Penn State's 'Students for Justice in Palestine' covers HUB lawn with white flags

WPSU | By Sydney Roach

Published October 11, 2024 at 11:00 AM EDT

The HUB-Robeson Center's lawn on Penn State's University Park was covered with thousands of white flags Thursday. Penn State’s “Students for Justice in Palestine” group is hosting a “week of action” to mark the one year anniversary since the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel and the beginning of Israel’s bombardment of Gaza.

This week marks one year since the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel and the beginning of Israel’s bombardment of Gaza. Penn State’s “Students for Justice in Palestine” group is hosting a “week of action” on the University Park campus.

The HUB-Robeson Center's lawn was covered with thousands of white flags Thursday.

Roua Daas is a third year graduate student. She’s on the executive board of Students for Justice in Palestine.

“We have 18,600 flags on the HUB lawn today. Over the past year, Israel has murdered what is estimated to be at least 186,000 Palestinians in its genocide in Gaza," Daas said. "All of these flags that you see, 18,600, every single one represents 10 different people that have been murdered by Israel.”

Gaza’s Health Ministry said Wednesday that the Palestinian death toll is about 42,000. But a study published in “The Lancet” medical journal estimates the real number could be closer to 186,000 when indirect causes of death like disease and malnutrition are counted.

A sign explains the 18,600 white flags on the HUB Lawn on Penn State's University Park campus. Organizers say each flag represents ten people killed by Israel since Oct. 7, 2023.

Daas said these flags help students visualize the loss of life in Palestine.

She also hopes to pressure Penn State to financially divest from any companies that profit from war, and she says she wants to get the university to stop doing weapons research at its Applied Research Laboratory. The lab gets funding from the U.S. Navy.

“Our university is complicit in the war industry; it kills people in order to make profit," Daas said. "And so, that is the last thing that we are trying to communicate, that we as students on Penn State's campus have power, and we have power to further the liberation of the Palestinian people and of oppressed people worldwide.”

A missile replica sits in the HUB-Robeson Center's lawn, surrounded by white flags and signs. Organizers with Penn State’s “Students for Justice in Palestine” group want to get the university to stop doing weapons research at its Applied Research Laboratory.

“Students for Justice in Palestine” will cap off their week of action with a vigil on the Old Main Lawn Friday night.

Penn State Hillel, a Jewish student life organization, held its own vigil on October 7th to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the Hamas attack in Israel. That attack killed about 1,200 people, according to the Associated Press. Another 250 were taken hostage, and around 100 are still in captivity.