A symposium in support of Palestinian causes was moved off campus one day before it was scheduled to take place.
UF’s General Council said the event was wrongfully listed as university-sponsored.
“This event’s organizers wrongly marketed the event as a UF-sponsored event,” university spokesperson Cynthia Roldan said in an email. “It is not a university event and was not compliant with the university’s use of space policy.”
The War in Israel and Palestine, hosted by Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine and Students for Justice in Palestine, was relocated to the Westminster Presbyterian Church in Gainesville Nov. 1.
Adrian Roitberg, a UF chemistry professor, reserved the room for the symposium, although he said he did not plan to attend. The day before the event, he received an email from Flora Marynak, who works at the computer science engineering building, saying “that nobody should show up.” University police later contacted him with the same message.
While Roitberg did not have strong connections to the event, he said UF “should not shy away from these kinds of conversations, completely independent of the content.”
Event organizers Malini Schueller, a UF English professor, and Marilyn Wende, a UF health, education and behavior professor, said they were unconvinced by UF’s reasoning.
“The reason that they gave is smoke and mirrors,” Schueller said. “We were given the excuse of, ‘This is not a university event and space,’ because the lawyers are too clever to voice what is really at issue here, which is that anything that might relate to Palestine is out.”
Schueller said the university’s decision was extremely disappointing, especially after having dedicated 35 years to UF in its English department.
Wende added the cancellation felt like another barrier for students to understand Palestinian issues.
“They [UF] need to understand that they cannot silence us,” she said.
After the event was relocated, academics like Judith Butler and activists like Ranna Abduljawad gave talks related to the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.
Speakers gave talks on topics like humanitarian crises in Gaza and the West Bank, U.S. politics concerning the conflict and ways in which to have conversations about Gaza. Abduljawad, a Jacksonville-based activist, discussed the conflict’s history in relation to the militant group Hamas.
Abduljawad said Hamas has become a point of over-focus in the conflict, especially given that Hamas is not as active in the West Bank as it is in Gaza.
Nevertheless, she described raids she experienced as a child living in the West Bank under the guise of seeking out militants.
“[Soldiers] can come into your house, come and pull everything upside down–the closet, the bed, the mattress,” she said. “We literally have to stand on the side and watch them do that to our private and personal belongings.”
She also discussed her experience with children who came to the U.S. after suffering extreme injuries during military operations, including a boy who lost part of his skull and a girl whose bones were crushed in the rubble of a collapsed building.
Abduljawad said people living in the U.S. have a special responsibility to speak out against international conflict, especially with the country’s support for and allyship with Israel.
Helping students better understand the conflict will support long-term results for the Palestinian movement, she added.
“We have this responsibility now, we became the voice of Gaza,” Abduljawad said. “We are the voice of these kids.”
Contact Avery Parker at aparker@alligator.org. Follow him on X @AveryParke98398.
Avery Parker is a third-year English and History major covering university affairs for The Alligator. Outside of reporting, Avery spends his time doting on his cats, reading, and listening to music by the Manwolves.
