Lehigh University junior Dylan McFarland is Jewish, but he took an active role in helping to organize a student-led, peaceful “Palestine Solidarity Week” that culminated Friday on campus in a rally to demonstrate support for a ceasefire in the Middle East.
He said he grew up with a Jewish-led narrative that “Israel is this great thing,” but he has also realized people are people, with similar needs and wants.
So throughout his young life, even as an organizer of events that could have caused a powder keg of disruptions or worse regarding war a half a world away, McFarland said he has lived by a principle of empathy. It’s why he was involved in events for the week that also included hanging banners and chalk art, an interfaith vigil and a “cultural potluck” meal.
“It doesn’t matter what you claim to hold as home,” he said ahead of Friday’s rally, “We deserve this basic principle of acknowledging each other and general humanity.”
While local campuses have seen demonstrations without disruptions or violence, students elsewhere across the U.S. and the world have set up tent encampments at colleges, refusing to leave courtyards or academic buildings leading to clashes with the police.
New York City police in riot gear stormed a building on the Columbia University campus on Tuesday after students refused to leave. The Columbia students were forcefully removed after a two-week standoff, the Associated Press reported. More than 100 students who refused to leave a tent encampment were arrested Thursday at UCLA.
Local organizers said the Lehigh rally, which drew an estimated 250 people, was the biggest student-led, pro-Palestinian demonstration in the Lehigh Valley to date. It drew students from Lehigh and Lehigh’s staunchest rival, Easton’s Lafayette College, which has held similar rallies on campus over the Israel-Hamas War.
Protests have also erupted at local municipal meetings in recent months, including one in March that disrupted a Bethlehem City Council meeting.
The more than six-month old war has resulted in an overall Palestinian death toll of more than 34,000 people, according to media reports.
Campus protesters at Lehigh and elsewhere called for their universities to disclose any financial investments from companies and institutions that profit from the conflict in Gaza, and to divest from Israel “and weapons manufacturers.” At Lehigh, grants are awarded to students to study in Israel and other countries abroad.
The Friday afternoon protest was largely peaceful. University police escorted a few students from the campus flagpole after they seemed about to climb the structure.
After about 45 minutes of speeches, the crowd began marching down Packer Avenue with chants of “Free Palestine” and “Disclose, divest. We will not stop. We will not rest.” People held various signs, including one that read, “Israel bombs, Lehigh pays” in large black letters.
Student Aisha Memon, who is studying mechanical engineering, said she would like schools such as Lehigh and governments such as the United States to end the use of their engineering technology for overseas conflicts. “They should not be using their skills to create war, rather they should be using it for peace,” she said
Lehigh University spokeswoman Amy White said earlier Friday she was not aware of any unruly behavior or arrests with the students’ actions.
In a statement, she said the college has been communicating with student demonstrators “to support a peaceful campus environment and their right to respectful free expression, while minimizing disruption to our educational mission.”
Local authorities also have not reported any serious disruptions.
White said she was unable Friday to provide a response to questions about the school’s investments. Lafayette spokesperson Scott Morse could not be reached for comment.
The nationwide protests have put Jewish students on edge. At Lehigh on Friday, freshmen Arthur Pevzner and Jedd Frydman came to watch the rally as members of the Lehigh Friends of Israel, and over concerns that the spoken words might escalate into antisemitic remarks. They said that they saw chalk drawings during the week that had some antisemitic comments.
“I don’t feel safe here,” Pevzner said, but he and Frydman both said at the same time that they are proud of their Israeli heritage. “Our homeland is Israel,” Pevzner said.
Aaron Gorodzinsky, development director with the Jewish Federation of the Lehigh Valley, said Jewish campus-life groups locally have not experienced any issues with any of the protests.
The federation is “concerned and alarmed” by tactics and violence on college campuses nationwide that have been directed at Jewish students, faculty, and staff who disagree with any of these movements, he said.
“While freedom of speech is a fundamental value, these protesters, who value their free speech, have not permitted others from dissenting their views,” Gorodzinsky said. “As President Biden said. ‘There’s the right to protest, but not the right to cause chaos.'”
Morning Call reporter Anthony Salamone can be reached at asalamone@mcall.com.
