OXFORD, Ohio — Monday marks the first anniversary of the attacks that sparked the war in Gaza and worldwide protests. Many of those protests started on college campuses in Ohio and continued Monday.

What You Need To Know

  • Students with the group 'Socialists for Palestine' stood in the middle of Miami University's campus in protest of the war.

  • Pro-Palestinian protests started at MU in the spring and continued Monday 

  • Counter protesters, Pro-Israeli protesters also set up shop on campus and were handing out information on the war

The protests at Miami University started in the spring. There were students marching, students camping out and extra security around campus.

Several months later, the war is still happening, but the scene is a little different.

There are fewer students and a different group leading the protests.

“We are here to mourn the of the lives lost and colonial war and also ethnic cleansing. And we know that this started with the annexation of Palestinian lands in 1948,” said student Rag Banerjee. 

Banerjee is with the student group ‘Socialists for Palestine’. They are the group behind a silent Pro-Palestinian protest on campus, but he said they have a message they want Miami University to hear loud and clear.

“We’re all students here. So this is where we have the most leverage and the university also does not disclose their investments,” said Banerjee. 

Pro-Palestinian student groups like this one have been calling on the university to reveal whether its finances are going to the Middle East since the war in Gaza started a year ago.

At the same time, student counter protesters are speaking out too.

“When this all happened a year ago today, on October 7th, 2023, I was kind of closed up and I was very choked up,” said student Madison Rosengard. 

Rosengard is with the Pro-Israeli group called ‘Chabad.’ They put up flags and signs about the lives lost.

“I just want others to be educated and to honestly know their facts,” Rosengard said. 

Students on both sides said they’ll be out here as long as it takes for leaders to take notice.

Spectrum News reached out to Miami University leaders. A spokesperson said they are not going to comment on any of the protesters’ claims or demands.

They also said because of the low amount of protesters, they are not taking any extra precautions outside of normal campus security. However, officers were doing frequent checks of the area during the protests.