On June 26 at 2 p.m., a state trooper in Denton County targeted and arrested recent UTD graduate and former president of Students for Justice in Palestine, Mousa Najjar. UTDPD authorized his arrest with the backing of Dean of Students Amanda Smith and university administration for protesting the ongoing occupation of Palestine and genocide in Gaza. A few weeks prior to his graduation, Najjar was arrested alongside 20 other students, professors and community members when UTD called state troopers and multiple police departments to brutalize and remove participants of the Gaza Liberation Plaza. The details that emerged regarding his second arrest revealed the lengths UTD took to suppress its students’ voices, despite the university’s silence on the increase in Islamophobia and anti-Palestinian hate crimes all over Texas, including at UTD. This is the reality that the UTD and DFW communities must face to keep each other safe from profit-driven institutions and their targeted attacks.   

On May 15, Najjar walked the stage at his graduation and held up a Palestine flag with the statement “DIVEST FROM DEATH” in protest of UTD’s complacency and profiteering off genocide in Gaza. Members of the administration and university police immediately threatened that he would be arrested if he did not leave campus grounds and escorted him out. Officers claimed that Najjar was in violation of his bond conditions, which stipulate that he cannot be on campus except for “class and class-related activities.” Najjar’s attorney spoke with UTD officers and affirmed that he had the right to be at his graduation and that it fell within his bond conditions.  

Despite being informed by his attorney that Najjar was within his legal right to be on campus that day, and despite Najjar complying fully with police demands, UTDPD still issued two warrants for his arrest a few days after his graduation. The first was for “Criminal Trespass,” and the second was for “Disrupting a Meeting or Procession.” 

This arrest is a clear example of the glaring hypocrisy of UTDPD and administration. During graduation season, hundreds of UTD students, as well as members of the UTD 21, walked the stage holding flags; none were targeted and asked to leave, and they were allowed to participate in their respective graduations. University administration decided to make an example out of the president of SJP and targeted him as a Palestinian student who participated in the Gaza Liberation encampment — this is a clear act of discrimination.  

Through this arrest, we see that UTD persists in suppressing student efforts for Palestine and for divestment from war profiteers. After several resolutions, protests, demonstrations and an encampment at UTD, the university has reaffirmed its commitment to valuing profits over human life and its students and investing in weapons manufacturers such as General Dynamics, Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Boeing. Since early October, Israel — using weapons from these companies— has murdered over 40,000 Palestinians in Gaza in a clear act of genocide. Students at UTD, including Najjar, were fierce advocates against this deadly relationship that their university holds with weapons manufacturers. Despite this repression, we have repeatedly emphasized our demands: UTD must divest from these corporations. They cannot silence all of us; the UTD community must commit to the growing movement for divestment, and unite its voice for Palestine.  

Najjar was released shortly after 8:30 p.m. on the $1,000 bail amount the judge had issued alongside his warrants. His community members are committed to fighting these false charges and holding UTD accountable for its bigotry and discriminatory treatment of Najjar and the rest of the student body that stands with Palestine.