St. Paul, MN – On March 5, students belonging to the Mac for Palestine Coalition staged a die-in at the Macalester Center for Study Away. The students continued to occupy the building for the next 48 hours, a marked escalation in their months-long campaign to pressure the college to cut its institutional ties with Israeli universities.

“We can't physically stop this genocide,” said Macalester student and member of Mac for Palestine Abby McCarrol, “but we can fight against the active financial support of Macalester for apartheid Israel. It's the responsibility of each student to do what they can to stop genocide.”

The group chose the Center for Study Away as their direct action target due to the university's formal ties with Hebrew University and the University of Haifa, schools with deep ties to the Israeli military. The students demanded that the center recommend to Macalester administration that these relationships be terminated.

According to a press release from Mac for Palestine, the group demands “the Center for Study Away state publicly that its commitment to ‘scholarship, internationalism, multiculturalism, and service to society’ compels it to do everything in its power to stop genocide, call for a ceasefire, and act in solidarity with those fighting to dismantle oppressive systems around the world, including apartheid in Palestine.”

On March 6, Macalester President Suzanne M. Rivera issued a statement which agreed to the group's additional demand that no students or employees who participated in the protest would be retaliated against.

A representative of Mac for Palestine told Fight Back! that the group plans to continue to escalate their campaign against the genocide in Gaza.

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