Ember Duke | layout editor

A protester masked in a keffiyeh stood at the intersection of Forbes Avenue and Bouquet Street on Saturday afternoon, reading testimony by people in Gaza from the night of the ceasefire break.

The crowd listened, circling her in a somber silence. Palestinian flags were raised high, ruffling in the wind. The protester asked the crowd to look to the sky and remember that they didn’t have bombs flying overhead. People’s eyes shifted up to the overcast, but calm Pittsburgh sky for a moment of stillness.

The protest occurred amid legal action between the University of Pittsburgh and student run organization Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), who on March 18 were placed on interim suspension and told to cease all club activities.

Starting and ending at Schenley Plaza, the off-campus “emergency protest,” was attended by community members and organizers who marched through Oakland chanting in a steady cadence.

“From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free. From the sea to the river, Palestine will live forever.”

“Not another nickel, not another dime. No more money for Israel’s crimes. Not another penny, not another dollar. No more money for Israel’s slaughter.”

“Palestine is our command. No peace on stolen land … Resistance is justified when people are occupied.”

Pitt’s campus and the proximate area has, for the past year-and-a-half been the grounds for some of the loudest voices in pro-Palestinian activism in the city — last summer, tents scattered the Cathedral of Learning lawn, while protesters asked for the university to divest its funding from institutions that fund Israel in a 36-hour encampment.

Genaro Cuevas drove to this city from his home in Virginia to attend the protest — his reason — Pittsburgh’s activism.

“It’s the least I can do,” Cuevas said after spending the afternoon walking ahead of the protesters and waving a free Palestine flag in the air.

Karim Safieddine, Pitt sociology Ph.D. student, who is not a member of SJP, told The Duke the movement is twofold — it intends to address both the global context of war in the Middle East and free speech in America. He said the movement needs a way to mobilize the student body.

“I think [the] organization [SJP] is here to stay as a community of human beings,” Safieddine said.

On the night of March 17, Israel dropped bombs across the Gaza Strip, killing marathon 400 people in a few hours, effectively ending the ceasefire between the two countries and bringing the estimated Palestinian death toll of the 17-months-long war to over 50,000, according to the Associated Press.

Just two days after the bombing, SJP received another letter from Pitt that threatened further disciplinary action against the club for promoting Saturday’s protest on their Instagram page on grounds that co-sponsorship of an event violated the suspension, according to a letter from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

However, promotional materials did not list SJP as an organizing member.

The ACLU filed a letter on March 21 demanding the university walk back its suspension of SJP, which was enacted following an open letter from SJP to the university, on grounds that the club “improperly” communicated with the hearing board.

SJP’s open letter — also signed by 27 other university-affiliated organizations and 46 other community groups — was in response to disciplinary conferences for a solidarity “study in” the club held in December at Hillman Library.

“The university’s March 19 letter threatened to sanction SJP for off-campus speech beyond the scope of the university’s regulatory authority, in patent violation of the First Amendment,” the ACLU letter said.

At the protest, some people held signs asking for the release of Mahmoud Khalil, the Columbia University student and vocal pro-Palestinian activist, who despite having a green card, has been detained by ICE since March 8.

Columbia has been the hotbed for the Trump administration’s crackdown on student visas — particularly with a heavy hand for students who are outspokenly supportive of Palestine and involved in demonstrations. Many scholars say it is an attack on First Amendment rights, according to the Associated Press.

Tuesday night, Rumeysa Ozturk, a Tufts University student, was arrested and detained by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security agents while on her way to meet friends for Iftar, the meal that breaks the daily fast during the month of Ramadan, according to the Associated Press. Security video footage shows six masked people, not clearly marked as police officers, grabbing her and taking her away. Her lawyer told the Associated Press they do not currently know her whereabouts, but she is listed on the U.S. Immigration and Custom Enforcement’s online detainee locator system as being in Louisiana.

Though she was not closely involved in protests, Ozturk was one of four students who wrote an op-ed in The Tufts Daily last March, criticizing the university’s response to the war and asking it to divest its funding. Her name, photo and work history were posted on Canary Mission — a website that said it documents people who “promote hatred of the U.S.A., Israel and Jews on North American college campuses,” according to the Associated Press.

ACLU Legal Director Witold Walczak, who is representing SJP, said that as of Tuesday, discussions with Pitt are still ongoing.

“Our view is that SJP at University of Pittsburgh were being punished for what is clearly First Amendment protected activities,” he said.

Given the current suspension, Pitt also cancelled an “Iftar Teach In: Islam in Palestine” that SJP had planned, according to their Instagram page.

Pitt alumna Elaine Linn who attended Saturday’s protest, said she is concerned by the disciplinary action against SJP.

“As a Muslim-American with deep Arab connections, it’s very close to discrimination,” she said at the protest. “[I] hope our state officials and university officials listen to the crowd.”

Despite hail, protesters marched for over two hours, holding flags, banners and photos of children who were killed because of the conflict.

Jacob Blumenstein, a Jewish community organizer, who attended the protest, said a system that is comfortable with the oppression of one group, can justify the oppression of anyone.

“I think everybody has a stake in the dehumanization and extermination of Palestine and of Palestinians,” he said.

Before marching, a speaker asked the crowd to repeat the chant “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” in arabic.

Protestors on bikes circled the crowd, creating a human barricade at some intersections, so traffic would not disrupt the demonstration. Police cars followed behind the crowd, only engaging once to tell them they had to clear an intersection, to which a voice from the crowd called out: “[Expletive] you!”

Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Pittsburgh member Emily De Ferrari spoke, rallying the crowd’s energy before the march. She asked who’d shown up to protest for Palestine before. Many cheered loudly. Part of her organization’s goal is to protest the manufacturing of F-35 fighter jets, which the United States sells to global allies.

“One thing Trump has done [is] rip the scab off America,” she said in her speech. “We need working people against [the] empire of fascism.”

She said the struggles of every oppressed group are interconnected.

“All these attempts at putting down resistance … is in servicing the capitalistic ideal,” De Ferrari said.

Megan Trotter contributed to this report.