Protesters gather outside Hillel event with Arky Staiman

On September 15, Hopkins Hillel hosted a lecture at the Smokler Center for Jewish Life in the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Building with speaker Aaron “Arky” Staiman, an American who serves in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) military reserve as part of the Yasara body recovery unit.

In a press release and an Instagram post shared the day before, the Hopkins Justice Collective (HJC) criticized Staiman’s involvement in the Yasar and called for a vigil outside the Smokler Center on the day of Staiman's visit.

“We cannot deny the hypocrisy of Yasar Unit claiming to fulfill a religious duty, while the IOF [Israeli Occupation Force] “The terrorist group actively desecrates Palestinian corpses and disproportionately bombs Palestinians until they are no longer physically identifiable,” they wrote.

The HJC protest began at 10:30 a.m. with a crowd of about 20 protesters standing on the median across from the Smokler Center holding signs and flyers. Baltimore Police Department (BPD) officers were present. As the protest continued, the crowd grew to about 75 people and protesters moved behind a metal fence on the sidewalk in front of the building.

A demonstrator under the pseudonym Amel described in an interview with The newsletter.

“[Hillel] brought a spokesman for the Israeli Defense Forces, which makes me angry,” she said. “I am here to stand up for our cause. I am against everything that happens [and] all this genocide that has been going on for many years, not just months.”

During the protest, speakers used the megaphone to express their opposition to Staiman as speaker, criticized Hillel as host of the event, and read poems from Palestine.

In an interview with The newsletter, Wisam Awadallah, a Hopkins University graduate who attended the protest, described his resistance to inviting Staiman to speak.

“It is particularly outrageous to me that this event is being held for someone whose job it is to recover dead Israeli soldiers while they are waging this illegal war, while thousands and thousands of Palestinians are dead in rubble and they are not given this opportunity,” he said. “I don't think I [can] bear it if this hypocrisy is not exposed.”

Senior Elliott Rosen was among those who heard Staiman’s lecture, and in an interview with The newsletterHe criticized those who protested against Staiman's visit and discussed the significance of the recovery of the bodies for the Jewish faith.

“I think it is a step in absolutely the wrong direction to protest in front of Hillel, a house of worship. I think it is really a child's play to protest not only against a visiting member of the Israel Defense Forces, but specifically against a member of the search and rescue unit,” he said.[The Body Search and Recovery Unit] is really crucial in the Jewish faith because there are very precise laws about how and when Jewish bodies must be buried.”

The protest also featured loud noises, including sirens, alarm bells, drums, whistles and cheering, and protesters continued continuously for at least ten minutes.

In an interview with The newsletterA student who attended the event under the pseudonym Ravi stated that the noise level of the protesters could not be heard in the building and did not interfere with Staiman's speech. He explained that Staiman focused on mental health in his talk and emphasized that attending such events can promote dialogue on campus.

“If these people would sit down and listen to what this man has to say, they would see that he has nothing ridiculously offensive to say,” he said. “He was talking about mental health in terms of dealing with stress, because recovering bodies from a war zone can lead to post-traumatic stress disorder. If these people went to events like this and learned something, then I think there would be more to discuss than if they were out here chanting slogans and repeating arguments.”

Regarding the university's role in campus discourse, Rosen said he would welcome efforts by the university to organize a respectful dialogue on this issue among informed scholars.

“The university has a special role in society when it comes to promoting understanding and dialogue. I would love it if the university would set up an official platform and invite scholars who bridge this specific political, social and religious divide to talk about it,” he said. “I would love nothing more than to have a nice chat with a few people, but when it's loud and there's a lot of singing, that's really hard.”

The protesters also stressed the need for open spaces on campus and called on the university to create an atmosphere of dialogue on campus.

In an interview with The newslettera protester under the pseudonym Layah, discussed that without spaces for dialogue, people can only interact with like-minded people.

“[The University should] Creating environments and spaces where people can talk about it. People who are pro-Palestinian will only interact with people who are pro-Palestinian, and people who are Zionists will only interact with Zionists,” she said. “At an academic institution with different values ​​and beliefs, it's important that both sides have a conversation.”

A university spokesman said in an email to The News-LetteR.

“This year, we launched a new dialogue series called Hop Talks, which brings the JHU community together for meaningful conversations on critical issues, some of which are related to the 2024 presidential election,” he wrote. “At our SNF Agora Institute and our Hopkins Bloomberg Center, we have organized several events aimed at bringing people with diverse opinions together on critical issues to facilitate effective, thoughtful debates, such as the Two Dads Defending Democracy event just last week.”

According to a university spokesperson, “Baltimore City Police were on site and managed the event, which took place on a public sidewalk under their jurisdiction.”

At around 11:05 a.m., a bystander allegedly assaulted a protester, neither of whom was affiliated with the university. BPD officers spoke with both parties but made no arrests. HJC posted a video taken by bystanders on its Instagram page.

In an interview with The newsletterThe demonstrator, using the pseudonym Mariam, described her experiences and the police reaction.

“I was standing here chanting with the other protesters. He got out of my way and slammed my megaphone into my face, hitting my teeth,” she said. “The police said they could take a report, but there was nothing they could do. [else] because they didn't see it with their own eyes, even though we all have videos showing him coming up to me and hitting me.”

The passerby, who used the pseudonym David, denied in an interview with The newsletter.

“I walked up and she literally put a megaphone in my ear and screamed, so she attacked me,” he said. “I pushed it out of my ear, which is a natural reaction when you have a megaphone yelling in your ear from less than a foot away.”

The BPD did not respond to The newsletterPlease comment at the time of publication.

Shirlene John and Lana Swindle contributed to this article.