I do so love being proved right, I have said, both on this site and Twitter, it’s a bit pointless to use force to break up the protest encampments, because, with the semester ending, these encampments will just wither away.
Swarthmore College’s pro-Palestinian encampment disbands after 4 weeks and stalled negotiations
Student activists began voluntarily clearing the encampment on Parrish Lawn Thursday morning.
by Beatrice Forman | Friday, May 24, 2024 | 5:48 MP EDT
Swarthmore College’s pro-Palestinian encampment officially came down Friday morning, marking the end of the longest campus protest over the war in Gaza in the Philadelphia area.
About three dozen student activists began packing up their belongings from Parrish Lawn voluntarily Thursday, said organizer Ragad A., a sophomore, who declined to share their full name out of privacy concerns.
No police or public safety officers were involved, confirmed Swarthmore College spokesperson Alisa Giardinelli. “The few remaining students voluntarily left the lawn sometime overnight,” she said.
The dismantling of Swarthmore’s encampment marks the end of a wave of demonstrations on campuses in the Philly region, as protesters across the United States have demanded that colleges and universities divest their endowments from entities profiting off the war, which the Palestinian Health Ministry estimated has resulted in over 35,000 deaths since Oct. 7.
Swarthmore’s encampment began over a month ago and its prolonged existence on Parrish Lawn — where commencement is typically hosted — forced the liberal arts college to move the celebration off campus to the Mann Center for the Performing Arts in Fairmount Park for the first time in school history.
The Princeton Princess, her neckbearded ally, and the girl who really needed to go on a hunger strike.
But it’s summer break now, and there are few people walking around to see the pro-Hamas encampment, so there’s no longer any point. And in looking for news on the Princeton hunger strike for Palestine, something we have previously mocked, a Google search for Princeton hunger strike has shown little news over the last two weeks; it is unclear whether the second wave of hunger strikers, following the end of the strike by the first group, is still active. What’s the purpose of a hunger strike if nobody cares?
The pro-Hamas protests are withering away on campus, because school’s out for the summer. There are still the occasional protest march in the larger cities, but they, too, seem to be less and less in the news.
Well, what do you expect? The dorms are closed, there’s no one to cook for them. The halls are closed, and no public restrooms are around. I bet they even shut down the wifi router.
You can’t expect these kids to continue their protest in such barbaric conditions.
Was in Princeton earlier today. Walking around on Nassau Street saw the last of graduation festivities, but nothing in the way of demonstrations. Looks like they packed it in.
Thanks for that!