The Philadelphia-wide coalition of pro-Palestinian activists at Penn and other city colleges said that the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attacks on Israel were a “necessary step” and that its march near campus last week served to commemorate the Palestinian resistance on the attacks’ one-year anniversary.
“The people of Gaza have been suffocated by a brutal military blockade, subjected to constant ruthless bombing campaigns, denied the right to import lifesaving medicine and clean water, and forced to rely on foreign aid since 2007,” the Philadelphia Students for Justice in Palestine Coalition wrote in a statement published on Instagram on Oct. 12.
“The breaching of the literal prison walls that were imposed to subjugate and break the spirit of the Palestinian people was not merely a symbolic gesture of revolution, but a necessary step towards the liberation of a colonized people,” the group continued.
Philadelphia SJP includes the University’s largest pro-Palestinian student group, Penn Students Against the Occupation of Palestine, as well as students from several colleges in the city and its surrounding suburbs, including Drexel University and Temple University. In its Oct. 12 statement, the group recounted the coalition’s Oct. 7 march to Pennovation Works and described it as a form of support for Palestinians’ resistance to “a combined 105 years of violent British and Zionist military occupation.”
The coalition’s march and rally culminated in the arrest of at least four individuals in front of Pennovation Works — a Penn facility housing Ghost Robotics, which develops and sells four-legged robots to be used for “data collection, intelligence, security, asset protection, and military-specific uses.”
Protesters have called for the University to end its relationship with the company since last spring, alleging that it produces robotic dogs used by the Israeli military.
In the post, Philadelphia SJP remembered the anniversary of the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attacks on Israel, writing that on that day, “the Palestinian resistance in Gaza broke out of their open-air prison, in what would later be known as Al-Aqsa flood” — Hamas’ code name for the attacks. During the incursion, Hamas militants killed 1,200 people in Israel and took another 254 hostage.
The Oct. 7 anniversary also marked one year since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war, during which Israel’s retaliation and subsequent siege on Gaza has killed nearly 42,000 Palestinians and displaced nearly two million people, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health.
This statement marks the first time that pro-Palestinian activists at Penn and other Philadelphia colleges have explicitly backed Hamas’ attacks in official communication. During Penn’s Gaza Solidarity Encampment in the spring, some participants engaged in a chant praising the Al-Qassam Brigades — the military wing of Hamas — but did not explicitly back Hamas’ attacks or refer to them as a “necessary step” on any other occasions.
The encampment attracted a range of pro-Palestinian activists from Penn and across Philadelphia. The Daily Pennsylvanian could not confirm which activists and speakers were Penn students.
While Penn Students Against the Occupation played a significant role in the encampment and posted several statements on behalf of the encampment during its duration, the group did not have an official connection to the demonstration.
During the Oct. 7 rally and march, chants recited by protesters included, “Israel, Israel, we know you, you murder children too,” and “Refugees will return, Netanyahu you will burn.” At times, rhetoric at the rally expressed support for the actions of militant groups, with speakers expressing support for the Al-Qassam Brigades as well as Hezbollah. Speakers expressed support for these groups more frequently at the Oct. 7 rally than at previous demonstrations organized by pro-Palestinian student organizers in Philadelphia. Philadelphia SJP’s Oct. 7 march, and its subsequent statement, came after some pro-Palestinian groups mourned Israel’s assassination of Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah on Sept. 28.
“[O]ur universities are not just passive bystanders,” one speaker said at the rally. “They are active collaborators in the ongoing colonization, complicit in the machinery of apartheid and genocide.”
Philadelphia SJP focused the second half of its Oct. 12 statement on recounting its recent march, calling “the existence of the Pennovation compound … the most visible reflection of UPenn’s values.”
The demonstration, which began at Drexel Square Park with an hour of speakers and chants before marching to Pennovation Works, was titled “One Year of Genocide” and was the first planned action by Philadelphia SJP. When protesters arrived outside Pennovation Works, a participant told the crowd that they intended to prevent employees from leaving at the end of the workday by physically blocking the flow of traffic through the property’s main driveway.
The group wrote in the Instagram post that they “disrupt[ed] the flow of work there for two hours. The compound was not accessible … for those inside who chose war crimes as a career.”
Protesters were met with a significant Philadelphia Police Department presence throughout their demonstration, including an altercation between police and protesters during which a protester lit a canvas sign on fire with a smoke bomb. During the altercation, several protesters were pushed to the ground and at least one PPD officer deployed a taser against a student.
“The PPD in a cowardly attempt to intimidate us, brought in dozens of riot cops who proceeded to choke, tase, tackle, and assault multiple student protestors before making 5 arrests,” the SJP statement read.
The DP was only able to confirm that four individuals were arrested and was unable to confirm if any were affiliated with Penn.
“It is clear by the persistent police presence at Palestine solidarity actions in the past year that the ruling class has identified us as a threat,” the statement reads. “[B]ut we have a job to do, and our work is far from finished.”
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