Simultaneous gatherings were held at Emory University on Thursday evening, hours after an encampment on campus led to clashes with responding officers and multiple arrests.
A small group of Jewish students, local residents and officials stood outside Ali’s Cookies at Emory Village at 7 p.m. for a Passover gathering and to show support for the Jewish community.
Alyssa Achiron, a third year Emory law student and vice president of the Jewish Law Student Association, said the gathering was in response to a pro-Palestinian protest that began around 8 a.m. on the university’s quad.
“I think everyone should protest, I think everyone has an opinion, but I don’t think that people should be nasty,” Achiron said regarding the morning protest.
Following the Thursday morning protest, at least 23 people were booked into the DeKalb County Jail on charges including disorderly conduct and obstruction of law enforcement officers. At least one person was charged with simple battery against a law enforcement officer, while another was charged with aggravated assault and reckless conduct, according to jail records.
Thursday evening, about 30 people stood outside the cookie shop, which is owned by Sagi Shablis, an Israeli who has been in the United States for two years. Achiron said the goal was to stand in solidarity with Jewish students who have been feeling unsafe on campus after several gatherings that have taken place on campus since the start of the Israel-Hamas war on Oct. 7.
State Rep. Esther Panitch helped put the event together and said they decided to meet off campus to de-escalate tensions between students after the morning protest.
Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
Scott Grubman, an attorney at the Chilivis Grubman law firm, also helped plan the gathering and said the intention was to peacefully get together and show students that they have people they can lean on. He and Achiron expressed that the earlier protest was not sufficiently organized and upset many Jewish students.
“Protests on college campuses are as American as apple pie. And I’m all for that, even ones where I don’t agree with. But obviously, you have to do so in a somewhat orderly fashion. You have to try your best not to intimidate people, not to get in the way of people just trying to go to class. And that wasn’t happening,” he said.
Credit: AJC
Across the street from Ali’s Cookies, Zoha Muhammad’s father yelled for a ceasefire and an end to “the genocide.” Muhammad said the two of them were on their way to the quad for a protest that began around 6 p.m. but ran into those gathered outside the cookie shop. They decided to stick around, stating that their efforts were more effective there than on campus.
Muhammad said her father’s goal was to show those outside Ali’s and those driving down the street the other side of the story.
“It’s not about your religion. It’s not about what country you’re from. It’s not even about your ethnicity. Are you a human? Yes. Do you want to see a woman or a baby, a one day old baby, die? Do you support that? No. So you’re on Palestine’s side,” she said.
Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
More than 200 people gathered at the protest on campus that Muhammad was on her way to. Like earlier in the day, the crowd was a mixture of Emory students and people with no affiliation to the university. Police presence was significantly heavier on campus, with a line of troopers standing in front of the Candler School of Theology building and later surrounding the quad as protesters stood in a circle in front of the half-built Commencement stage.
Stephanie Kohler, who came to campus to stand alongside students, said she doesn’t think they should have to speak up in isolation. Though the crowd was chanting and beating drums throughout the evening, Kohler said the protest was peaceful.
“I felt completely safe all afternoon and the only thing that’s made me uncomfortable is that there was a police perimeter over here and there was a helicopter going for a while. It just felt like there was this heavy handed intimidation,” Kohler said.
A smaller crowd gathered on the Kennesaw State University midday Thursday. The event sparked tensions but no police response.
“I’ve only been here a few minutes and someone already called me a Jihadist,” said Ali Dabdoub, a Palestinian KSU student studying software engineering. He arrived late to the demonstration because he was taking an exam.
Carrying a Palestinian flag and wearing a black and white keffiyeh, Dabdoub said he was impressed by the turnout, not just on KSU’s campus, but at colleges across the country.
“Falastin hurrah,” he said in Arabic, meaning, free Palestine.
“I believe the world is waking up,” he said. “I know it’s going to happen. It’s just a matter of time.”
Dave Clark, a Jewish KSU student who is a member of the university’s Chabad and Hillel groups, said the pro-Palestinian demonstrators made him feel unsafe on campus.
Several of the pro-Palestinian students pushed back, saying they peacefully calling for an end to the bloodshed in Gaza.
Clark, a history major, criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and said he believes Israel’s offensive in Gaza is damaging the Jewish nation’s standing in the world.
“I don’t think it reads well,” Clark said, likening the conflict in Gaza to the U.S. wars in Vietnam and Iraq. “However, sometimes you gotta do what’s necessary to protect your people.”
Though they disagreed on Middle East policy, both Clark and Dabdoub were critical of Emory University’s handling of the protest on its campus.
“I don’t believe protesters should be arrested,” said Clark. “As much as I disagree with these people, as much as I think they want me dead, I think in America we shouldn’t arrest people (for protesting). It’s the First Amendment.”
Students on the Emory campus have felt heightened tensions the last few months and junior Caleb Bunch said he wanted to stand in support with students who have been feeling oppressed on campus since the start of the Israel-Hamas war. He attended the morning demonstration and returned Thursday evening.
Bunch said school administrators and staff should attend future gatherings to understand the feelings students are trying to voice during demonstrations. He expressed frustrations regarding emails the university sent students, claiming that Emory officials don’t have a “true understanding of what’s going on” campus.
“It’s a little alarming,” he said of the police response as he watched a Georgia State Patrol trooper ride into the quad on a motorcycle. “I don’t really understand why it’s necessary to have (the) GSP be here especially riding in on motorcycles. But I definitely think it’s important to show solidarity. For progress to actually happen, it does take uncomfortable situations like these.”
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
In a statement, Emory said that around 7:40 a.m., protesters arrived, pushed past campus police and “set up tents in an area where equipment and materials were staged for Commencement.
Emory requested help from the Atlanta Police Department and Georgia State Patrol after campus police “issued multiple warnings at different intervals advising individuals in the encampment that they were trespassing on private property and instructing them to leave,” the statement said.
One person not affiliated with Emory, attacked an officer and was subsequently tased, it said.
The state patrol said officers responding “were met with protestors who threw bottles and refused to leave.”
“During the encampment protest response, Troopers deployed pepper balls to control the unruly crowd but did not use tear gas,” the agency said, adding that any charges would be issued by the Emory Police Department.
Emory’s graduation is scheduled for May 13; the speaker will be Dr. Valerie Montgomery Rice, president and CEO of Morehouse School of Medicine.
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