On Thursday, September 26, the University of New Hampshire held its annual Career Day from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., where the university’s Palestine Solidarity Coalition (PSC) held a protest against the presence of several of the companies involved. It hosted employers targeted to students in the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields as well as those in Business.
At 12:30 p.m. that day, the PSC held a rally outside of Holloway Commons to “call attention to the ongoing genocide of Palestinians and the bombing of Lebanon, both being orchestrated by Israel and specifically the complicit of weapon companies UNH is welcoming onto our campus and continues to fund,” according to PSC’s press statement.
PSC called out three particular companies that attended the career fair on Thursday, SIG Sauer, RTX (formerly known as Raytheon), and General Dynamics. All three of which have been reported to send weapons and firearms to Israel which is currently in an ongoing war with Palestine.
Sebastian Rowan, a UNH graduate and one of the protestors, said that “our goal here is to hopefully have students aware of these weapon companies that are trying to recruit them, ultimately our larger goal is to get UNH to divest from these weapon manufacturers and all Israeli companies and companies that help fund their military.”
He continued that “so far [UNH] has been very resistant, although we have a new president now. President Dean was very hostile to us but President Chilton at least seems like she is more willing to talk to us and engage with us.”
At UNH’s fall career fair last year a small group of four or five were protesting for the same reason. Thursday it multiplied to about ten or twelve, standing with giant handpainted signs that stated “divest from genocide,” “General Dynamics stop arming genocide,” and “live free Palestine or die.”
Protesters waved the Palestinian flag alongside the Progress Pride flag, all while standing next to the flag pole that waved New Hampshire’s crest and the United States Flag.
The PSC conducted a week-long demonstration from October 7th through October 11th to continue to engage students across campus.
