EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. — Students rallied at Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville in solidarity with Palestine and their professor, who was severely hurt when multiple police officers were breaking up a Pro-Palestinian protest at Washington University last weekend.
The "March for Palestine" honored Dr. Steve Tamari, a 65-year-old history professor at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, who was arrested and sent to the hospital last week after he said officers threw him to the ground.
About 50 students peacefully protested around campus Saturday outside of Vadalabene Center, where multiple commencement ceremonies were taking place.
This comes as Pro-Palestinian demonstrations and arrests continue to happen at college campuses across America.
"We are here in support of Dr. Steve Tamari, who was brutalized by the police at the WashU campus for simply doing his duty of documenting what was going on," said SIUE student and protestor Tori Roderick.
5 On Your Side obtained videos showing what happened one week ago, where you can see Tamari taking a video on his phone right before the incident unfolded.
During the police response, Tamari says he was "body slammed and crushed by the weight of several St. Louis County police officers and then dragged across campus."
People in the background can be heard yelling, "Don't hurt him."
Tamari's wife posted an update Thursday on X, saying he was out of the hospital but suffered nine broken ribs and a broken hand, which will need surgery.
Tamari said one doctor told him he was lucky to be alive, adding that his "lungs could have been punctured, and I could have died on the ground as they abused me."
"After seeing what happened to him, it was just devastating. I mean, so many people on campus love that man," said SIUE student and protest organizer Connor Wagner.
Both Roderick and Wagner say they're frustrated that SIUE's administration has not addressed what happened to their professor.
"We have not heard anything from the administration in regards to what happened there. They won't even say his name," Roderick said.
Wagner said, "During our meeting with the administration, they had talked about how they couldn't be sending out all these messages and things like, 'we can't talk about Dr. Tamari because then we're going to have to talk about every little thing.' But when a student gets in a car crash, I get an email about it, and it says we hope this person gets better. But for Dr. Tamari, who's a professor and a beloved professor who's had so much impact on people, they didn't say anything."
Although Saturday's protest ended peacefully, the University, out of caution, diverted the next group of graduates out the back exit door.
"I still think we got our word across. We had some people come up and thank us for being out here and supporting us," said Wagner.
But, Wagner said the protest was also met with criticism.
"We had people here complaining that we were doing this outside of commencement and we were ruining their graduation. But these kids in Gaza don't even get graduations," Wagner explained.
5 On Your Side has reached out to St. Louis County police for a response to what Tamari says happened to him, but we have yet to hear back.
SIEU officials shared the below statement with KSDK.
"While we understand the calls for the University to speak out about this matter, it is not appropriate to do so. This is a matter that happened at another university campus and the full context and circumstances leading up to the incident and after are unknown to us at this time. We are not able to confirm many of the details associated with this incident. It should also be noted that Professor Tamari was there as a private citizen. It is not proper for the University to comment on what individuals do away from campus in their private time. This does not mean that we should not be concerned about him personally, as a colleague, teacher, scholar, and friend to many in our community."
"Our primary concern is what happens here at SIUE and our capacity to express support or opposition on any matter in ways that uphold the commitments to free speech and civility."
"Thank you again for writing and for your inquiry about Professor Tamari."