Several SAC students joined members of the Right To Rebel SATX and the Fox (Tech High School) Students League for a “Walk Out For Palestine” demonstration that began in front of SAC’s Moody Learning Center Oct. 7 at 10:30 a.m.
Right To Rebel describes itself as a “youth org committed to building mass struggles against the rulers,” and the Fox Student League’s Instagram describes that organization as an “Independent Revolutionary Student Organization.”
The protest fell on the anniversary of the day Hamas-led militants breached Israel’s border defenses and stormed the country on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages. In response, Israel launched an offensive to eradicate Hamas, the Sunni Islamist group that has governed Gaza since 2007.
As reported by the Associated Press, that campaign has “killed more than 67,000 people, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not differentiate between combatants and civilians in its count. The ministry is part of the Hamas-run government. Its figures are seen as a reliable estimate by the U.N. and many independent experts.”
San Antonio Independent School District officials discouraged the walkout, warning students and parents that protestors would be armed. San Antonio Police Department sent officers to SAC to ensure the protest was peaceful and lawful.
Officer O. Delira told the Sundial at the protest that police were not sure if the reports of armed protestors were true.
“That’s why we’re here,” he said.
Sundial staffers saw no firearms or weapons among the demonstrators, and Texas Public Radio reported that “no firearms were on display among a couple dozen pro-Palestinian protesters at Milam Park, or outside Fox Tech High School.”
One of the protest leaders, who asked not to be identified for fear of retribution, said the allegation that they were armed was a “thinly veiled threat.”
“We need to stand up for students facing political oppression,” the protest leader said to a group of approximately 20 to 30 demonstrators. “This is why we are standing here today.”
After the protest leader delivered a speech about the Israel-Hamas war to a gathering of SAC students, several joined the marchers as they walked to Milam Park.
“Seeing all those horrific photos and videos of what happens to Palestinians everyday, it makes my heart shatter because, you know, that could be my family members, it could be me,” a SAC student who attended the demonstration and asked to remain anonymous for fear of retribution told the Sundial. “It’s one thing to want to protect your country, and it’s another thing to ethnically cleanse a whole group of people. Kind of like in the holocaust, where they ethnically cleansed a bunch of Jewish people … because one guy told them they were bad.”
Most of the demonstrators either refused to speak to journalists or asked not to be identified for fear of retribution.
“I feel like if we truly all come together, no matter who it is, we can truly make a difference,” another protester said. “That’s what America is about.”
When the protestors reached Milam Park, they gathered beneath a gazebo and began chanting and waving Palestinian flags. A masked member of Right to Rebel and apparent leader of the demonstration led chants and speeches.
Members of the Corrizo Comecrudo Tribe of Texas maintained a steady beat with a small drum in the background. Tribe member Jesse Manciaz said he was protesting the war in Gaza because “the same thing that they’re doing over there has been done to us, and they continue to do it here.”
“It comes from the heart,” Manciaz said. “They are destroying people of the land because of greed, because of fear and because of hatred.”
Three days after the protest on Oct. 10, Israel and Hamas officially agreed to a ceasefire deal negotiated through mediators from the United States, Egypt, Qatar and Turkey. Hamas freed the 20 living Israeli hostages Monday, and Israel released nearly 2,000 prisoners under the agreement.
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