Bar Harbor college students march to protest Israeli war in Gaza

A march Wednesday organized by students at College of the Atlantic to protest Israel’s war in Gaza briefly slowed traffic through downtown Bar Harbor but otherwise went smoothly.

About 200 people participated in the march, which started at 1 p.m at COA and progressed through downtown Bar Harbor to the Village Green park next to the town’s fire station. The march, which was permitted last week by the local town council, had a police escort as students took downtown streets from their campus to the green, where they held an hour-long rally.

There were no counter-protestors or confrontations between protestors or passersby during the demonstrations.

The peaceful event in Bar Harbor stands in contrast to similar protests at other American universities, where confrontations have resulted in arrests and conflicts with police looking to clear protester encampments. The war also has become a divisive political issue for many Americans and often takes center stage in the contentious presidential campaign between  President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump.

Stephen Wessler, an adjunct instructor at the college who participated in the event, said that it is not anti-Semitic to criticize Israel over its reaction to an Oct. 7 attack by Hamas in which more than 1,200 Israelis and others were killed.

In response, the Israeli army invaded Gaza, displacing millions of Palestinians and killing more than 35,000 people, most of them women and children, according to Gazan health officials.

“The Israeli army has killed tens of thousands of people, many of them children,” Wessler said at Wednesday’s rally. “That needs to stop, and it needs to stop now.”

Wessler, who is Jewish, criticized Biden for supporting Israel during the conflict, though the administration has expressed concerns about civilian casualties in Gaza and this month delayed delivery of bombs to Israel over those concerns. The U.S. also is planning to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza by sea in the next few weeks.

Still, Biden plans to move forward with a sale of $1 billion worth of arms and ammunition to Israel, the Associated Press reported Wednesday.

The demonstration in Bar Harbor was organized by a COA student group called Human Ecologists for the Liberation of Palestine. The event included pro-Palestinian chants, Palestinian flags, a drum corps, protest poems and songs, and a few speakers. Overall, the march and rally lasted less than two hours.

This spring, COA students also set up an encampment on the school’s front lawn, but removed tents a week or so ago after pressuring the institution to consider divesting from Israel.

Earlier this month, COA President Darron Collins said the college “wholeheartedly”  supports the rights of its students to engage in protest and free speech.

Collins said decisions about the school’s endowment are made by the board of trustees, but that the students met with the college’s chief financial officer and were invited to address the trustees’ investment committee on the topic of divestment.

When asked Wednesday about the student march, COA spokesperson Rob Levin said “we remain committed to all the points President Collins outlined in his May 2 statement.”

The Associated Press contributed to this story.