As pro-Palestine student protests continue to spread across — and roil — university campuses nationwide, Utah has seen two different experiences. The first protest at the University of Utah grew heated as police moved in, tore down tents in President’s Circle and arrested 19. The second night was quieter.
While it started in front of the university’s administrative building with calls for the liberation of Palestine and demands that the school divest from its financial ties to Israel, the protest moved across town to the county jail. A student organizer was arrested early on into Tuesday night’s rally. University Police say it stemmed from actions that happened the night before.
Organizers called for the crowd to head to the Salt Lake County Metro Jail, where they continued the vigil. They demanded the release of their colleague. The evening wrapped up early, because, as Deja Gaston with the Party for Socialism and Liberation explained, they want to keep momentum for their cause without burning people out.
Protests like these have repercussions beyond the events themselves. The Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish organization working against antisemitism and other forms of hatred, said antisemitic incidents in Utah were up 327% in 2023.
But given the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, these demonstrations also give Palestinians hope that people are paying attention.
KUER asked two Utahns with very different views what they thought about the demonstrations.
The first is Mustafa Khader, a businessman who has lived in Sandy, Utah, for two decades. The 73-year-old Palestinian was at the county jail protest Tuesday night. The second is Salt Laker Rabbi Moshe Nigri, director for Chabad at the University of Utah, a Jewish student congregation.
Khader and Nigri’s comments have been edited for length and clarity
What Khader hears at the protests
Of course, I'm in support of such an event. It's very, very pleasing to know that the generations that are coming out now are the younger Americans — taking back what is the American value. Freedom. I mean, that's totally American. And it's not a privilege of the white people. So, they're coming out for the rest of us. I'm very proud of those young Americans.
I really think they’re really reaching a lot of people. And allow me to quote Gibran Kahlil Gibran, who's an American Lebanese poet. They are the future. We are the past. We strive to be like them. We don't try for them to be like us. Because we know our history. We messed the world up. They are trying to fix what we messed [up].
When they chant “we want Palestine to be free from the river to the sea,” we never shouted, “we want Palestine Free of Jews.” We want freedom for all. We want equality under the law for all because that’s what brings peace and not superiority of one ethnic group [over] others. And bragging about the only democracy in the Middle East [is] Israel — that's a big hullabaloo. Because an ethnocracy is the basis of apartheid. It’s not a basis of democracy. Democracy for all does not disclude anybody.
As much as I grew up in the Muslim faith, I'm very, very [adamant] that my god is inclusive and not exclusive. He is not going to ask me to come to his heaven because I'm a Muslim. He will ask me, how do you treat my creation?
I might differ with Hamas on their ideological beliefs. But I cannot condemn Hamas for what they're doing. They're part of the oppressed population and an oppressed population and occupied population have by law, the right to resist, by all means possible.
We have the same right, like the Americans had when they revolted against the British. And don't forget that our founding fathers were called terrorists by the British.
I would hate to see anybody taken up [as] hostage … under any circumstances. But I wonder why we don't ask what we think about the 1000s of hostages that have been taken by Israel? Or these are not white enough? They're not Judeo-Christian enough?
I want the world to know that we Palestinians thrive asking for peace for ourselves and for everybody else on Earth. The solution is not a two-state solution. The solution is a secular democratic state for everybody like it used to be before the colonizers came and messed it up.
What the protests say to Rabbi Nigri
The Chabad rabbis, we have a group together, and we always chat about how to make the Jewish students feel more safe. So I always thought to myself, “University of Utah, nothing's going to happen over here because most of the people actually, they are polite.” When I heard it did come here, I was very, very concerned.
Free speech is important, but some things [are] not to be said and not to be chanted, as “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” and “intifada” and all these things which literally means to kill the Jewish people living in the land of Israel. A lot of them are relatives of mine and all the Jewish students on campus. I think it's not something that should be allowed to be said out loud and chanting and having signs, saying these hateful things towards the Jewish people.
Most of the students told me they are concerned [about] what's going to be in the future. Till now the protest was well handled by the University of Utah.
Actually, one incident did happen with one student. He was walking by the protest and so [they] asked him, “Are you protesting with us?” And he said “No.” And so they asked him why? And he said, “because I am Jewish.” So they said, “you are Jewish, so you're a Nazi.” He didn't respond. He just walked away.
I tell them all the time, that fighting back with chants and protests and physically or anything like that — it's not a good idea. The best way is unity.
We have a dark room, there are two ways of fighting the darkness. One way is fighting the darkness, which means trying to get away [from] the darkness. Another way is just turning on the lights, a candle in the darkness. And right away, automatically, the darkness is going to go away.
I tell them all the time that the Jewish students should be strong and should be proud. Jews shouldn't give in to any of the protests. They should feel proud to be Jews and should get together. And that's why we have Chabad on campus. It's a safe space for all the Jewish students to be connected to the roots of Judaism.
