(RepublicanPress.org) – College students across the country have been gathering on university grounds to support the Palestinian people in Gaza. Some are demanding that their schools divest from supporting Israel and have been building encampments to make their voices heard. It seems that some protesters at the University of North Carolina (UNC) Chapel Hill crossed a line that prompted some fraternity brothers to take action.
On April 30, some pro-Palestinian protesters reportedly removed the American flag from campus and replaced it with the Palestinian flag. While the chancellor of the school and police officers raised the American flag once again, after they left, the protestors began to remove Old Glory once more.
This time, a group of young men from Pi Kappa Phi stepped in, surrounded the flagpole, and held up the American flag so it wouldn’t hit the ground. One student, Dan Stompel, declared he would “die for this flag,” adding that he and his friends held it up for over an hour before police re-appeared on the scene.
The student claimed that protestors were throwing objects at the frat brothers to try to get them to relent, but they refused. He said it was like an “arm day” workout at the gym for him, “exhausting” but “beautiful” at the same time.
Another young man protecting the American flag that day, Guillermo Estrada, said the event was “sad yet empowering.” He was upset that the Palestinian flag was raised on the UNC-Chapel Hill campus. Estrada said his actions weren’t even about the Israel/Palestine conflict but more about respecting the American flag. He said his parents were immigrants, and he wouldn’t tolerate anyone disrespecting Old Glory.
The school announced that 36 protestors were detained that day; 30 were cited for trespassing and released, while 6 others were booked for trespassing. Of those cited or booked, only 13 were university students.
Copyright 2024, RepublicanPress.org
