SEMO students protest the occupation of Palestine

Student-led protests have been present across the nation, and SEMO students joined in on the activism by hosting a Free Palestine Protest. Participants spread awareness and expressed their disdain regarding Israel’s current occupation in Palestine.

The protest, hosted by the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), took place on May 3 outside of Kent Library.

Sophomore secondary education major and president of SDS Catelyn Roberts said their main goal was to get students more educated about the war and encourage them to contact their Senators and House Representatives.

“There is no way we could possibly ask for a ceasefire; that is not something that we could do individually. We really want to raise awareness about what's going on here and get more students informed,” Roberts said.

Many of the protesters felt passionately that even though Cape Girardeau is nowhere near the Gaza Strip because so many people are suffering, it is important to help however possible.

Carlee Ashby, sophomore historic preservation and anthropology major as well as secretary for SDS, believes that Israel is no longer fighting just Hamas but committing genocide against the Palestinians as well.

“It doesn't matter where you stand in this conflict. This is a genocide. It's a humanitarian crisis. Thousands of women, children and innocent people are dying and are being rejected for medical aid, food, clean drinking water and for women, sanitary menstrual supplies. It's just not okay. No matter where you stand, people deserve to be treated as people. And if this was truly about a war against Hamas, there was a better way to go about this,” Ashby said.

According to an infographic handed out at the protest, 34,262 Palestinians have been killed, 14,500 of which have been children.

Within the past several weeks, nationwide college campuses have been the location of other Free Palestine Protests, many of which have ended in the arrests of hundreds of students and other protesters.

While police were present at the protest, no arrests were made, and no violence occurred.

Sophomore historic preservation major and protester Ella Rhodes said that the Cape Girardeau Police Department has never taken action against protesters before, so she wasn’t scared of being arrested.

“I've protested a lot in Cape, and I think Cape cops are pretty relaxed. And I don't think we would ever get as violent as other protests across the nation do,” Rhodes said.

If students have any questions on how to get involved with SDS, they can contact newsds.cape@gmail.com.