As the war between Israel and Hamas continues well into its second year, college protests have waned since the impassioned displays across the U.S. ranged from peaceful to violent and led to interventions from administration and law enforcement.

At the Colorado School of Mines, however, a group of students has remained steadfast in its public opposition to the ongoing conflict.

The school, noted for its academic rigor and career-minded, apolitical student body, has hosted various student-led events regarding the war since shortly after it began. Orediggers Against Apartheid became a registered student organization in the fall of 2024 to spread awareness and education about human rights issues and divestments from crimes against humanity.

Following some initial planning in the spring of 2024, students decided to form the organization in August as a response to what it felt was a lack of action across the campus for ongoing conflicts in the Palestinian territories, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Sudan.

“Most of our peers are too consumed with their overwhelming course loads that give Mines its statewide infamy to have extra free time to spare,” a news release stated. “We are all scientists and engineers; people who might be more comfortable talking about electrons than current events.

“We know that disruptive actions could impede students’ ability to complete schoolwork or compete in this hyper-competitive job market, potentially resulting in more antipathy than sympathy, more resistance to our movement than progress.”

With that in mind, the club’s members took a decidedly academic approach, backing up every public statement and presentation with multiple sourced citations that include Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Brown University, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and the American Friends Service Committee.

A spokesperson for the School of Mines said that a registered student organization on campus must {!–StartFragment–}have at least 10 members, identify a faculty or staff adviser, create a set of bylaws and complete a training session offered by the Student Activities, Involvement and Leadership office.

On Jan. 28 and 29, the club displayed the exhibit, “Engineering Genocide,” on the Mines Maple Plaza during the school’s career fair. The exhibit included a 10-foot-tall and 16-foot-wide acrylic-on-wood mural highlighting “Palestinian culture, Israeli State terrorism, and the complicity of American corporations in the illegal occupation and now genocide of the Palestinian people.”

Roland Bennet, a student with Palestinian ancestry and PhD candidate in the school’s physics department, said that the model also physically represents the separation barrier in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, commonly referred to as the “apartheid wall” by Palestinians, that spans more than 400 miles.

Also depicted are the networks of fencing and checkpoints, and a naval blockade that have been in place since 2007 to limit access to and from Palestinian territory. Israel has stated the blockade’s purpose is to prevent the smuggling of weapons into Gaza and to pressure Hamas, but Bennett, along with other human rights groups, have called the blockade illegal since it restricts the flow of goods and limits the travel of Gazans.

“I think this is something that most Americans don’t know: that the occupation has hermetically sealed Gaza from the rest of the world,” he said.

Inspired by a similar structure at Harvard University, local representatives with the political activism nonprofit Future Coalition’s Youth Direct Action Fund originally wanted to erect a mural in Denver but failed to get approval. The solution was for nearby engineering students to construct the wall at the College of Mines.

Mines alum and former Youth Direct Action Fund program manager Jeeva Senthilnathan said that the grant has been used for student groups across the country.

“They’ve been doing the groundwork behind all the Gaza encampments that you’ve seen across the U.S. and it’s been quite a bit of a privilege and an opportunity to provide the very last of those funds to the Colorado School of Mines … to get engineers active on the front for Palestine,” she said.

Bennet’s father, a carpenter, and students from neighboring universities like CU Denver, CU Boulder and Regis University assisted the Mines students in the exhibit’s construction and painting, which was completed in 11 days.

The timing and placement of the mural to coincide with the college’s career fair was because of the presence of companies like Chevron and Lockheed Martin, who are often present to meet with graduating students.

Demonstrating the academic methods and considerations of the students, the exhibit also features resources for every statement and depiction illustrated on the wall that include jets and missiles developed by Lockheed Martin and energy provided by Chevron being used by Israel.

Other campus demonstrations across the country have received condemnation by local Jewish populations, with some leaders calling them “antisemitic rhetoric.”

Rabbi Jay Sherwood of Temple Shalom, the largest Jewish congregation in the Pikes Peak region, said he has personally heard from Jewish students in Denver, Boulder, Greeley, Colorado Springs and other college towns who said their campus life was disrupted by protesters during the 2023-24 academic year.

He added that these protesters have predominantly dismissed the actions of Hamas throughout the conflict.

“To say that there is a genocide in Gaza is a ridiculously stupid statement,” he said. “There is a war (going on there). Wars are terrible, people die, but let’s not forget that this war was started by Hamas terrorists that came into Israel and murdered thousands of people. … Israel is in a war against terrorists, and the people on the college campuses seem to have forgotten who started this war.”

Sherwood said that student protesters from that year “had no interest” in meeting with him and others who support Israel to discuss their differences.

Bennet said that the response to the exhibit was “primarily positive,” with many expressing interest in the art and message of the wall and few complaints. Senthilnathan added that students also came away learning more about alternative companies for employment.

“I think it was a good experience in terms of making a lot of students aware of what’s going on and also trying to veer them away from companies that are actively making unethical decisions,” she said.

Actions going forward

The career fair demonstration was one of many educational events organized by the club that include film screenings, panel discussions and lectures. The club looks to continue to put on events and bring in speakers from both Palestinian and Israeli heritage to discuss the cultural and historical implications of the war.

The club’s activities follow an executive order from President Donald Trump that looks to investigate campus demonstrations and revoke student visas for those deemed “Hamas sympathizers.”

Since then, more than 30 students across other Colorado universities have had their visas revoked, though it is unknown if this is related to past protests against the war. Senthilnathan said this has had an impact on how the organization has held demonstrations and that events have mostly been limited to film screenings and collaborations with the Colorado Palestine Coalition outside of the campus.

Visas revoked for UCCS, CU Boulder and Colorado State students

A School of Mines spokesperson told the Gazette that five Mines students have been impacted as of May 5 and that the school remains in communication with them as their status changes.

Sherwood said that he has heard of significantly less activity on campuses this year and that he encourages students to learn the entire history of the Middle East rather than just recent history when considering future demonstrations.

“Additionally, the violence that has been directed towards Jewish students across the country is not acceptable, taking over buildings is not acceptable, comparing Israelis to Nazis is not acceptable, calling for the death of Jews is not acceptable, blocking Jews from going to class on campus is not acceptable, interrupting classes because you disagree with a professor is not acceptable,” he said. “There’s a whole list of things that are not acceptable.”

Bennet said that the executive order should not impact the group’s planning going forward, given what he calls the group’s focus on highlighting the actions taken by Israeli leadership.

“Being against Zionism isn’t inherently anti-Semitic,” Bennet said. “As long as your focus is actually on Zionism … and not holding Jewish people collectively responsible for the crimes by the state of Israel, those are definitely important things to keep in mind.”

Bennet, in his fifth year at the school, said the plan is to continue the student club in the years after his graduation.

“I do not want to see progressive activism die at this school when I leave it,” he said. ”And I don’t think that will happen. We have a number of younger students who are involved.”