PRINCETON, NJ, OCTOBER 4–5 months ago, 15 of us were arrested for protesting the University’s complicity in the ongoing genocide against the people of Gaza. 2 of us—both graduate students—were arrested on the 25th of April minutes after the launch of the Gaza Solidarity Encampment. 13 of us—Princeton students, researchers, and affiliates—were arrested on the 29th of April for participating in a peaceful protest in a University administrative building. At the time of our arrests, the university barred us from campus and evicted us from university housing, all without formal disciplinary charges. Weeks later, the university conducted a “disciplinary investigation” and sanctioned us with four years of disciplinary probation. One of us, postdoctoral researcher Sam Nastase, remains barred from campus. These measures are far harsher than Princeton’s response to previous campus protests.
Although the Princeton administration has already punished us with a heavy-handed and prejudicial application of their internal disciplinary process, they continue to pursue legal charges against us for peacefully protesting on our own campus. These drawn out proceedings have left some of us with little reasonable option but to seek a plea agreement to resolve the case. At Tuesday’s court appearance, the two students arrested during the pitching of tents were able to move forward with a plea deal and resolve their cases. In fact, the judge expressed confusion about why these two students had been arrested in the first place. However, for those arrested in Clio Hall, the judge rejected a plea deal that had been agreed upon in advance between the attorney and state prosecutor. This came as a surprise to the students hoping to accept the plea deal. While Princeton claims that they are “reducing the impact” of our arrest, they have refused to ask the prosecutor to drop charges against us in a protracted court case that has already caused significant disruptions to our studies and to our lives.
The criminalization of our protest is only one example of a series of repressive measures Princeton has taken to silence calls for Palestinian liberation on campus, and to avoid accountability for its complicity in the ongoing occupation and genocide. Over the last 5 months, Princeton has engaged in an active student repression campaign by limiting free speech, extrajudiciously interrogating students, and increasing surveillance. Over the summer, Princeton introduced new policies restricting free speech on campus, including bans on protesting in central areas of campus, putting up posters and flyers in most locations, erecting overnight structures, and drawing on the ground with chalk. They have targeted students and opened dubious disciplinary investigations into students and faculty simply for participating in the movement for Palestinian liberation. Finally, the university has actively censored coverage of protests and activism in national media.
While Princeton has been working to silence student protestors, Israel’s violations of human rights and international law have escalated. Israel, with the support of the United States, continues to massacre “safe zones” in Gaza sheltering displaced civilians already suffering from relentless bombardment, famine, and disease. They have destroyed Gaza’s infrastructure and over 80% of Gaza’s buildings, including numerous cultural sites and every single university. They have threatened and murdered journalists for reporting on these atrocities. Over the past few days, Israel has expanded its campaign of terror and indiscriminate killing to Lebanon. While we sat in court yesterday, Israel was attempting to launch a ground invasion of Lebanon.
Princeton University is a key player in funding, developing technology for, and manufacturing consent for these atrocities. Princeton’s 34 billion dollar endowment funds apartheid, ethnic cleansing, and genocide in the occupied Palestinian territories. Princeton also maintains deep ties to Israel through its research activities and funding partnerships. They accept hundreds of millions of dollars in funding from the military and from fossil fuel companies like BP, which fuels and stands to profit from this genocide.
Student activists have actively engaged in both administrative pathways and protest to move the university to embody its values through its finances. Last spring, we submitted a comprehensive proposal to the CPUC Resources Committee detailing a process of divestment from Israeli violations of human rights and international law. The Resources Committee, which is responsible for presenting a divestment plan to the Board of Trustees, has been extremely slow to carry out this task. While we encourage all Princeton students, faculty, staff, and alumni to continue making their opinions known to the committee (follow bit.ly/CPUCDivest), we implore the university to move with the greatest possible urgency towards divestment from the ongoing genocide and occupation. As Israel’s escalated assaults on Lebanon and Gaza threaten to cause a devastating regional war, the university’s insistence on stalling through newly invented bureaucratic processes is deeply irresponsible.
Princeton is using increasingly authoritarian measures to silence protest, but we are not deterred. We continue to demand complete financial divestment and dissociation from Israel’s genocidal project of apartheid and ethnic cleansing in the occupied Palestinian territories and wider region. In honor of the many thousands martyred by the Zionist genocide in Gaza and the hundreds now martyred in Lebanon, and in solidarity with those suffering from and struggling against the occupation, we will continue to speak, we will continue to organize, and we will not stop until Princeton divests.
Signed,
Achinthya Sivalingam, SPIA ’24
Aditi Rao, PhD Candidate, Classics
Andres Blanco Bonilla, Computer Science ’24
Ariel Munczek Edelman, SPIA MPA ’25
Brooklyn Northcross, African American Studies ’24
Christian Bischoff ‘19, PhD Candidate, English
Christian Silva, MTS, Princeton Theological Seminary (affiliate student at Princeton University)
Hellen Wainaina, PhD Candidate, English
Jacob Neis, PhD Candidate, Classics
Khari Franklin, African American Studies ’24
Kristal H. Grant, African American Studies ’24
Samuel A. Nastase, Associate Research Scholar and Lecturer, Princeton Neuroscience Institute
Sara Ryave, African American Studies ’24
Hassan Sayed, PhD Candidate, Economics
Sofia Menemenlis, PhD Candidate, Atmospheric & Oceanic Sciences
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