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Early this morning, three protestors from the Occupation Free Notre Dame group placed a cardboard missile and sign at the university’s Main Gate on Notre Dame Avenue. The missile read “ND funds death” and the sign read “We’re a Catholic University funding genocide.” It was signed by OFND.

Occupation Free ND is a group on campus focused on protesting the administration and accusing them of complicity with genocide in Gaza. According to a student protestor who refuses to be identified, the protest was specifically against the university’s endowment being invested into weapons manufacturers and military contractors. Today is the 1-year anniversary of Hamas’ invasion of Israel, which resulted in the deaths of over 1,200 people. The group says their installation “in no way endorses Hamas’s brutal attack on civilians a year ago today.” 

When asked if today’s protest is in poor timing with the anniversary of the October 7 attacks, the group said, “Our installation exists in the context of University programming that distorts the truth. October 7th was a horrific day because of Hamas’ attack and because of Israel’s subsequent genocide.”

The protest installation was set up around 4:00 a.m. and remained until at least 7:30 a.m. At some point during the day, the university removed the installation. It is unknown how many students actually saw the demonstration, which was unapproved by the Student Activities Office, due to the location and time. However, Occupation Free ND posted about the installation this afternoon on their Instagram page. The installation was intended to be a model of the Mark 84 bomb, which is a type of bomb given to Israel by the United States.

The group says that until the university meets their demands, they will continue to demonstrate on campus. Their demands are for the university to divest from weapons manufacturers and convince the St. Joseph County Prosecutor to drop the charges against those arrested while protesting this spring.

Last week, the university hosted a Notre Dame Forum event, “One Year After October 7: Historical Backdrop and Future Prospects” in DeBartolo Hall. The conversation was between Hussein Ibish, Senior Resident Scholar, Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington D.C. and David Myers, Distinguished Professor and Sady and Ludwig Kahn Chair in Jewish History at UCLA.

Tomorrow evening, the club Student Voices for Palestine will be sponsoring an interfaith prayer vigil at 7:30 p.m. at the Grotto. The service will incorporate readings from the Jewish, Christian and Muslim faiths.

The university declined to comment on this story.