From vigils and walkouts to Six Flags and sleepovers, I’ve photographed the University of Texas Palestine Solidarity Committee for over a year. 136 were arrested on UT campus — among the highest recorded nationally — in pro-Palestine protests on April 24 and 29. The organization is currently on interim suspension. Prior to the protests, the PSC remained steadfast amidst censorship while hate crimes against the Muslim and Arab community increased, including verbal threats of killing Arabs from self-proclaimed IDF soldiers during PSC meetings in October 2023 and a stabbing after a protest in February 2024. UT administration suspended PSC organizer Ammer Qaddumi and has withheld diplomas from those demonstrating in April, where law enforcement deployed zip tie cuffs, pepper spray and flash bangs. UT has faced increasing pressure from the state and now national level from governor Greg Abbott’s executive order against antisemitism (including criticism of Israel) in higher education and President-elect Donald Trump’s promise to crackdown on University pro-Palestine demonstrations. The PSC continues to organize educational and community events, and protests against UT’s weapons investment and promotion of IDF speakers on campus.
Over 200 protest former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett speaking at the LBJ School of Public Affairs in a noise demonstration organized by the Palestine Solidarity Committee on Nov. 19, 2024.
The PSC's annual cafe resistance featured dancing, dabke and music.
Two days after graduating UT-Austin, Kennedy Cortez sits outside in the capitol rotunda before testifying to the Texas Senate Subcommittee on Higher Education about permitting pro-Palestine demonstrations on campus on May 14, 2024. “It is an ethnic cleansing, an ethnic cleansing of a whole people exactly like the ethnic cleansing that happened to my people,” Cortez said, “the original people of these lands.”
A protestor is arrested after Austin Police deploy pepper spray on UT campus on April 29, 2024.
Kennedy Cortez before UT commencement on May 11, 2024.
صمود Sumud; Palestinian Arabic for steadfastness.
PSC organizer Ammer Qaddumi drums as a crowd gathers on the UT Gregory Gym plaza on April 24, 2024.
Qaddumi is the first to be arrested on April 24, 2024. Qaddumi followed police demands and urged the crowd to disperse from the campus speedway before being detained.
Qaddumi tables at UT on Speedway on April 5, 2024.
Painted rocks serve as paperweights while tabling.
Hundrends protest the Jewish National Fund conference at the Hilton Anatole in Dallas on Nov. 17, 2024. The JNF’s self-proclaimed world's biggest zionist conference hosted guest speakers including IDF soldiers who led invasions of Gazan hospitals and refugee camps.
On the UT main lawn during maghrib prayer, Lamar Qaddumi folds flags after a vigil for Israel's invasion of Lebanon on Oct. 1, 2024.
State troopers create a "no man's land" on the UT main lawn on April 24, pinning and binding protestors with zip ties.
Ammer Qaddumi demonstrates dabke, a traditional Palestinian dance, to his sister Lamar at cafe resistance on April 19, 2024. Lamar Qaddumi holds a call with Ammer outside Travis County Jail before his release on April 24, 2024.
Mohammed Zakzok makes Arabic coffee for the PSC’s annual Israeli Apartheid Week art walk on April 5, 2024.
Qaddumi poses with a copy of The Austin Chronicle featuring his arrest on May 5, 2024.
Law enforcement use pepper spray after ordering protestors to move off 22nd street to transport arrestees on Apr. 29, 2024.
USPS box on 22nd St. in West Campus on Feb. 26, 2024.
PSC member Citlalli Soto-Ferate walks out of UT commencement in protest on May 11, 2024.
Soto-Ferate cools off in misting fans at Six Flags over Texas on June 13, 2024.
Nueces St. in West Campus on Feb. 26 and Dec. 3, 2024.
Lamar receives an at-home piercing from A.B. at a sleepover / A.B. attempts to pierce Leila Saidane on Nov. 14, 2024.
JNF conference attendees counter-protest a noise demonstration outside the Hilton Anatole on Nov. 17, 2024.
A noise demonstration to disrupt JNF attendees outside the Hilton Anatole, 1:22 a.m. on Nov. 17, 2024.
