Israel divestment protest grows on Brown University campus

Christopher Boardman, Gino DeAngelis,

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WLNE) — Students at Brown University set up an encampment Wednesday to demand the university’s divestment from Israel.

The Brown Divestment Coalition encampment is set up on the Main Green of the campus on Waterman Street.

“Liberation is intertwined or safety is intertwined by standing up for Palestinian liberation,” one student protestor said. “I understand that I am in fact standing up for Jewish safety. These are fundamentally core values that must be intertwined. And we’ve said it again and again, anti Zionism is not anti Semitism and I’m really proud to be a Jew standing in coalition with so many other students on campus.”

According to their X account, formerly known as Twitter, the Brown Divestment Coalition is saying that Brown Public Safety is now taking IDs of everyone in the encampment.

“There’s this stuff happening on Columbia’s campus and Yale’s campus which is much more specific and it feels like something like that, or if there’s a possibility anyway of it escalating from this peaceful situation and I’m scared of that happening to some degree so that’s where the tension is coming from,” another student said.

ABC6 reached out to Brown for comment and received the following statement:

Shortly after 6 a.m., the University observed about 90 students establishing an encampment and protest. Encampment on Brown University’s historic and residential greens is a violation of University policy, and all of the students participating have been informed they will face conduct proceedings. This policy is years old, established in October 2011, and not new. Protest is an acceptable means of expression at Brown, but it becomes unacceptable when it violates University policies that are intended to ensure the safety of members of the Brown community and that there is no interference in the rights of others to engage in the regular operations of the university. University administrators and the Department of Public Safety will continually monitor the situation and act as necessary. We have been troubled by reports of violence, harassment and intimidation at some encampments on other campuses, but we have not seen that kind of behavior at Brown. Any such behavior would not be tolerated.

Categories: News, Rhode Island

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