Pro-Palestine protest at U of A canceled after latest Robbins statement

A pro-Palestine rally at the University of Arizona was abruptly canceled hours before it was scheduled to take place Thursday after UA President Robert Robbins released a statement calling it “antithetical” to the school’s beliefs.

The rally, which was planned by the Students for Justice in Palestine chapter at the UA, was a part of the nationwide organization’s National Day of Action.

Robbins sent the campus-wide email statement on Wednesday night, less than 24 hours before the protest was scheduled.

“We understand that a national student organization with a chapter at the University of Arizona called Students for Justice in Palestine, or SJP, is planning a demonstration on campus tomorrow,” he wrote. “The national organization has made statements endorsing the actions of Hamas in Israel, which are, of course, antithetical to our university’s values.”

Robbins was firm about the university’s relationship with the group.

“I want to be clear that SJP is not speaking on behalf of our university,” he wrote.

Robbins added that “because the University of Arizona has one of the largest populations of Jewish students in our country, this tragedy hits our community especially hard.”

The violence in Israel and Gaza is not simply political, he wrote, but moral.

“As we continue to witness the horrendous acts of terrorism by Hamas in Israel targeted at innocent civilians, including children, this clearly is not just a political debate or incident related to geopolitical differences,” he wrote. “Let’s call it what it is: antisemitic hatred, murder, and a complete atrocity.”

“The resulting war inevitably will result in many more deaths of innocent Israelis and Palestinians,” he continued.

Students for Justice in Palestine is a nationwide organization with chapters at colleges and universities across the country. According to the Anti-Defamation League, in a statement published after Hamas’ Oct. 7 invasion of Israel, the pro-Palestine group described Hamas’ military feats as “a historic win for Palestinian resistance,” and called for “not just slogans and rallies, but armed confrontation with the oppressors.”

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Maha Nassar, the faculty advisor to the UA chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine, said the statements from the nationwide group “do not represent the collective views” of the chapter.

The campus chapter does not receive funding from the nationwide group, she said.

“Due to President Robbins’ inflammatory letter, we no longer feel safe holding our rally on campus today and have postponed it to a later date,” the chapter wrote Thursday in a statement shared to its Instagram page.

It continued, “We encourage our members and allies to prioritize their health and safety in the coming days.”

Nassar says Robbins owes the organization an apology.

“In my capacity as faculty advisor, having watched the shock and fear that students went through as they processed President Robbins’ letter, I think Robbins at a minimum should issue an apology to these students and recommit to upholding his duty of care for all students at the University of Arizona,” she said.

Though Robbins mentioned the deaths of “innocent” Palestinians, that wasn’t enough for some in the group. Many of the rally organizers still felt targeted by the university president, Nassar said.

“By issuing a statement that condemns Hamas again and mentions SJP in the same message it looked to many like he was equating or conflating the two,” she said. “As a result, students felt like President Robbins put a target on their backs; they felt scared, hurt, alone, and vulnerable.”

In their initial announcement of the event, the UA group wrote on its Instagram page that it was planning to demonstrate support for Palestinians and “demand that the US government and University of Arizona disinvest from Israeli apartheid and violence against the Palestinian people.”