Stanford University saw a tense moment Sunday between pro-Palestinian and pro-Israel groups as each hosted a protest side-by-side.
At one point in the day, there were crowds possibly in the thousands gathered around White Plaza. Activists with the pro-Palestinian encampment held a rally, while just a few yards away the L’Chaim Club — a Jewish student group — organized a multi-faith community rally. They called for the release of hostages still being held by Hamas as well as for peace.
“This is a message of humanity and it’s a message of people coming together to stand against terror, and to stand against hatred,” said the club’s president, Joshua Jankelow. “We pride ourselves on the fact that it was an interfaith rally, that it was a coalition, that it was built. What people are scared about is not just Jews blaming things as being antisemitic. It is genuine hatred, genuine antisemitism.”
About an hour into their rally, it was suddenly relocated to the Stanford Oval — about a 10-minute walk away.
NBC Bay Area spoke with Stanford’s Chabad Rabbi about that move, who said campus security had told him there was a security concern. So, to preserve the security of the event, the group moved elsewhere on campus.
It’s currently unclear what the exact security concern was, but the event did otherwise continue without incident.
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