The aggression against the besieged Gaza Strip continues to cast its shadow on American universities, with the end of a student sit-in under the threat of disciplinary measures yesterday, Wednesday, at Haverford College, which lasted for a week to denounce the Israeli war, after the police arrested students who demonstrated at Brown University over the weekend.
Students at Haverford College in Philadelphia began their sit-in on December 6 in the hall that houses the administrative offices, to demand that the college’s president, Wendy Raymond, publicly call for a ceasefire in Gaza.
The college threatened the protesting students by referring them to a disciplinary committee if they did not leave the hall, while the students considered that the college had lost its value as an institution, and accused it of betraying its peaceful roots.
The students who participated in the sit-in said that they would put pressure on the university administration in other ways to demand a ceasefire in Gaza, especially after the Palestinian-American student Kenan Abdel Hamid was exposed to gunfire last November along with two other Palestinian students at other universities, in what was suspected to be a hate crime.
Detention of students
At Brown University in Rhode Island, police accused 41 students of trespassing after arresting them when they refused to leave the administrative building of the university hall last Monday, demanding that the university administration withdraw its position on the Israeli military occupation.
The Brown University administration said on Wednesday that although protest is a necessary and acceptable means of expression on campus, students may not “interfere with the functions of the university,” and warned of more serious consequences if students fail to observe restrictions on the time, place, and method of carrying out protests.
American universities use the excuse of their students’ non-compliance with the regime to end their sit-ins in support of the Palestinian cause, amid criticism of restricting freedom of expression.
The arrests and sit-ins came amid ongoing repercussions over testimony given by the presidents of the University of Pennsylvania, Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology at a congressional hearing on anti-Semitism last week.
The presidents have drawn criticism for their responses to a set of questions from New York Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik about whether “calling for the genocide of Jews” violates university rules.
The president of the University of Pennsylvania resigned over the weekend after the university administration asked her to step down, because it considered that “calling for the extermination of Jews” violates the rules if it comes only in certain contexts.
While the Harvard Board of Directors announced its support for the university’s president, Claudine Gay, after demands for her to step down due to her stance on anti-Semitism.
A 4-hour hearing during which the presidents of 3 of the best American and international universities presented their testimony in Congress regarding the tension taking place on campus against the backdrop of the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip, led to great anger among donors, graduates, students and politicians, and highlighted the simmering tensions between Jewish and Muslim students.