All this week, students have been camped out on Library Mall to protest Israel’s war on Palestine. They join students nation-wide who are putting pressure theirs colleges and the US government to disinvest in the war and ultimate end the genocide in Gaza.

Wednesday morning, a combined police force attempted to remove the tents and protestors. Dozens of people were arrested and several sustained injuries. Since then, the police raids have stopped and  Chancellor Mnookin has met with faculty and staff. Protestors have said they will not remove the tents until their demands are met. 

Today Dahlia Saba, Lily Zyndorf Shell, and Abbie Klein join host Esty Dinur on the show. They are all University of Wisconsin-Madison grad students who have been participating in the encampment. They discuss the demands, their experience with the police raid, and the future of the encampment.

Dahlia Saba is a first year graduate student at the UW-Madison, and she is a member of the UW Madison chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine. Her father is Palestinian and was born in Gaza. She had family members in Gaza until this past week, when they were fortunately able to evacuate to Egypt.

Lily Zyndorf Shell is a PhD student at UW-Madison who has been teaching undergraduate students there as a TA and lecturer for 6 years. She grew up in New York City and is the grandchild of holocaust survivors.

Abbie Klein is a first year PhD student at UW-Madison and a member of Students for Justice and other community and university organizations which are part of the encampment, where she has been since it was set up.  She is an anti Zionist Jew raised in a Zionist family.

Photo courtesy of WORT’s Chali Pittman

The post “Their Priority is Not Our Well Being”: Grad Students on t... appeared first on WORT-FM 89.9.