Israel-Hamas War Tensions Royal Complex; Brown protesters arrested, occupy Haverford building

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Dozens of student protesters were arrested at Brown University, and a week-long sit-in at Haverford College ended Wednesday under threat of disciplinary action on U.S. college campuses. keep making me cry but with stress Israel-Hamas war,

Brown’s police department charged 41 students with trespassing after they refused to leave the University Hall administrative building after business hours on Monday, according to officials at the Ivy League school in Providence. Rhode Island,

Earlier that day, protesters had met with Brown President Christina H. Paxon and demanded that Brown “withdraw its endowment from the Israeli military occupation,” the school said in a statement on the arrest. The students were photographed and fingerprinted in the administration building before their release. Monday night. Other students were waiting outside to cheer them.

It was the second round of arrests at Brown in just over a month as college administrators across the country try to reconcile students’ rights to protest with schools’ imperative to maintain order.

Twenty students protesting the Israeli invasion of Gaza were arrested for trespassing on November 8, although Brown withdrew the charges on November 27, two days after a Palestinian student at Brown, Hisham Awtani, and two other Palestinians. College students were shot in Burlington. Vermont,

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Brown said Wednesday that although protests are “a necessary and acceptable means of expression on campus,” students “cannot interfere with the normal operations of the University.” , place and method of protest.

“Disruption of securing buildings is not acceptable, and the University is prepared to increase the level of criminal charges for future incidents of students occupying secured buildings,” Brown said.

In Haverford, outside Philadelphia, student activists began their sit-in on December 6 and occupied Founders Hall, which houses administrative offices. They are demanding that college President Wendy Raymond publicly call for a ceasefire in Gaza, which Israel invaded following the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Hamas militants.

Hundreds of students participated last week, taking food deliveries and setting up study spaces. According to student organizers, professors also came to teach.

The college claimed that the protesters were disrupting the work of fellow students, staff and faculty, and told the protest organizers on Tuesday night that “they should stop actions that are disrupting students’ education and the functioning of the college, including in Founders Hall.” “Dharna is also included in it.” Raymond and the college dean said in a campus message Wednesday morning.

Student organizers told The Associated Press that college officials threatened to haul the protesters in front of a disciplinary panel if they did not leave the hall. About 50 students defied the warning and slept in the building overnight, before protesters held a final rally Wednesday morning and handed letters to Raymond before disbanding.

According to Julian Kennedy, a 21-year-old junior and organizer with Haverford Students for Peace, the threat of discipline played a role in the decision to end the sit-in. But he said organizers also concluded that the picketing would not force Haverford to meet the group’s demands.

Kennedy accused Haverford of betraying its Quaker pacifist roots, saying, “At this point, we simply see that this college as an institution is broken and has lost its values.”

Ellie Barron, a 20-year-old junior and protest organizer, said the group will put pressure on Haverford in other ways.

“Just because the strike is over, it doesn’t mean that our efforts are over. “We are deeply troubled that our President has refused to call a ceasefire,” Barron said.

Kinnan Abdelhamid, a Palestinian American student at Haverford, was one of them Three Palestinian college students who were shot Over Thanksgiving break in Vermont. The suspected gunman was arrested and has pleaded not guilty to three counts of attempted murder. Authorities are investigating whether the shooting, which seriously injured another student, was a hate crime.

“Our presence here is a powerful message that we will not remain silent, we will not remain passive observers,” Abdalhamid, who attended Wednesday’s rally, said in a statement.

There was a situation between arrest and protest continuous decline On testimony given by university leaders pennsylvaniaHarvard and MIT at congressional hearings on anti-Semitism last week. Presidents fired carefully worded responses In a line of questioning from New York Republican Elise Stefanik, who repeatedly asked whether “calling for the genocide of the Jews” would be a violation of school rules. Penn’s president resigned over the weekend, while at Harvard, the governing board declared its support for the school’s embattled president.

Copyright 2023 The associated Press, All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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