On Friday, April 4 at 4:00 p.m., the Brandeis Jewish Bund gathered on the Great Lawn for a demonstration and marched through campus in support of Palestine. The gathering aimed to condemn the University’s “complicity in the ongoing genocide of Palestinians,” the Trump administration, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrests/disappearances and the forces of U.S. imperialism, as explained in an April 2 post on the Bund’s Instagram page. The group of demonstrators consisted of at least 100 students, and onlookers ranged from administrative staff and faculty to eventual counter-protesters. 

In the past, most of the Bund’s events have focused on raising consciousness through vigils, history posts, webinars or “events for Jews that have been alienated by the institutional Zionism of chartered Jewish Life groups (like [Brandeis] Shabbat events),” a Bund representative told The Justice in an April 6 email exchange. With their Friday protest, the Bund’s efforts turned outwards with the first major campus protest for Palestine since the Nov. 10, 2023 rally.

On April 3, the day before the protest, Vice President of Student Affairs, Andrea Dine, and Vice President of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging, LeManuel Bitsoi, sent out an email entitled “Community and Free Expression” that underlined safety as their primary concern in regard to the upcoming protest. The message urged attendees to be aware of the potential consequences of their actions, how they may affect vulnerable community members and the privacy concerns that could arise from posting photos without the subject’s consent. Dine and Bitsoi encouraged everyone to review the Campus Use of Space Policy, Student Rights and Responsibilities' policies on campus protests and demonstrations and discrimination and harassment. They also noted that non-Brandeis community members are not permitted to participate in on-campus demonstrations. 

The Bund stated that in the days leading up to the protest, they were in coordination with the administration about safety concerns and assured both the University and their own members that they would comply with any dispersal orders. “Safety was our first immediate priority,” the Bund stated. The organizers emphasized the “hundreds” of collective hours that were dedicated to preparing security plans that would prevent any arrests from happening that Friday. 

Three “Student Support Team” staff members, identified by their neon yellow vests, were present at the demonstration and worked to diffuse any potentially harmful behavior in the vicinity, such as close-up recordings of the protesters. Members of the National Lawyers Guild were also in attendance to provide legal support in the event of an arrest — a decision that the Bund explained was informed by the Nov. 10, 2023 rally for Palestine where seven protesters were arrested, three of whom were students.

The demonstration began with safety announcements that reminded participants not to engage with press, police or agitators. The first speaker shared that at the last vigil the Bund held, they reflected on an image with the name and face of a three year old child, Mariam Telbani. Telbani, who was killed in an air raid in Gaza, reminded the speaker of the Jewish prophet Miriam. “If  you grew up in a Jewish environment like me, you'll know who Miriam is,” the speaker said, explaining how the prophet Miriam led the Hebrew women across the Red Sea with a hand-drum and a song. “ I remembered the prophet Miriam, and I should hope that every child everywhere, every child in Gaza deserves to be remembered for 2000 years.”

Multiple speakers spoke on how they were brought up in Zionist families and have since come to deny those beliefs. “ I have come to reject that identity here at Brandeis, despite it being the home of the cultural reproduction,” one speaker said. 

Another speaker asked for participants to stand in solidarity with their immigrant neighbors in the wake of increased ICE raids under the Trump administration. “We are denied due process. We're denying dignity in our own community — a city built by immigrants,” they said. 

One speaker called for a moment of silence in commemoration of the lives lost “in Gaza and Lebanon and all the places that Israel has terrorized.” They invited participants to follow in a peaceful march to the front of campus. Demonstrators descended the staircase underneath the Bernstein-Marcus Administration Center and moved towards the University’s main entrance. They then crossed Loop Road and settled on the grass strip sectioned off by South Street and Old South Street, whereon the “Brandeis University” stone entrance sign stands.

This route from the Great Lawn down to the University’s main entrance was planned to “keep students from being corralled by police in the event of a crackdown,” they told The Justice.

Gradually, more observers arrived and watched from the sidelines. Some onlookers stood just off the edge of the demonstration, while others observed from across the street. In a whirlwind of passing cars, monitoring security vehicles and university shuttles, many passersby honked their horns either to show their support or disdain with a thumbs up or down.

At around 4:40 p.m., another set of demonstrators showed up in support of Palestine — a few holding percussive instruments used to accompany their chants — and walked down from the side of South Street facing the Brandeis/Roberts train station to those on the grass by the University entrance. 

