GAZA SOLIDARITY ENCAMPMENT: Pro-Palestine demonstrators at Princeton University moved into the sixth day of their “encampment” on Tuesday, moving the demonstration from McCosh Courtyard to Cannon Green between Nassau Hall and the Whig and Clio halls. Thirteen protesters were arrested on Monday evening during a takeover and sit-in in the Clio administration building.

By Donald Gilpin

The Gaza Solidarity Encampment pro-Palestine demonstration at Princeton University entered its sixth day on Tuesday, April 30 after a tense Monday evening during which protesters marched from their previous base in McCosh Courtyard and occupied Clio Hall for several hours before settling on Cannon Green, directly behind Nassau Hall.

In an email sent to the Princeton University Community at 10:30 p.m. Monday, following the arrest of 13 people, University President Christopher L. Eisgruber noted that all 13, including five undergraduates, six graduate students, one postdoctoral researcher, and one person not affiliated with the University, received summonses for trespassing and have been barred from campus. Two other demonstrators, both graduate students, were arrested at the start of the demonstrations on April 25.

“The students will also face University discipline,” he added, “which may extend to suspension or expulsion.” There were no injuries reported during the incident.

Eisgruber went on to describe the disturbance at Clio Hall, which houses the Graduate School administration, as “completely unacceptable” and “deeply upsetting to many people, including especially the staff of the Graduate School.”

He added, “Everyone on this campus needs to feel safe and be safe. Faculty, students, and staff must be able to conduct University business without disruption, harassment, or threat.”

The Gaza Solidarity Encampment, calling on the University to divest from companies with ties to Israel, started early Thursday morning, April 25. The two graduate students who were arrested then were putting up tents in violation of University policy in the courtyard between McCosh Hall and the University Chapel.

Over the past five days, up until Monday evening’s occupation of Clio Hall, the demonstration had for the most part avoided any breach of University regulations.

An Instagram post on Monday from Princeton Israeli Apartheid Divest stated, “Princeton has refused to bargain over our demands through any channels of communication since October. We are taking our demands directly to administration to force Princeton to the table NOW!” The post urged students and faculty to join a sit-in at Clio Hall.

The protesters have also called for a ceasefire in Gaza, “a condemnation of Israel’s genocidal campaign against the Palestinians,” and a cessation of the University’s association with Israeli academic institutions and businesses.

Pro-Palestinian demonstrations have been taking place at universities across the country in recent weeks, with a number of those protests, notably at nearby Rutgers University and Columbia University, escalating into clashes with the authorities.

In its coverage of Monday’s occupation of Clio Hall, The Daily Princetonian student newspaper reported that at least 15 protesters entered Clio at 5:23 p.m. At about 5:30 p.m. University Department of Public Safety (PSAFE) officials warned intruders that they would be arrested if they did not leave the building.

PSAFE eventually exited with two protesters, a graduate student and a researcher in the Princeton Neuroscience Institute, and took them onto a TigerTransit bus, as a large group of demonstrators blocked the path of the bus, banging on its windows and yelling, “Let them go.”

By 6:26 p.m. 11 people remained inside Clio Hall, according to The Princetonian, and four municipal Princeton Police Department (PPD) vehicles arrived. PPD Captain Chris Tash noted that the PPD was called for support “just in case,” but did not have to get involved.

Two Princeton professors, Max Weiss of the History Department and Zia Mian, co-director of Princeton’s Program on Science and Global Security, urged students blocking the bus to disperse. The professors then entered the bus, and shortly afterwards, at 6:50 p.m., the two protesters who had been detained on the bus were released.

About 75 protesters remained on the steps of Clio Hall. Students who had been arrested were apparently escorted by PSAFE officers to their dorms and given 10 minutes to get items from their dorm that they needed. The crowd eventually dispersed from the Clio Hall steps, and the sit-in continued on Cannon Green between Clio and Nassau Hall.

On Cannon Green on day six of the Gaza Solidarity Encampment, the protesters have organized supplies and food on tables, and placed canvases on the ground. There are posters —“Free Palestine,” “Boycott, Divest, Sanction,” “Save Gaza,” and more — as well as Palestinian flags attached to trees and elsewhere on the green.

Classes at Princeton University ended last Friday, final exams start next week, and as this week’s reading period proceeds, the standoff between University administrators and the demonstrators continues.