Florida students hold die-in for Palestine

Tallahassee, FL – On Wednesday, November 19, students at Florida State University came face to face with the horrors of Zionism when they went to class. Outside FSU’s largest classroom building, 15 members of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) from Tallahassee and Jacksonville laid on the ground, standing in for the corpses of Palestinians murdered by Israeli forces. They held signs documenting the names and stories of martyred civilians, while speakers condemned FSU’s partnership with arms manufacturers which supply t state of Israel.

Onlookers watched as representatives of Tallahassee SDS, Jacksonville SDS, Sunrise Movement Tallahassee, the Tallahassee Community Action Committee, and the Freedom Road Socialist Organization protested FSU’s complicity in the genocide, including its partnership with Boeing and the many research contracts FSU has fulfilled for other arms manufacturers and the U.S. military-industrial complex.

Police swarmed the event, including state troopers – there were more cops surrounding the protest than there were protestors. Speakers and attendees were told they couldn’t shout or clap during classes, because students may hear them through the thick brick walls and learn about their university’s guilt in this genocide.

Delilah Pierre, from the Tallahassee Community Action Committee mocked this unreasonable demand, stating, “So, I don’t want to talk too loud, because yelling is apparently worse than genocide – when I’m talking about genocide, I need to make sure I have a normal and calm voice, so I can talk about the war criminal [IDF soldier Yair Ansbacher] that FSU brought on campus in a respectful and appropriate way. So, this war criminal that FSU brought on campus, this murderer is literally part of the Israel Occupation Force. This man has literally plotted to murder children. And he gets to go on this campus and stain FSU with his blood, with his genocidal campaign. But we can’t speak too loudly, because it offends the people here.”

Tavyan Dorsey from Tallahassee SDS condemned the university for its longstanding repression of pro-Palestine students, stating, “FSUPD and FSU admin have attempted to do everything that they can to break our spirits, but we know that what we are doing is right. We know that we’re standing against the genocide that will be remembered for the horror that it is. And FSUPD, FSU admin, [FSU President] Richard McCullough, [VP of Student Affairs] Amy Hecht, every member of FSU admin that has attempted to silence people who are standing against a genocide, are complicit, and they will be remembered not for being leaders of this university, but because of their crimes in assisting this genocide.”

To be a part of future actions with Tallahassee SDS, visit @tallysds on Instagram and Twitter. For Jacksonville SDS, visit @jax_sds on Instagram.

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