Photo by Mouna Rashid
Wisconsin Coalition for Justice in Palestine co-chairs Janan Najeeb (left) and Rachel Ida Buff (right), with MU Students for Justice in Palestine vice president Zena Khatib (center), speak at press conference to bring attention to armed vandalism of a memorial on MU campus to more than 41,000 Palestinians killed in Gaza in the past six months.
Although two weeks have passed since vandals went to Marquette University campus to take down “a solemn memorial for the people killed in Gaza,” and one brought a loaded gun, “we have yet to see anything about it in the press,” said Wisconsin Coalition for Justice in Palestine co-chair Janan Najeeb yesterday at a press conference on Wisconsin Avenue in front of Marquette University’s Raynor Memorial Library.
Wisconsin Coalition for Justice in Palestine held the conference to decry the absence of news about vandalism of MU Students for Justice in Palestine’s memorial to 41,000 Palestinians killed in Gaza since Oct. 7.
WCJP is a coalition of 64 diverse organizations across the state. It includes MU’s, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s and UW-Madison’s chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine. Through the coalition, Christian, Jewish, Muslim and other faith groups and secular organizations have united to work to bring a ceasefire to Gaza and a just solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Photo by Kamal Moon
More than 100 people planted flags April 7 on Marquette University’s campus for Palestinians killed in Gaza since Oct. 7.
“It is so clear to us that had this been reversed, had it been Muslim or Arab individuals that came onto a college campus, vandalized a memorial and came with a loaded weapon, this would not just be statewide news,” Najeeb continued. “This would be national and possibly international news.”
Photo by Mouna Rashid
Around 20 Marquette University faculty and students, several wearing the Palestinian keffiyeh (scarf), listen to speakers who described the harmful impact of the media’s silence on the vandalism of a memorial to Palestinians killed in Gaza.
“Three Zionist extremists, Jewish educators not connected to Marquette, took it upon themselves to desecrate a memorial to the 41,000 people murdered in the Israeli genocide in Gaza,” explained Rachel Ida Buff, Ph.D., who is Jewish. She is the WCJP co-chair and co-founder of Jewish Voice for Peace-Milwaukee.
“They pulled down flags honoring the dead. Imagine! But that’s not all,” she noted.
“Motivated by a sense of endangerment and entitlement, one of these extremists was armed with a loaded Glock on this campus, prepared to menace or worse any threats they might encounter.
“We thank the Marquette University Police Department for their swift action to apprehend and disarm these dangerous extremists,” Buff added.
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“Criticizing Israel is not antisemitic,” said Rachel Buff, Ph.D., co-founder of Jewish Voice for Peace-Milwaukee.
Speaking on behalf of “the Palestinian community in Marquette,” MU Students for Justice in Palestine vice president Zena Khatib also thanked the MUPD for its quick response. “The events that occurred two weeks ago were not just deeply disturbing, but also intimidating and terrifying. To have to worry about our safety because of these three individuals … is deeply terrifying and concerning, more than anything else.”
Photo by Mouna Rashid
Buff, a University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee history professor, called on MU and other universities “to defend our collective rights of freedom of speech and expression.
“Our universities become sites of fake free speech policies, sanctioning free expression in the name of preventing antisemitism. Last week, the world witnessed Columbia University’s brutality against students encamped for Palestinian solidarity. Testifying before a congressional inquisition, Columbia President Shafiq wrapped herself in the lunatic idea that repressing student expression is somehow protecting Jewish students. But we know better. Sometimes this anxiety inspires dangerous vigilante action.
“We know criticizing Israel … is not anti-Semitic. In fact, analysis and critique are central functions of a university … The unholy threats by extremists against Palestinian and other students continue in informal as well as organized ways [to create] a climate that is hostile to the Marquette community, to academic work in general, and Palestinian and other students of color in particular. There is no room on our campuses for any kind of terrorism, Zionist or otherwise.”
(WisPolitics ran WCJP’s press release yesterday about the incident and announcing the press conference.) A video of the full press conference is available here.
(Najeeb is also the founder of the Milwaukee Muslim Women’s Coalition, the publisher of WMJ.)
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WCJP denounces the vandals
“An MU organization placed 41,000 flags to tribute the lives lost in Palestine” and MUPD officers were informed the memorial would be on campus that week, an April 7 MUPD report stated.
According to the report, at 9:37 p.m. on April 7, the same day around 100 MU students and community members created the memorial to Palestinians who lost their lives to the Israeli military’s airstrikes in Gaza, MUPD Command Information Center radioed officers that three women were seen on camera removing flags from the memorial and putting them in bags. MUPD officers went directly to the campus mall, behind MU’s Raynor Library to the south.
The women, not affiliated with MU, were identified as Kathryn M. Hinderks-Schlotman, Alice J. Hinderks-Schlotman and Marnie B. Atias. Kathryn Hinderks-Schlotman had a loaded, concealed gun with her when she was taken into custody.
