Students for Justine in Palestine rally for divestment at Records Field

Students gathered at Records Field on Thursday afternoon to call on Rutgers University to divest from weapons manufacturers that supply Israel’s military.

The rally took place inside the university’s designated protest zone, where Rutgers police surrounded the area and some entrances were blocked off to passing students. Protesters were not permitted to march.

An organizer with Students for Justice in Palestine, who works in communications and political education for the group and declined to give a name, said the group wants Rutgers to cut financial ties with several defense companies. “We are fighting for financial divestment from weapons manufacturers such as Lockheed Martin, L3Harris, and Northrop Grumman, but also Palantir,” the organizer said.

The group also wants Rutgers to end its partnership with Tel Aviv University. The organizer pointed to Rutgers’ history with South Africa as a model. “We believe it’s possible to financially divest because it has done so in the past with South Africa, so that is our model.”

This isn’t a new fight. In May 2024, Rutgers ended a four-day encampment on Voorhees Mall by agreeing to eight of protesters’ 10 demands, including accepting displaced Gazan students and planning an Arab Cultural Center. The university did not agree to divest or to cut ties with Tel Aviv University.

The organizer said Rutgers has since fallen short. “They have only fulfilled about one or two,” the organizer said. “So we are trying to get them to fulfill the demands they already agree to, such as building an Arab center.”

The organizer also said SJP is currently suspended and that its application for reinstatement has stalled, claiming Rutgers has tried to “push back our reinstatement for very arbitrary and seemingly nonsense reasons.”

According to the organizer, the group was not told ahead of time about the barricades. “As far as I’m aware, we did not know that we would be barricaded,” the organizer said. “So this is new to us.”

Under Rutgers’ rules, groups must book a permit to use the zone, and demonstrations must end by 4 p.m. The organizer said the zone was created after the 2024 encampment and is meant to limit visibility. “It’s in a secluded area, also purposely to not give us visibility,” the organizer said. “You have to book a permit for it, which is kind of ridiculous because that’s not the point of a protest.”

Speakers took turns addressing the crowd, and several focused on the HELIX, the life sciences hub in downtown New Brunswick that opened in September. Protesters said Tel Aviv University has a presence there, a claim the hub’s leadership has disputed. “That’s why they have felt the need to block off any entrance and hide you behind this little divot,” one speaker said.

Other speakers addressed the human toll in Gaza. “We must remember Zainab, a Palestinian woman I knew who survived the bombs her children did not, and who repeated their names each morning through the dust,” one speaker said.

Some speeches went further. One speaker called the Oct. 7 attack a “revolutionary act” and urged the crowd to celebrate it. Hamas, which the U.S. designates as a terrorist organization, killed about 1,200 people in Israel that day. “October 7th is not something to be scorned. Quite the opposite,” the speaker said. Another speaker said resistance to occupation should be achieved “through every means possible,” including armed resistance.

The demonstration remained peaceful. SJP said it will keep pushing for divestment and for an end to the protest zone rules.

Story by Anna Deriabin.