Over 40 people gathered for a “Rally Against Hamas Propaganda” on Thursday at Showalter Fountain. The event was organized in part by Günther Jikeli, associate director of the IU Institute for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism.
The rally comes eight days after the start of an ongoing pro-Palestinian encampment in Dunn Meadow, less than half a mile from Showalter Fountain. Police forcefully arrested 57 peaceful protesters in the encampment April 25 and 27.
During the rally, at least five IU Police Department cars were parked around the fountain, and multiple IUPD officers watched over the event.
Jikeli said the rally was not a counterprotest against the Dunn Meadow encampment. Instead, he said it was a rally against rhetoric he considered violent.
Demonstrators set up signs, including ones that read “Hamas propaganda has no place at Indiana University” and “Disarm Hamas.” Others held Israeli and American flags.
IU students, faculty and Jewish leaders spoke at the event, including IU Hillel Executive Director Rabbi Sue Silberberg, IU Chabad co-Executive Director Rabbi Levi Cunin and Hoosiers for Israel president Sophie Shafran.
Silberberg led the chant, “Bring them home,” referencing hostages taken by Hamas during its Oct. 7 attack. Hamas took around 250 hostages and has since released 110 hostages. The Israeli military believes Hamas is still holding around 100 hostages and the remains of more than 30 others, according to the Associated Press.
About 1,200 people were killed by Hamas’ attack, according to the Israeli government.
In response to Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, the Israeli government launched an airstrike campaign and ground offensive in Gaza, killing more than 34,000 Palestinians, two-thirds of them women and children.
Suspended IU professor Abdulkader Sinno recorded with his phone as demonstrators spoke. IU suspended Sinno in January following its denial of a room reservation for an event hosted by the Palestine Solidarity Committee while Sinno was the group's adviser. During Silberberg’s speech at the rally, Cunin called out Sinno.
“We have over here someone that’s taking a video because he doesn’t like that we’re against Hamas, and that’s terrible,” Cunin said.
In an initial statement, Sinno said Cunin and Silberberg are not defending Judaism, but rather Israel’s “apartheid regime.” In a statement then revised before publication, Sinno responded to Cunin’s claim:
“Levi Cunin, Günther Jikeli and Sue Silberberg are confused,” the statement reads. “Hamas has no presence and no supporters at IU. They may be calling our peaceful students supporters of Hamas as a desperate tactic to avoid acknowledging that they are defending the mass killing of Palestinians. There are more Jewish students and faculty in the Gaza camp than there were in the short Israel demonstration. This wouldn't be the case if the Gaza encampment were pro-Hamas. I was recording because I want to have an archive to use in future classes to show students how different sides see reality in this conflict. I also record pro-Palestinian activities when I can.”
Silberberg alleged students on campus have also violated the IU Student Code of Conduct. Specifically, she claimed Jewish students’ rights to learn in a safe environment, express themselves freely, and expect an instructor will be sensitive to a student’s religious identity have all been violated, among other claims.
She described accounts from Jewish students of being told to oppose Israel in a class, having Israeli flags ripped from them and being spit on due to their identity or support for Israel.
“If we are championing free speech, that means free speech for everyone, not just one community,” Silberberg said.
The IDS is unable to verify claims that students were told to oppose Israel in a class, had Israeli flags ripped away from them or spit on due to their identity, at this time.
The IDS is currently attempting to verify other alleged antisemitic incidents by looking at police reports and conducting more interviews.
Cunin spoke and led several chants of the Hebrew phrase “Am Yisrael Chai,” meaning “the people of Israel live.” The crowd chanted along with him.
Sophie Shafran, president of Hoosiers for Israel and campus liaison for “StandWithUs,” a nonprofit Israeli education organization, said students have expressed to her they are scared, feel unheard and think nothing they do can be seen as right by others because they are Jewish.
“I have made it very clear in all of the activism I’ve done that I do not want any destruction to any Palestinians, any Muslim students, any Arab students, any Palestinian students,” Shafran said. “And I would like to feel that same respect back on us. I don’t speak for everyone, but I do speak for the majority of people that have expressed these opinions to me, and I will say that is the majority opinion.”