Not five minutes later, a third group of participants approached from the other side of South Street and rendezvoused with the main crowd of protesters. About a dozen of these students were carrying wooden signs painted as various book covers, such as Hegel’s “Phenomenology of Spirit,” Antonio Gramsci’s “Prison Notebooks,” Huey P. Newton’s “Revolutionary Suicide” and C.L.R. James’ “The Black Jacobins,” among others. They stationed themselves in a line at the edge of the road verge and kneeled against their signs, which acted as a makeshift barricade between the demonstrators and the spectating security and Brandeis police units. 

Over the course of the approximately two-and-a-half hour-long demonstration, a vocal oppositional group formed on the sidewalk leading up to Slosberg Music Center. They shouted phrases like “I would buy them better megaphones. … We’ll get them megaphones with Israeli flags on them,” “we can’t really hear you. Enunciate please” and “55 are dead, we need to bring them home.” “Bring them home,” the counter-protesters chanted repeatedly. 

Members of the initial protest eventually began engaging with counter-protesters’ disapproving remarks. Some members of the demonstration began chanting, “All the Zionists are racists,” as well as “long live the Intifada” and “Brandeis, your hands are red. 200,000 children dead.” One counter-protester shouted, “Call me a Zionist, I fucking love it. I’m proud of it.” Amid high tensions, both sides kept to their own space on opposite sides of the road at the entrance’s intersection. 

At around 5 p.m., Brandeis Police moved toward the skybridge at the Gosman Sports and Convocation Center to address a crew of approximately six demonstrators who were blocking the road with a banner that read “Bassel al-Araj” — the name of a Palestinian writer killed by Israel’s Yaman police force. The demonstrators left the street and the matter was seemingly resolved. The same “Bassel al-Araj” banner was briefly wrapped around the Brandeis University sign. “Resistance is justified when people are colonized,” the crowd chanted. “Resistance is justified when people face genocide.”

At around 5:40 p.m., the protesters proceeded to march counterclockwise up Loop Road, past East Quadrangle and around the front of Skyline Residence Hall. Followed by counter protesters, Public Safety and several security vehicles, the group continued down to Loop Road passing the Shapiro Science Complex and returned to the grass strip by the Brandeis University entrance sign at approximately 6 p.m. 

One member invited demonstrators to sit down and relax as organizers passed out snacks, water and handouts. They announced resources for mutual aid and encouraged listeners to reach out to the Bund if they find themselves in need. “We want students to know that, in the event of ICE presence, doxxing, or other concerns, there is a support network available,” the Bund wrote to The Justice.

As the demonstration began to draw to a close at 6:40 p.m., participants gathered in a compact semi-circle at the center of the main entrance’s road intersection, with those holding the wooden signs still bordering the side facing police presence. From an exterior standpoint, what appeared to be a heat haze rose from inside of the cluster of students. Two Brandeis police officers swiftly moved in on members of the crowd who then dispersed immediately, after which there was no more fire. All that was left were hardly-discernible American and Israeli flags in a pile on the ground. 

“We made it clear that any dispersal orders would have been followed. Instead, at the end of the protest, police moved in to make arrest[s] despite not issuing a single dispersal order,” the Bund wrote to The Justice regarding their preparatory safety measures. As of press time, The Justice can not verify if the officers were moving towards the crowd to arrest demonstrators. 

All students involved in the demonstration were able to evacuate safely with no arrests made. 

On the evening of Monday, April 7, Interim President Arthur Levine sent an email to Brandeis community members expressing disapproval of the Friday demonstration. “Most of the masked protesters on Friday were not members of the Brandeis community,” Levine claimed, echoing an April 6 email sent by Rabbi Seth Winberg to the Hillel mailing list that referenced “outside agitators.” Levine then listed three steps the University will take in response to this: stricter enforcement of its no-trespassing policy, prohibition of non-medical and non-religious face coverings that are “used to avoid responsibility for one’s actions” and disciplinary action for the students who invited the trespassers to protest on campus.

In response to the claim that the majority of the protesters were not Brandeis community members, a representative from the Bund told The Justice on April 7 that the allegation is “completely untrue.” “We have no control or knowledge of off-campus people attending, and maintain that there is nothing wrong with people choosing to stand in solidarity with Palestine in their own communities,” they explained. 

They clarified that students were provided with clothes, masks and glasses for privacy purposes and that police did not ask attendees to identify themselves. The Bund reiterated that the route of movement — including the decision to bring groups of Brandeis student protesters in from multiple points of entry — was a precaution taken to avoid a repetition of the police force used against students in the Nov. 10, 2023 rally.

— The Justice Deputy Editor Sophia De Lisi ’26 contributed to the reporting of this article.