Some supporters at Ohio University are rallying behind Student Senate President Megan Marzec in the midst of the controversy she created last week in response to an ALS bucket challenge.
Some supporters at Ohio University are rallying behind Student Senate President Megan Marzec in the midst of the controversy she created last week in response to an ALS bucket challenge.
Instead of ice water, Marzec poured a bucket of fake blood on her head in response to OU President Roderick McDavis’ challenge and asked the university to divest its resources in Israel, academically and economically. Various student organizations and university officials have disagreed with her message.
“Megan Marzec took a bold effort to bring attention to issues of injustice that the university community is often too busy, distracted, or discomforted to remember ... a number of the executions and well-documented human rights violations, happening in Gaza right now, are completely off our radar here at Ohio University,” said Carl Edward Smith III, president of Graduate Student Senate, in a statement.
“Megan's step to bring awareness to this crisis, and the fact that in a global society, we often contribute to harm and injustice in indirect ways, took a lot of courage,” he said.
The video has prompted “overflowing” death threats and hate mail, Marzec told The Post last week. The university has offered to place her in protective housing, and police are investigating threats made against her. Her video drew a call for civility from OU President Roderick McDavis’ office, and a storm of commentary on social media outlets.
Her video ask specifically for the university to support the boycotts, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel, a movement that urges the international community to sever all ties with Israel “until it complies with international law and Palestinian rights,” according to BDSmovement.net.
Marzec told The Post she has received many messages of support from people on-campus and beyond, citing support from the OU chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine; international BDS movement; OU Student Union; faculty members; students and others.
An online petition has more than 600 signatures expressing “solidarity with Megan Marzec's right of free speech to publicly state her political opinions on the liberation of Palestine.”
Bobcats for Israel, an OU pro-Israel advocacy group, and Alpha Pi Epsilon, a Jewish fraternity, both called for Marzec’s resignation at last week’s senate meeting.
Smith said his senate supports Marzec’s actions as “an activist.” Her video is getting people talking on campus about the conflict in Gaza, and the issues that accompany it.
“People are hyping up what she did, fixating on that instead of the problem in Gaza... some will take action and look into the issues while others will keep sensationalizing,” Smith said. “Asking for her resignation is ridiculous.”
A signer of the online petition wrote, “Attack the position, not the person. I do not get the right (to) attack and insult a person because I disagree with her position.”
Athens Coalition for Palestine and some OU professors have emailed Marzec to express their support for her stance, including Tom Hayes, a professor in the School of Film.
"I was moved and thrilled that you are actively engaging the issue of the genocide of Palestine," Hayes said in his email to Marzec. "...I am writing to offer any support that I possibly can."
Jessica Lindner, a senior senator-at-large, spoke in Marzec’s defense at last Wednesday’s senate meeting after identifying herself as Jewish.
“I stood up to support Megan because I’ve been a member of the Student Union with Megan for a long time,” Lindner said. “What Megan did... she has every right to do that. Justice wise, I think it’s a pretty reasonable thing to do. I support her in speaking out against the genocide committed by Israel in Palestine.”
Lindner continued to say that labeling Marzec as an anti-Semite is simply a “fallacy.” She explained that the call for boycotts, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) against Israel are not “inherently anti-Semitic,” saying that she is a supporter of the BDS movement herself.
Madison Koenig, a senior studying English and undergraduate student senate’s commissioner of Women’s Affairs, who has supported Marzec on social media, said the video started a conversation OU needs to have. She signed the petition supporting Marzec.
“I believe that regardless of your position on the BDS movement or on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, what Megan did and said does not warrant the vitriol responses from strangers on the internet,” Koenig said. “There should be a conversation on this campus about the conflict. There are groups including Hillel and other institutions that are insinuating these conversations, but if people continue with threats against Megan, then this conversation is never going to happen.”'
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