UNM students hold walkout for Palestine

On Monday, Oct. 7, protesters at the University of New Mexico rallied and marched from campus to Nob Hill in support of Palestine.

Students, faculty members and community members rallied and marched from the Student Union Building to the Q Station space technology hub in Nob Hill. They marched down — and blocked one side of — Central Avenue, carrying handmade signs and chanting “out of your classes and into the streets” and “UNM, your hands are red.”

The walkout was sponsored by 16 UNM student organizations, according to UNM Students for Justice in Palestine.

Members of SJP, along with UNM School of Medicine faculty member Andre Montoya-Barthelemy, spoke during the rally.

“As I look out here I see students and faculty and community members that make up the University,” Montoya-Barthelemy said. “We are the University. And yet, the leaders of the University do not reflect that.”

SJP members called for UNM’s divestment from Israeli companies and led chants.

“Disclose, divest, we will not stop, we will not rest,” protesters chanted.

The Daily Lobo revealed that UNM held investments in two mutual funds that contain Israeli companies in April. The University also holds bonds in Honeywell — a company that produces missile parts for the Israeli Defense Forces.

“A public university should not serve as a political tool to express institutional opinions on intricate social and geopolitical matters,” UNM President Garnett Stokes wrote in a campus-wide email in May.

UNM sophomore Pilar Castro said she attended the walkout because she has seen the suffering of Palestinian children and mothers on social media.

“They’re suffering, living in tents, and then having to relocate to different places constantly,” Castro said.

Freshman Mariana Gamez said she attended the walkout because she cannot believe the war in Gaza is still ongoing.

“I’m glad that people are coming together and talking about it here and having this protest,” Gamez said.

Kency Cornejo is a UNM associate professor of art history who joined students in the walkout.

“I'm here, as a faculty member at the University of New Mexico, to stand with my students in their demand and struggle for justice in Palestine,” Cornejo said.

Cornejo is part of Faculty & Staff for Justice in Palestine, which is a group of faculty and staff members from all UNM campuses who have been organizing and pushing UNM to divest from Israel, she said.

Cornejo shared some of the collective views of the group.

“We're fighting for all the professors, the scholars in Palestine who have lost their lives who have been targeted; for all the universities that have been obliterated by Israel; for all the students who have not been able to continue their education because of this war on their humanity,” Cornejo said.

Leila Chapa is the social media editor for the Daily Lobo. She can be reached at socialmedia@dailylobo.com or on X @lchapa06

Paloma Chapa is the multimedia editor for the Daily Lobo. She can be reached at multimedia@dailylobo.com or on X @paloma_chapa88

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