Sam Douglas/ Fourth Estate

Protest against defense companies featured at Mason’s Fall Career Fair occurs on Wilkins Plaza

BY SAM DOUGLAS, STAFF WRITER

On Wednesday, Sept 25., Students for Justice in Palestine led a protest outside the Johnson Center against the presence of defense companies Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics and Leonardo at Mason’s Fall Career Fair 2024.

The protest started at 1:30 p.m. on Wilkins Plaza outside the Johnson Center’s northeast entrance. With around 50 people at the protest’s peak, protesters waved Palestinian flags, held up posters and chanted, “GMU, you’re painted red, 186,000 dead,” as university officials and police officers watched on.

Sam Douglas/ Fourth Estate

The protest centered around Mason’s Fall Career Fair taking place from Sept. 25 and 26. The fair was sponsored by Lockheed Martin, and hosted booths from General Dynamics and Leonardo. 

Protestors gave speeches calling for the removal of the defense companies from the career fair, referring to them as “war-profiteers.”

“Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics and Leonardo are among the largest corporations sustaining and profiting from the Genocide in Gaza,” SJP said in an Instagram post on Sept. 24.

Protestors chanted and gave speeches for an hour before marching towards the east entrance of the Johnson Center at 2:35 p.m.

Sam Douglas/ Fourth Estate

“Not a penny, not a dollar, no more money for Israel’s slaughter,” was one of many chants said by protestors before resuming their march to the south entrance of the Johnson Center at 2:45 p.m.

The protest ended at 3:15 p.m., with a protester calling for similar turnout at a protest held during the Board of Visitors meeting in Merten Hall on Sept. 26.