The spring of 2024 was significant for the unwavering quest for Palestinian liberation not only here in the United States, but abroad as well. Students and faculty across the globe mobilized through various non-violent methods, most famously and more importantly in encampments: the practice of creating makeshift tent communities on college campuses in effort to bring awareness to the greatest injustice of our time. The Biden administration met these students with severe repression and state-sponsored violence, most notably at high profile universities such as Colubmia, UCLA, and even a handful in our own state, VCU and Virginia Tech. After talking with folks on the ground from Richmond and Blacksburg, the situation was every bit as terrifying as it looked on our phone screens. Yet still, it was not even close to what Palestinians face every day.

One of the many lasting memories we have of the encampments was from Columbia University. On April 30, 2024, Hamilton Hall, named after Alexander Hamilton, was barricaded by dozens of students, renaming the famous hall, “Hind’s Hall”, after five year-old Hind Rajab and her family were killed by Israeli occupation forces on January 29, 2024, in Gaza. The capturing of the hall was one of the more significant moments of United States politics in my lifetime. Hamilton Hall holds a huge significance in the history of campus protesting against U.S. involvement in international and domestic injustices. 

The April 2024 event marked the third time in history that Hamilton Hall had been barricaded by students. The first was in April 1968, to protest the Vietnam War and issues of systemic racism going on around the campus. This event resulted in the hall being named “Malcolm X Liberation College,” in honor of one of famed human rights leaders, Malcolm X. The next instance occurred in April of 1985, when a student strike for divestment from apartheid South Africa led to the hall being occupied, then subsequently renamed Mandela Hall, for the illustrious Nelson Mandela, who dedicated his life to see the brutal apartheid end in his home country. 

This brings us full circle to April 30, 2024. Like their predecessors, students at Columbia brought the plight of the Palestinian people, both in occupied territories and diaspora alike. The historical occupations and barricades of the famous building hold a huge historical significance. Both Malcolm X and Nelson Mandela were diehard supporters of the Palestinian cause. Both men visited the Gaza Strip, meeting with Yasser Arafat and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) respectively during trips in 1964 and 1999. 

Here at EMU, the torch remained lit as our community took their own measures in the fight for Palestinian liberation. The bell on campus rang for three non-stop days, in remembrance for every life we’ve lost in the occupied territories. Amongst other mobilizations, the EMU student body and faculty successfully got a ceasefire statement passed in February of 2024, making us the first city in the state to do so. 

These moments are significant in EMU’s history. Back in the 1960s, the school was subject to surveillance from the watchful eye of FBI chief  J. Edgar Hoover, for their mobilization against the Vietnam War, blazing across televisions in every home at the time. Looking forward to the future, EMU has always sat near the forefront of social movements in our area, which is why I chose to attend university here.