Harvard and Princeton students start pro-Palestine camp

Students from Harvard and Princeton universities in the United States have joined the list of North American higher education institutions where students carry out acts against the war in the Gaza Strip.

On Wednesday (April 24, 2024), several students started a camp at Harvard Yard, considered the oldest area on the university campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The place already has more than 30 tents, according to information from the Harvard Crimson student newspaper.

Until the publication of this report, the university administration had not commented on the protest.

The event is organized by the Harvard Out of Occupied Palestine Coalition. In a statement on Instagram, the group said it has established what they call “Liberated Zone” (Free Zone, in free translation), referring to the camp, “to demand an end to Harvard’s moral and material complicity in the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people”.

Protesters also demand that the university disclose any investment in Israel and stop using these resources. They also want Harvard to drop the charges against students for “organizing and activism, and commit to ending the weaponization of disciplinary politics”.

PRINCETON

Around 100 students from Princeton University, in New Jersey, started a camp at McCosh Courtyard this Thursday morning (Apr 25, 2024). They also require financial divestment from the institution in “companies that profit from or engage in Israel’s military campaign, occupation and apartheid policies”.

According to information from the student newspaper The Daily Princetonian, the institution’s security issued an alert to students as soon as the tents were erected. At least 2 students were arrested.

Princeton University’s administration wasted no time in suppressing free speech, immediately arresting two students as they peacefully protested on campus. THEY ARE CURRENTLY EVICTING THESE STUDENTS FROM HOUSING. LINK HERE TO PHONE/EMAIL ZAP https://t.co/SHGOXOsJ5B pic.twitter.com/8dZXHsfaMN

— Princeton Israeli Apartheid Divest (@PtonDivestNow) April 25, 2024

According to the NBC Newsthe university’s vice president, Rochelle Calhoun, sent a message to students on Wednesday (April 24) warning that “any individual engaged in an illegal camping, sit-in, or other disruptive conduct who refuses to stop, after warning, will be arrested and immediately barred from campus.”.

This Thursday (April 25), Princeton President Christopher Eisgruber said in an opinion piece published in the student newspaper The Daily Princetonian that although the university defends freedom of expression, there are limits regarding the time and places where protests are held.

“Princeton’s time, place and behavior regulations include a clear and explicit prohibition on camping. They state that ‘camping in vehicles, tents or other structures on campus is not permitted. It is prohibited to sleep in any type of outdoor space’”he wrote.

According to Eisgruber, encampments also prevent other people from moving freely on campus, create health and safety risks, and “tend to become places of conflict”.