Students at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee are demanding the school change the name of a campus library named after a former Israeli leader.
Protesters on campus organized a petition with demands for school administrators to divest from Israel, end trips to the country and remove the name of former Prime Minister Golda Meir from the school library.
“In the past few weeks, the settler colonial state of ‘Israel’ has waged a genocide against the people of Gaza by murdering over 20,000+ innocent civilians, displacing over 1,700,000 people, and destroying over 50,000 houses, 266 schools, 26 hospitals, and many more war crimes,” the petition reads.
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The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee campus is pictured in this aerial photo. (University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee)
The anti-Israel petition was drafted by members of the Wisconsin Coalition for Justice in Palestine, UW Students for a Democratic Society and the Muslim Students Association, according to outlet College Fix.
In addition to demanding the university to “divest from weapon manufacturers that aid the Palestinian genocide,” the students are seeking to end all study abroad programs and student trips to Israel.
Students are also demanding the school change the name of the Golda Meir Library, named after the former prime minister of Israel and alum of the university, according to College Fix.
“The library is named after Golda Meir, who not only assisted in the founding of the settler colony, but was also responsible for the displacement, ethnic cleansing, and death of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians,” the petition says of the former prime minister.
Israeli Prime Minister of Israel Golda Meir (1898-1978) speaking at a press conference in Strasbourg, France. (UPI/Bettmann Archive/Getty Images)
Meir, who served as Israeli prime minister from 1969 to 1974, graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in 1917.
The library was constructed and named after her in 1967.
Students hosted rallies in support of the petition in November and December, as well as prayer vigils to honor the “martyrs of Palestine,” according to the College Fix report.
