walkout comes a little more than a year since the start of the Israel-Gaza conflict on Oct. 7. Per the Associated Press, Gaza’s attacks killed more than 1,200 people in Israel that day. An estimated 41,000 Palestinians have been killed since the year-long war.
A block or so from the UWM protests sits the Chabad on Campus. Rabbi Lev Voskoboynik said Jewish students are focused on staying united.
"We heard about the protest," Voskoboynik said. "Our job is whenever we see darkness, what can we do to lighten it up. Amid all the protests, students screaming on campus and lobbying universities, but what I see now is the Jewish students feel a certain sort of pride that wasn’t there before."
Rabbi Lev Voskoboynik
There’s unity on both sides of the conflict.
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"I will continue fighting for what is right, even if my own school is against me," Sideen J said. "To fight for our free Palestine."
A UWM spokesperson said in a statement the university is "aware of the student walkout and picket today" but nobody was available for comment.