Harvard protesters announce they’re ending campus encampment
Harvard’s pro-Palestine protesters have announced they’re ending the campus encampment after three weeks as their demands were ignored.
The group leading the protests, Harvard Out of Occupied Palestine, said on Tuesday they had voted to end the encampment on Harvard Yard in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
‘The encampment has outlived the last day of classes, finals week, and move out weekend: a testament to the tenacity of our movement,’ the group said.
‘But as students moved out, police became the dominant presence on campus. Interim President [Alan] Garber was willing to go to extreme lengths to neutralize and evict our organizers in insidious ways, devoid of due process.
‘Campus is cleared out and the gates remain shut to the outside world. There is no liberation in isolation. In reassessing the strategic value of our encampment, we have come to the conclusion that this tactic has outlasted its utility with respect to our demands.’
Harvard’s pro-Palestine protesters have announced they’re ending the campus encampment after three week as their demands were ignored. The encampment is seen on Monday
Students protesting against the war in Gaza, and passersby walking through Harvard Yard, are seen at an encampment at Harvard University on Thursday, April 25
Spokesman Jonathan Swain said the Ivy League’s interim president Garber plans to meet with the student protester to further discuss the war in Gaza.
The pro-Palestine group, however, said of the meeting: ‘We are under no illusions: we do not believe these meetings are divestment wins… These side-deals are intended to pacify us away from full disclosure & divestment. Rest assured, they will not.’
According to The New York Times, the school has also agreed to quickly reinstate suspended students.
Protests over the Israel-Hamas war have spread across U.S. university and college campuses in recent weeks, leading to disruptions and arrests.
Some demonstrations extended into weekend graduation celebrations, although they were muted in comparison to the encampments and rallies that have roiled campuses and resulted in nearly 2,900 arrests of students and other protesters.
Dozens of the 7,000 graduates at Duke University left their seats to protest pro-Israel speaker and comedian Jerry Seinfeld during the commencement in Durham, North Carolina, on Sunday.
Some waved the red, green, black and white Palestinian flag and chanted “Free Palestine” amid a mix of boos and cheers.
Spokesman Jonathan Swain said the Ivy League’s interim president Garber plans to meet with the student protester to further discuss the war in Gaza
A group of pro-Palestine protestors, dressed in keffiyeh’s, raised a large Palestinian flag above Harvard founder John Harvard’s memorial last month
Seinfeld, whose decade-long namesake show became one of the most popular in U.S. television history, was there to receive an honorary doctorate from the university.
The stand-up comedian and actor has publicly supported Israel since it invaded Gaza to dismantle Hamas after the organization attacked the country and killed some 1,200 people in southern Israel on October 7.
The ensuing war has killed more than 35,000 Palestinians, according to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry.