Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights holds emergency demonstration
The Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights student organization at Cleveland State University held an emergency demonstration in Public Square Feb. 3 after Israeli forces killed nine Palestinians in the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank on Jan. 26.
Haneen Hamideh, president of the Solidarity Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR) organization, battled the freezing cold with a small group of demonstrators to bring awareness to the recent events in Jenin.
“We’re here to stand in solidarity with all the people still suffering today in Palestine and all of the souls that we’ve lost,” Hamideh said. “We hope that this raises awareness, and we hope that Palestinians at Cleveland State and in Cleveland in general know that they’re not alone, we have a community here.”
The January raid was the latest development in Operation Breakwater, an Israeli military campaign launched nine months ago after deadly Palestinian terrorist attacks in spring 2022.
The operation has contributed to the highest death toll in the occupied West Bank since the second Palestinian uprising ended in 2005. About 150 Palestinians and 30 Israelis were killed last year, rights groups said. The Jan. 26 raid raised the Palestinian death toll in 2023 to 30.
The Jenin camp is one of the largest of the 19 camps in the West Bank. It is also one of the poorest. It was here that veteran American-Palestinian journalist, Shireen Abu Aqleh, was shot dead on May 11, 2022, most likely by Israeli forces, the U.S. concluded in its investigation of the killing.
Pro-Israel counter protest
Also in Public Square on the day was Alec Popivker and his wife, countering the SPRH protest.
Demonstrators on Feb. 3 at Public Square, Cleveland hold signs that share their message after Israeli forces
killed nine Palestinians in a raid Jan. 26 on the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank. (Credit: Ryan Yeary)
“It’s typical Semitic-blood libel dressed as modern-political civil rights advocacy, which it isn’t,” Popivker said of the pro-Palestine demonstration.
Popivker was arrested Jan. 25 on Cleveland State’s campus for violating a student's temporary protection order. CSU on Feb. 1 banned Popivker from campus for at least two years, a decision he told Cleveland Jewish News he plans to appeal.
Popivker, who spent five years living in Israel after his family escaped anti-semitism in Ukraine, said he believes that the Free Palestine movement is also anti-semitic. He told The Stater that if anyone from CSU were to go to Palestine they would not survive long.
When asked about his recent arrest and if he plans on returning to Cleveland State's campus in the future Popivker said “of course.”
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