While Shafran spoke, a passerby yelled, “free Palestine.” Demonstrators at the rally responded, “from Hamas.”
She also criticized the use of phrases such as “we don’t want a two-state solution” which refers to the rejection of a proposed Palestinian state independent from Israel.
A two-state solution would have both Israel and Palestine be two independent nations, though proposed borders vary.
Though there are disagreements among pro-Palestinian protesters in general about supporting a one or two-state solution. IU Germanic studies professor Benjamin Robinson, who is Jewish, supported the idea of a one-state solution. Robinson was arrested at the encampment April 25 while peacefully protesting.
One iteration of a one-state solution, according to some pro-Palestinian advocates, calls for a unified Israel and Palestine under shared governance with equal rights for all citizens. Other versions call for a singularly Jewish or Muslim-governed state.
Robinson said a one-state solution could be similar to the ending of apartheid in South Africa into one unified state with equal rights for all.
Jack Wasserman said his daughter, who is a graduating senior at IU, asked him to attend the rally with her. Though he is from Charlotte, North Carolina, he said he has noticed a rise in both antisemitism and support toward Jewish people since the Oct. 7 attacks nationally.
Antisemitism has grown 400% since the Hamas attack on Israel Oct. 7 compared to the same timeframe between 2022-23, according to a report from the Anti-Defamation League. The report includes incidents of “antisemitic rhetoric, expressions of support for terrorism against the state of Israel and/or anti-Zionism.”
Wasserman said allegations of genocide perpetrated by Israel — which many pro-Palestinian protesters levy — recalls memories of the Holocaust for many Jewish people. Though he said his gut favors a ceasefire in the war, he also disagrees with calling the Israeli military’s actions a genocide.
The International Court of Justice issued a preliminary ruling in January stating there was “plausible” evidence Israel was violating portions of the 1948 Genocide Convention. While the court ordered Israel to increase aid in Gaza and prevent acts of genocide, it did not order a ceasefire in the war. However, Israeli officials rejected these allegations and argued representatives from South Africa, who brought the case to the court, were “weaponizing” the international convention against genocide.
Wasserman specifically referenced the chant “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” which pro-Palestinian protesters at IU have used prior to and during the encampment, as antisemitic. According to the Anti-Defamation League, this phrase has been used by Hamas and other groups to call for the destruction of Israel through violent means.
But other Jewish people and protesters have said they don’t feel the chant is antisemitic. Robinson said he doesn’t consider the phrase antisemitic. He said he thinks people distort the phrase into calling for violence against Jewish people. Instead, he believes it calls for the freedom of all people in the region.
Max Portnoy, an IU graduate student who is Jewish, said he attended the rally to support Israel. He pointed toward a sign reading “Free Gaza From Hamas,” to explain his message, along with supporting freeing the hostages remaining in Gaza.
On Oct. 9, IU Hillel and Chabad held a vigil at Dunn Meadow to honor the lives lost in the Oct. 7 attack. The gathering was originally planned to take place at Sample Gates, but the university recommended it be moved to Dunn Meadow because leaders expected a large turnout. The Palestinian Solidarity Committee held a protest simultaneously at Sample Gates advocating for peace in Palestine and condemning any violence. Some students from Dunn Meadow later walked to the PSC demonstration — leading to a clash between the protesters.
At the vigil, Portnoy said he heard several people in cars driving by yelling “free Palestine” and saw them waving Palestinian flags, which he felt mocked the event.
Portnoy said the chants of “Intifada” from the encampment have made him uncomfortable. He called the chant inherently violent, as the phrase could reference two Palestinian uprisings against the Israeli occupations of the West Bank and Gaza which took place in the late 1980s and early 2000s. The uprisings resulted in the deaths of more than 5,000 Palestinians and about 1,400 Israelis.
Portnoy said he couldn’t speak for people chanting “Intifada” or “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” at the encampment, but said he felt the phrases were both inherently violent.
However, the phrase also means “the shaking off” or “rebellion” in Arabic. Many protesters use the phrase to support resistance against Israel, Robinson said.
