The ongoing aggression on the besieged Gaza Strip continues to cast its shadow on American universities, with the conclusion of a student sit-in at Haverford College under the threat of disciplinary action this past Wednesday. The sit-in had lasted a week to denounce the Israeli war, coming to a close after police arrested students demonstrating at Brown University earlier in the week.
Students at Haverford College in Philadelphia began their sit-in on December 6th in the hall housing administrative offices, demanding that college president Wendy Raymond publicly call for a ceasefire in Gaza. The college threatened the protesting students with referral to a disciplinary committee if they did not vacate the hall, while the students denounced the college’s betrayal of its foundational values of peace advocacy.
The students participating in the sit-in stated their intention to pressure the university administration through other means to demand a ceasefire in Gaza. This comes especially after the American Palestinian student Kinan Abdul Hamid and two other Palestinian students at different universities were shot in November, an incident suspected to be a hate crime.
At Brown University in Rhode Island, the police charged 41 students with trespassing after they were arrested for refusing to leave the university hall’s administrative building last Monday. They were demanding that the university withdraw its support from the Israeli military occupation. On Wednesday, Brown University’s administration, while recognizing protest as a necessary and acceptable form of expression on campus, warned that students are not allowed to “interfere with university functions,” highlighting the potential for more severe consequences if students fail to comply with the imposed restrictions on the timing, location, and method of the protests.
American universities justify the end of pro-Palestinian sit-ins by citing the students’ non-compliance with order, amidst criticism for restricting free speech. The arrests and sit-ins occurred amid ongoing repercussions from congressional testimony given last week by the presidents of the University of Pennsylvania, Harvard, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology regarding anti-Semitism. These university leaders faced criticism for their responses to questions from New York Republican Congresswoman Elise Stefanik regarding whether “calling for the genocide of Jews” violates university policies.
The University of Pennsylvania’s president resigned following the university administration’s demand over the weekend, as her stance was that calls for the genocide of Jews only violate rules in certain contexts. Meanwhile, Harvard’s board expressed support for university president Claudine Gay after she faced calls to resign due to her position on anti-Semitism.
A four-hour congressional hearing, featuring testimonies from presidents of three of the leading global and American universities concerning campus tensions due to the Israeli aggression on Gaza, sparked significant anger among donors, alumni, students, and politicians. It highlighted the simmering tensions between Jewish and Muslim students on campus.