The three women participate in a group called “Run for Their Lives” that meets every Sunday and walks to draw attention to the Israeli and foreign hostages taken on Oct. 7 by Hamas, the report quoted Atias as saying.
Atias also told officers she called MUPD earlier in the day to complain about the memorial and to ask if the students had permission to create it. SJP followed the student organization event process for approval and received it, MU Chief Marketing and Communication Officer Lynn C. Griffith told WMJ earlier this month.
According to the police report, Atias said the three had been on a walk earlier that day where they discussed a repost in the organization’s Facebook group that announced the creation of the memorial. They decided they would go to Marquette “because we wanted to see what they were doing and what it was all about,” the report quotes Atias saying.
As they were removing flags, MUPD arrived. One officer asked Atias about “the garbage bags full of flags. She stated the garbage bags were to pick up trash.” Atias is also quoted as saying, “I stepped on the flags and I shouldn’t have. We were never going to take anything off the property, just remove them and place them near the garbage can.”
“We wanted to do something that would make a dent,” Alice Hinderks-Schlotman is reported to have said.
Atias and Alice Hinderks-Schlotman were given City of Milwaukee municipal citations for trespassing on private property and theft. Kathryn Hinderks-Schlotman was given citations for trespassing and armed theft. They were given a court date, released and warned to stay off MU property.
The only information distributed at MU about the incident came in a campus-wide email from MUPD on April 8. It said:
“Around 8:30 p.m. on the evening of Sunday, April 7, three subjects not affiliated with the university were taken into custody without incident by Marquette University Police Department and charged with trespassing and theft for removing property from an approved Students for Justice in Palestine flag display on Central Mall.
“The trespassing and theft incident was observed by a MUPD surveillance camera and MUPD officers were on scene within minutes. During the arrest, one individual was found to be in possession of a gun with a concealed carry permit.
“MUPD will continue to monitor Central Mall while the student organization flag display is up April 7-12 to recognize and mourn the loss of Palestinian life in Gaza.”
Najeeb and Buff named the women at the press conference. “We want them (the vandals) and their group, Run for Their Lives, to be watched by law enforcement,” Najeeb said.
In correspondence today, Najeeb explained, “I felt it was important to name them because neither the university nor mainstream media did that. It is important for the anti-genocide community to be vigilant and look out for each other.”
WCJP sent 48 emails with press releases to Milwaukee-area media contacts about yesterday’s press conference, said Gabriella Suliga, co-chair of WCJP’s communication committee. Only WMJ and the Marquette Wire had reporters at the conference.
WMJ contacted Milwaukee Journal Sentinel executive editor Greg Borowski by email yesterday after the conference. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is Wisconsin’s largest and most influential newspaper.
Photo by Mouna Rashid
Students under stress
Palestinian American students said they have been under significant stress since Oct. 7, when the current violence in Gaza began. This vandalism to the memorial exacerbated it, they said.
“This occurred around 8 p.m. right behind the library where many individuals are walking,” Khatib said. She said she had heard concerns from many students through face-to-face conversations with peers and an anonymous phone app.
The thought students might be going to the library to study while someone with a firearm is right there “is very disturbing,” she said. “I have many friends who dorm here. To think you could be sleeping and an armed individual is walking around is very intimidating and terrifying, when, in reality, all that we were trying to convey was the mourning of innocent lives.”
At the press conference, the Palestinian students present did not recall any MU officials contacting them about the vandalism. However, SJP president Amani Dalieh, who was not at the press conference, said that after Israel’s bombardment of Gaza escalated last semester, she reached out to MU Dean of Students Stephanie Quade, Ph.D., about additional support Palestinian American students might need. Many students were upset about the killing of Palestinians in Gaza and/or fearful for the lives of relatives, as well as experiencing political tension, Dalieh said. The dean facilitated communication with MU faculty and staff to raise their awareness of the students’ stress and also contacted Dalieh after the vandalism to express concern for Palestinian students, she added.
MUPD’s April 8 safety alert email about the vandalism also said: “Leaders from the Office of Institutional Diversity and Inclusion and Campus Ministry are reaching out to affected groups on campus for counsel and support.”
WMJ emailed both departments to ask if they reached out to students. WMJ’s request was forwarded to MU Associate Director of University Communication Kevin Conway who sent the following response this afternoon:
“Marquette University staff in offices across campus have been proactive and supportive of the university’s Muslim, Palestinian and Jewish students, as well as their respective student
Muslim Student Association advisor Yasser Khaled, Ph.D., an assistant professor in MU’s School of Dentistry, said while he is not aware of students in MSA being contacted directly by university officials, “After the incident happened, I got a wonderful email from an associate professor here, showing her complete support, saying they were completely disturbed also by what happened and saying they would definitely offer any support needed.
“We also got an email from Joshua Herman, executive director of Hillel Milwaukee (a branch of the international Jewish campus organization). He sent an email to me and Marquette’s Muslim chaplain saying they do not approve of anything like (the vandalism that took place) and they were showing their full support to us and asking if there was anything they could do to help. I really appreciated this communication from him.”
