On April 25, Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine at Dartmouth College organized a rally on the Green in solidarity with pro-Palestine student and faculty protestors at other universities. Protestors on campus — like many others nationwide — called for Dartmouth to divest from Israel.
More than 100 people attended the rally, which was open to the public.
FJP is “a network of organized academic chapters, composed primarily of faculty and staff” who are “in solidarity with our students,” according to its website. The Dartmouth chapter was formed in February and includes faculty and staff from the undergraduate College and four graduate schools, according to past reporting by The Dartmouth.
English professor Patricia Stuelke opened the protest by declaring FJP’s intent to “stand in solidarity” with those in the United States who are “protesting for Palestinian liberation in the face of incredible repression by the police and by university administration.”
“We are here today especially to stand in solidarity with Palestine and Palestinians, many of whom are colleagues, friends and families whose homes, schools, universities and lives have been destroyed by the genocidal violence of U.S.-funded Israeli bombs, weapons and war crimes,” she continued.
Rendi Rogers GR, a fourth-year Ph.D candidate in molecular and cellular biology, demanded divestment as an organizer of the Graduate of Organized Laborers of Dartmouth-United Electrical Workers — the College’s graduate workers’ union.
“For the past nine months, [the College] cut across the bargaining table from [graduate] workers and insisted that they don’t have the money to pay a living wage for the research and teaching that we perform,” she said. “Dartmouth will gladly throw money at a settler-colonial project but won’t help graduate workers overcome barriers associated with childcare and immigration.”
Rogers added that advocating for divestment must occur through “organizing … that is capable of truly challenging U.S. imperialism,” which she said “requires smooth and steady commitment.”
A member of the audience led call-and-response chants encouraging prosecutors to drop the charges of misdemeanor trespassing against Roan Wade ’25 and Kevin Engel ’27, who were arrested in October, according to past reporting in The Dartmouth.
Upper Valley for Palestine member Maria Kennedy then urged attendees to vote on May 14 in favor of a Hanover town resolution for an “immediate and permanent ceasefire” in the conflict in Gaza.
Palestine Solidarity Coalition co-founder David Adkins ’26 then argued that the “ongoing oppression” in Israel and Palestine is “not very far off” from policing practices in the United States. Through the Georgia International Law Enforcement Exchange, the Atlanta Police Department and Georgia State Patrol work with the Israel security forces to learn “how to oppress their own citizens,” he said.
“We are so much more intertwined with that conflict than we think,” Adkins said.
Adkins is an Opinion editor for The Dartmouth and a member of the Editorial Board. He is not involved in news production.
Additional speakers included Jewish Voice for Peace VT/NH founder Liz Blum, Engel, staff member Daniel Lin ’23, other members of the PSC and Wade.
In an interview after the rally, Wade said the event was timely because there has been an “escalation” in action taken by College administrators across the country “against our dissent.”
“If we don’t stand up and say, ‘We cannot tolerate this,’ then at what point does it end?” she said.
Raegan Boettcher ’24 said it was “really nice” for faculty, staff and graduate students to be involved in the event.
“A lot of times it feels like just the [undergraduate] students are organizing around it,” she said.
A member of the Class of 2027, who requested anonymity, added that it was important that the rally was on the Green and at “a more public time,” rather than in front of Parkhurst Hall — the site where Wade and Engel were arrested last fall.
“It was a very public way to come together,” she said.
A Mellon Mays postdoctoral fellow, who requested anonymity because she is an international student, praised the “spirit” of the call for ceasefire and solidarity with Palestine, which she said “embodied … love and hope.”
