At noon on Nov. 16, students in support of a ceasefire and Palestinians affected by the Israel-Palestine conflict walked out for the second week in a row to voice their position. They gathered on the lawn outside the MS Building on the Main Campus, holding signs and chanting cries condemning President Biden and Israel and other shouts of empathy for Palestine.
Coincidentally, students from MacArthur High School were on a field trip at UTSA that day and were surprised to see the political activity unfold.
“This is the last college we get to come to see [this year],” a member of the trio said. “It was real cool that we got to see this, a real college rally and protest. Like an actual college experience. [Our program] is just like, your GPA, getting to college, and not so much the social aspect. To be here in it, at it, and see the social aspect, it’s nice.”
For this walkout, activists brought out bloodied baby dolls, a symbol of the majority child population that has been killed in Gaza, in strollers that they walked with as they toured around the plaza and left stationary in front of them during their chants.
Also this week, across the Rowdy statue and on the opposite end of the lawn, a new display in solidarity with Israelis being kept hostage by Hamas appeared. Dozens of chairs with blue and white balloons attached to them bore their “Kidnapped” posters on the front of the seats.
The second walk-out had a smaller showing than the first, and following the local and state coverage from last week’s walk-out at the Sombrilla, organizers at UTSA opted to share their narrative with the Paisano. Another National Shut Down for Palestine is planned to take place on Friday, Nov. 24.
