New Orleans, LA – On September 18, students from the Loyola Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) organized a rally to demand that Loyola University of New Orleans divest from Israel. Despite escalating calls from the student body in the past months, the administration has only responded with force.

The group met in front of Loyola’s campus on St. Charles Street, where two speakers from the Tulane and Loyola SDS chapters spoke about both universities’ ties to Israel and the lack of transparency on where tuition is spent.

A Tulane SDS speaker connected the genocide to New Orleans, stating. “Tulane is the lead university in the U.S.-Israel Energy exchange, a program that explores fossil fuel drilling in occupied Palestine. The research for that program happens right over there.”

This program is responsible for researching potential oil wells off the coast of Gaza for Israel to exploit should they win the war and ethnically cleanse Gaza. Less is known about where Loyola's endowment is invested – the page literally “doesn't exist” on their website. However, students raised some research that sheds light on the question.

“They are partnered with the Lily Endowment, which is a Zionist institution. Very recently, they gave Loyola's institute of Ministries $1.25 million,” said a Loyola SDS speaker. She pointed out that both universities have refused to disclose their entire billions of dollars’ worth of endowments, despite loud student calls.

Afterwards, students and community members walked down Saint Charles Avenue and turned on Arabella Street to greet Dr. Xavier Cole, president of Loyola University of New Orleans, at his house.

“Xavier Cole you can't hide, we charge you with genocide!” rang out as Cole fled to his car. While Cole was leaving, he stayed behind for several minutes to report to the police what was happening and listened to several minutes of the speeches.

He stayed long enough to get lambasted by a freshman speaker. “It is our right, if not our duty as students to advocate for change, we will not stop until we know where our tuition is going, we will not stop until our money stops funding a genocide, and we will not stop until our friends no longer get unfairly prosecuted for exercising their rights,” she said.

Cole also caught flak from Freedom Road Socialist Organization speaker Juleea Berthelot. “Just as we march in defense of Black lives and against police brutality in our own country, we continue to march for Palestinian lives,” they said. After Cole left, the students quickly wrapped up and returned to campus to disperse.

Before leaving, the students made several calls to action, most pressingly the criminal charges some members of SDS are facing. They called for community members to show up on Friday, September 20, for the country’s first encampment trial.

#NewOrleansLA #LA #AntiWarMovement #Palestine #SDS #PoliticalRepression #FreeSpeech