Pro-Palestinian Students Protest Israeli Politician’s Speech at UT

By Shunya Carroll and Sarah Gonzales

Reporting Texas

Pro-Palestinian protesters condemned the University of Texas for allowing  a former Israeli prime minister to speak on campus as part of Hillel International’s Teach-In tour Tuesday night at the LBJ School of Public Affairs. 

“Today we are not here to engage with counterprotesters. We are not here to engage with police. We are simply here to peacefully exercise our First Amendment rights,” said a UT Palestine Solidarity Committee member named Hadi, who declined to provide his last name. 

Texas Hillel Foundation would not allow reporters to attend Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s speech, citing unspecified security concerns from the university. Only invited guests were allowed at the UT stop on Bennett’s tour of college campuses.

The pro-Palestinian protest was the first at UT since spring, when protests and arrests here made national headline amid college protests nationwide calling for an end to Israel’s military response in Gaza to the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks by the Palestinian group Hamas.

UT has since revised its free speech and demonstration policy, declaring that “free speech can be used to expand knowledge, debate ideas and bring awareness of different views and experiences” while setting rules for acceptable conduct. The university said it had no role in hosting Bennett’s appearance Tuesday.

About 160 to 200 protesters demonstrated on the LBJ Lawn outside Bennett’s speech Tuesday, and organizers said they intended to abide by UT’s demonstration rules.

Police and staff from the dean of students office blocked the entrance to the LBJ Auditorium and eventually taped off a perimeter to keep protesters 100 feet away. No arrests were made. 

“They disgrace our campus by bringing a genocidal war criminal to one of our buildings,” Hadi chanted.

Bennett led Israel’s New Right Party and served as prime minister in 2021-22. He and 22 other speakers are part of a Hillel Teach-in tour of 140 campuses.

Not all Teach-in events have faced protest. Bennett spoke at Emory University on Monday without incident. But his visit to the University of Michigan in April had to be moved online because of protests. 

As Bennett spoke at UT, protesters outside called for cease fires in the Mideast and rallied with signs, flags, instruments and chants in support of Palestine. 

Jazmine Rad, a sophomore who said she’s Jewish, attended Bennett’s talk and came outside to see the protest. 

“It’s really upsetting to see something like this on the campus that I go to everyday,” Rad said. “The chants are really upsetting to hear. This is my place of learning and peace.”

Rad said Bennett showed “he has the utmost respect for Palestinian people.” 

“You have to have an open mind and talk to people,” said UT student Severin Lukic, who also attended Bennett’s speech. “If you spoke with those protesters, to any of the people here, I feel there would be a lot that we agree on than we disagree.”

Lukic said that pro-Palestinian protesters are “coming from a really good place… but some of the things they say, it’s very hateful and I don’t think they realize that.”

He hopes that eventually the two communities can find a mutual understanding and respect. 

“I can be pro-Israel, but that doesn’t mean that I’m anti-Palestinian,” Lukic said. “It’s not like a zero-sum game where one side is completely in the wrong, and one side is completely right.”