MSJP claims the group was told to take down a parade decoration during MU’s homecoming parade
Alison Patton
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
The University of Missouri Homecoming Parade kicked off Saturday morning, with the Mizzou Students for Justice in Palestine in tow.
The student group was barred from participating in the parade last year. MSJP was denied again this year but a federal judge ordered the university to allow the group to participate this year as long as it followed new parade policies.
“It’s a bit of trepidation,” MSJP President Lily Dunn said about getting to march. “A sense of pride and victory because all of this came not from just hoping the university accepts us, but from pure and hard work.”
MSJP decorated a truck with Palestinian flags and members of the organization were standing in the truck bed ready to hand out candy.
Before the parade started, there was a sign on the front of the truck that said “MU Alum Mohammed Aljamal says hello from Gaza.”
Aljamal’s LinkedIn shows he went to MU in 2015 for a year to study water and waste water treatment and civil engineering. He received a scholarship from USAID.
According to his LinkedIn, Aljamal currently works in Gaza.
Dunn claims Todd McCubbin, the executive director of the Mizzou Alumni Association, asked the group to take the sign down.
“For a member of the Alumni Association to tell us that we’re not allowed to display alumni on our truck, our decorated truck as a decoration, is insane to me,” Dunn said.
ABC 17 News reached out to McCubbin but has yet to receive a response.
MSJP didn’t walk with the sign, but two people held up the same sign and another new sign while in the crowd as MSJP marched by in the parade.
University Spokesperson Christopher Ave said no formal action would be taken on the day of the parade to reprimand any group that stepped outside of the parade policy.
“All entrants must comply with the event guidelines,” Ave wrote in an email. “Any entrants that violates them may face consequences.”