University of Oklahoma Students for Justice in Palestine holds 'study-in' protest demanding divestment

The University of Oklahoma’s chapter of the controversial anti-Israel student group Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) recently staged a “study-in” demonstration to protest the university’s ties with companies that have connections to Israel.

OU’s SJP group has long requested that the university administration divest from all companies that have connections to the Jewish state, according to OU Daily.

The SJP group advertised the “study-in” on its social media pages prior to its commencement. “Join us this week for three days of studying and protest,” the organization posted. “As we go in to finals week we are reminded that students in Gaza have had their right to education stripped from them by ongoing u.s.-israeli [sic] genocide.”

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“Our University is not innocent,” the group continued. “OU funds weapons manufacturers, normalizes their presence on campus, and gives labor to them. Demand disclosure and divestment at our study-in.”

The “study-in” was held between Dec. 3 and Dec. 5 between 12–4 p.m. in the Bizzell Library on OU’s campus, according to the group’s Instagram post.

“Our demands have always been the same of divestment, and so us sitting here and studying, we acknowledge our privilege of being able to continue our education here in the U.S.,” one protester stated about the demonstration, according to OU Daily. “But we also understand our university’s complicity in the genocide that has ended a generation of Gaza’s chance of education. And so we continue to call on our university to stop being complicit in the genocide in Gaza.”

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But the university administration responded during the demonstration by removing Palestinian flags and posters that the student demonstrators had placed in the library, a video posted by OU SJP shows.

“Our university would rather rip down flags that say ‘books not bombs’ or ‘divest’ rather than actually try to stop murdering children,” said another pro-Palestine OU student. “I think that really shows where your tuition is going, where your money is, where the heart of the university is.”

“It’s not for Palestinians. It’s not for people of color here,” the student continued. “It’s strictly for supporting militarism and capitalism in the U.S., and that’s my issue, and I think you can start to see it really impact the people here as we saw yesterday.”

Campus Reform has contacted the University of Oklahoma for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.