Tufts encampment protesting Israel comes down, but demonstrators vow to continue fight
The protest encampment at Tufts University has come down, but the students who put up the tents say they will continue to fight until the school fully divests from Israel.
Tufts Students for Justice in Palestine, which set up the tents in early April, removed the encampment on the academic quad Friday night after failing to reach a deal with university leadership.
The organizing group, which threatened to boycott graduation if officials turned to police to forcefully remove the tents, called the offer from leadership a “bad-faith deal that fails to end the university’s complicity in the ongoing genocide in Palestine.”
“The administration even refused to comply with our demand to extend amnesty to students involved in the Gaza Solidarity Encampment and recent protests for divestment,” Tufts SJP said in an Instagram post late Friday.
“This is not related to the negotiations,” the group said of the encampment breakdown. “We may elaborate on this at a further date as we need this time to process and develop our approach to discussing the matter.”
Student newspaper Tufts Daily reported that the university’s executive director of public relations Patrick Collins confirmed the decision to remove the encampment came independently.
“We’re pleased that the encampment has been taken down and that protest on the academic quad has been resolved peacefully and voluntarily,” Collins wrote in a statement to the newspaper. “The protesters’ departure was not the result of an agreement with the university.”
Students for Justice in Palestine is demanding Tufts to disclose its investments to Israel, divestment from the country, call for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war and drop attacks on students.
More than a hundred pro-Palestinian protesters took their demands to campus on April 26, vandalizing school property with explicit messages including “F*** the trustees.”
“Rather than take a bad faith deal that would forfeit our right to organize — and our values — we chose to walk away from this offer to maintain the integrity of the struggle for Palestinian Liberation,” Tufts SJP stated Friday night. “While we did not achieve victory today, as SJP, we vow to continue organizing and disrupting business as usual until this university cuts its ties with and fully divests from the zionist entity.”
A wave of demonstrations has spread across U.S. campuses over the last two weeks, led by students who have pitched tents or occupied buildings in protest of the Israel-Hamas war.
It started April 18 when police moved to break up an encampment at Columbia University in New York City. Since then, it has spread to dozens of other campuses from Harvard to UCLA.
More than 100 arrests were made as police broke down encampments at Emerson and Northeastern. While the tents have also come down at Tufts, encampments remain in place at MIT and Harvard in Cambridge.
Students are calling on colleges to stop doing business with Israel or companies they say support the war in Gaza. Agreements at schools including Brown, Northwestern and Rutgers stand out amidst the chaotic scenes and the 2,400-plus arrests on 46 campuses across the nation, the Associated Press reported.
Tufts leadership wrote in a letter last Tuesday it looked to “avoid the confrontations seen at other universities,” while warning protesters no-trespass orders would be issued and threatening to suspend students and bar seniors from walking at commencement.
In response to that letter, roughly 320 undergraduate and graduate students sent a message to President Sunil Kumar urging Tufts to stay away from “police violence” and to “take action to end the War on Gaza,” while threatening to boycott commencement.
Some of the protesters at the encampment included “demonstrators unaffiliated with Tufts,” leadership said.
“The protesters have appropriated and painted furniture rented by Tufts for an Earth Day event and refused to return it to the outside company that owns it,” officials wrote last Tuesday. “They have harassed and intimidated staff as they try to clean areas that were vandalized. Notably, they also rejected a suggestion to move the encampment to an alternative location on campus so they could continue advocating their position while Commencement preparations begin.”
from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/9mCyP0L
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