UF Divest Coalition Protests Weapons Companies at Steven O’ Connell Center Career Fair

“Everyone needs a job; just don’t sell your soul,” a protester said to University of Florida (UF) students walking into the career fair Monday. 

Members of the University of Florida (UF) Divestment Coalition (UFDC) held a protest outside of the Stephen O'Connell Center for their techworkers career fair.

According to a Zine called “Reject Weapons Companies at UF” UFDC “is an alliance of UF students, organizations, faculty, staff, and community members and organizations of Gainesville and greater Alachua County…. aiming to unearth UF's connections to grave violations of human rights and international law. [UFDC] wants to direct UF's research, investments, and activities away from genocide and occupations and towards creating peaceful, sustainable futures.” 

UFDC also describes their origin in the zine. “At the end of Spring 2024, we came together in UF's Plaza of the Americas to demand an immediate and permanent ceasefire of military bombardment of civilians. To this end, we created the Liberated Zone and occupied the Plaza continuously, night and day, for 31 days. In solidarity with student encampments in the US and globally, the UF Divest Coalition called upon UF to take a stance against war and genocide and towards peace.” 

The career fair included companies for Computer and Engineering, Scientific Engineering, and Artificial Intelligence.

UFDC was there specifically to protest war profiteers who create Israeli military equipment such as RTX, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Boeing, L3 Harris, Kratos, Honeywell, General Dynamics, and General Electric. 

Around noon, as protesters were setting up, a University of Florida Police Department (UFPD) officer who identified himself as “Scott” approached. 

Scott Silver didn’t introduce himself with his rank and last name as customary by a law enforcement officer. 

UF’s website says Silver is a Lieutenant. 

Silver said, “You guys have a right to free expression and free speech and all, but you can’t protest inside the building…. No signs in the building, and you can’t block ingress/egress. We’re not here to stop you guys or anything like that; we just wanna be respectful; you guys gettin’ your message out, but at the same time, the university is putting on an event.”

Two minutes later Silver returned and said in a quieter voice, “All signs need to be attended to…. it can’t be attached to anything.”

A protester giving a speech said, “UF has a pivotal role in what’s happening. The weapons companies that sell to Israel and turn a blind eye to the mass murder and terrorization of Palestinians need workers. Those workers have to be skilled in STEM fields and naive to the occupation in Palestine. Where else to find these workers than at a university that actively suppresses speech and activism surrounding Palestinian liberation…. [All the aforementioned companies] have a part to play in the occupation and apartheid regime in Palestine. Lockheed Martin makes fighter jets that carpet bomb neighborhoods. Northrop Grumman and General Electric make parts that power these jets, boats, and tanks. Their ships enforce the illegal naval blockade of Gaza. They murder Palestinian fishermen who go over a few miles out to sea…. These companies know that if people don’t speak out about Israel’s crimes, they can keep recruiting here.” 

Some members of the UF community took pictures of the protesters. One of these people was positively identified as Rabbi Jonah Zinn, the Executive Director of UF Hillel. 

Members of UF Faculty for Justice in Palestine (UFFJP)  handed out pamphlets to prospective career fair applicants and told them to consider environmental or aerospace engineering instead of weapon engineering. 

UFFJP members reported the reception was mostly positive and that there weren’t any noticeably hostile reactions. 

Protesters laid out a poster with a list of the names of hundreds of Gazan babies who’ve been killed by Israel in Gaza.

The names come from data collected by the Gaza Health Ministry, recording the names of thousands of Palestinians killed by Israel.

The Lancet reports, “Collecting data is becoming increasingly difficult for the Gaza Health Ministry due to the destruction of much of the infrastructure. The Ministry has had to augment its usual reporting, based on people dying in its hospitals or brought in dead, with information from reliable media sources and first responders. This change has inevitably degraded the detailed data recorded previously. Consequently, the Gaza Health Ministry now reports separately the number of unidentified bodies among the total death toll. As of May 10, 2024, 30% of the 35,091 deaths were unidentified.” 

The Lancet estimates that Israel has killed over 186,000 Palestinians by first- and second-hand actions.