Encampment protesting continues at Brown University

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WLNE) – Friday marked day three of a pro-Palestine encampment protest at Brown University.

Hundreds of students camped on the main green outside of President’s Hall demanding that charges against 41 students who were arrested at a sit-in protest back in December be dropped and for the university to divest from businesses that protestors said aid Israel’s war efforts.

The Brown University Community Council recommended the charges be dropped against the students arrested in December and that students be allowed to have their demands of divestment heard at next month’s corporation meeting.

The school also sent out notices telling students they were violating school policy, with a spokesperson noting the ultimate punishment could be students being kicked out of the university.

“If it comes at the cost of doing what is right, having to set a precedent, this is all eyes on Gaza, all eyes on Rafha, all eyes on the atrocities going on right now, and I would expect nothing less of myself and my peers,” Brown Divest Coalition member Niyanta Nepal said.

With finals approaching and graduation next month, some students in the encampment said protesting comes first.

“Everyone keeps asking don’t you feel guilty that you are missing classes? That is why you are here,” Nepal said. “I can’t go to those classes and feel safe. My institution has arrested 41 of my fellow peers for peacefully protesting. I don’t feel safe on this campus as they continue to invest in Israeli occupation in places where women and children are dying and in places where no universities are left standing.”

She added a lot of their time at the encampment is spent in activities like singing, praying, and dancing, as well as grieving the lives of Palestinians killed in the conflict

Campus buildings surrounding the main green are fully accessible for all students with their student I.D.’s, and student protestors have been using those bathrooms to keep up with hygiene.

For others, the encampment was more unsettling.

Brown Alum Daniel Satlow, who lived in Israel, said that the pain on both sides of the conflict should be acknowledged.

“I have a lot of friends who were directly affected by what happened on October 7,” he said. “I think that seeing a lot of this engagement with what is going on with Gaza, which I do think has problematic issues, I think that you can’t ignore the fact that over 30,000 people have died, without ignoring the other side and kind of the pain that many of my Israeli friends have been experiencing.”