Pro-Palestinian, labor rights groups hold May Day protest Sunday at UT Tower

On a Sunday May morning at the University of Texas, students popped champagne in the fountain, pose for pictures with friends and family, and stroll peacefully through the otherwise quiet campus. The calm morning is easy to mistake for any other, except there were several groups of police officers, the wandering media, and orange and white boundaries marking the Tower Plaza as "closed."

Pro-Palestinian protesters, including families, children, students, staff and community members, started trickling in about 10 minutes before noon to the South Mall for a planned protest for May Day to call on UT to divest from weapons manufacturing companies that contribute to Israel. By the time protesters began speaking, hundreds of people had gathered.

"Today is coming out really in support of our labor organizers," Rawan Channaa, a UT senior who led chants at the rally, told the American-Statesman. "We know very well that our struggles are interconnected. UT could not function without the labor of its student faculty and staff, and people are demanding that UT divest."

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More than a dozen organizations came together to plan the May Day protest at the UT Tower to show unity between workers' rights and Palestinian rights. The organizations, which included UT groups, local groups and national pro-Palestinian groups and labor groups, had originally organized the May Day protest for Wednesday — just two days after the April 29 surprise encampment on the South Mall resulted in 79 arrests — but it was later rescheduled to Sunday.

The South Mall is where protesters have gathered on campus for educational sit-ins and the surprise encampment since April 24, when the first pro-Palestinian demonstration resulted in more than 50 arrests. More than 130 people have been arrested during protests at UT in the past two weeks, but no one was arrested at Sunday's demonstration.

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As speakers began, children blew bubbles and medics offered water to everyone in the crowd. An organizer gave protesters a list of "community agreements," including to not engage with police or counter protesters, and to not push, pull or throw anything.

Protesters at universities across the nation, some turning violent and taking over campus buildings, have demanded their universities divest from Israeli weapons manufacturers and have called for a ceasefire in Gaza, where more than 30,000 people have been reportedly killed amid bombardment by Israel in response to a deadly Oct. 7 attack by Hamas, a Palestinian militant group.

At UT, protesters have also demanded amnesty for all those arrested and have called for the resignation of UT President Jay Hartzell, who along with Gov. Greg Abbott called Texas state troopers to the April 24 protest.

Speakers, which included UT students, UT Austin Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine, a representative from Underpaid at UT, and a representative from the Palestinian Youth Movement, spoke against the police intervention at other protests.

"I was so excited to start here at this college, where my big sister goes, where my mom went, where my dad went, where my grandmother went, and where my mother is a professor," Arwyn Heilrayne, a UT freshman, said at the protest. "But then I learned that this place, this place that I was told was my home, was funded and profiting off the murder of over 14,000 children."

Heilrayne was arrested at the April 24 protest. After that experience, she said she "will never again feel safe" at UT.

"My home sent the people who are supposed to protect me and they took me to the ground," she told the crowd Sunday. "They twisted my arm behind my back until I couldn't feel my hand and they threw me in a cell by myself for more than 14 hours."

Officers from the UT, Austin and state police forces were present before and during the May Day protest, but did not intervene with the demonstration. UT spokesperson Mike Rosen said the university does not disclose security details when asked about what other measures UT took before the protest but said the university has been clear on its intent to enforce its rules.

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At the protest, Craig Campbell, an associate professor in Anthropology, spoke with other faculty members in support of Palestinians and students' rights to demonstrate.

"We are campus workers who support Palestinian liberation," Campbell said, his words echoed by faculty members behind him. "We are inspired by student activism ... We believe in the power of our voices together."

Campbell spoke out against "dehumanizing rhetoric" to describe the violence in Gaza, and said faculty members support Palestinian liberation and call for a ceasefire.

Community members also came to the protest to show solidarity with the groups' cause and activism. Aman Odeh, a pediatrician in Austin who traveled to Gaza in May to work in neonatal care, held up her phone to the crowd where a child from her host family, Mohammad, thanked protesters for turning out and said the movement gave them hope.

Odeh, who spoke to the Statesman after the protest, said the war is affecting more than civilian casualties. The malnutrition and lack of medical equipment in Gaza is affecting everyone, she said.

"I had to let go of so many babies who otherwise would have been saved if we had the equipment," Odeh said. "A baby, in my hands, because we lost ventilators, there were no ventilators."

Odeh said the young generation and the protest at UT on Sunday gives her hope. She wants people to educate themselves on these matters.

"Ceasefire now," Odeh said. "We could be saving lives today."

Mohammad Khaleel, an orthopedic surgeon from Dallas who spoke at the rally, returned in April from a trip to Gaza working at the European Gazan Hospital. He said people told him when he left to tell their stories, to not forget them.

"The injuries that we saw there are worse than what we expected to see," Khaleel said. "The amount of devastating dramatic implications, life threatening injuries, children with bullets in their heads, these are things that we didn't expect to see so much of."

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'This is a long-term battle'

Every day since the April 24 protest, a few dozen people have gathered peacefully on the South Mall for educational teach-ins led by UT faculty and staff members, to build community, share food, and host workshops around protesting. People have also gathered at the Travis County Jail to support those who have been arrested upon their release, including staying outside the facility overnight, occasionally chanting.

On Sunday, protesters chants included "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free," "Free Palestine," and "No justice, no peace."

The Palestine Solidarity Committee, a UT-student group which is under interim suspension after holding the unauthorized April 24 protest in which police arrested 57 individuals, was listed as a supporting organization of Sunday's protest, though it did not organize the April 29 protest, when 79 people were arrested after setting up an encampment.

Khaleel, the orthopedic surgeon from Dallas, said that these protests are creating real change because they help people pay attention to what's happening and pressure universities to divest.

"Students have always been on the right side of history. And so don't underestimate the power of (their) voice," Khaleel said. "I think ultimately, we're going to see positive change."

UT's investments are managed by UTIMCO, which manages investments for both the UT System and Texas A&M System. In a post on X on Sunday, Abbott said the demands for divestment "will NEVER happen" and that Texas and UT "will use all law-enforcement tools to quickly terminate illegal protests."

Channaa, the UT senior who has been at most of the protests at UT, said she believes the student movement will make an impact and continue throughout the summer, with more help from the community as students leave school to go home for the summer.

As she prepares to graduate next week, she said the only way the university can repair trust with her and other students is to divest.

"We understand the history of other liberation movements in the past, we know that nothing happened in the span of weeks, it took months, even years," Channaa said. "This is a long-term battle."