Updated 12:00 a.m. on April 26, 2024.
The Gaza solidarity encampment set up Thursday morning at Michigan State University is being allowed to stay in place through Sunday, April 28.
The MSU Board of Trustees approved a permit for the protest group, after police initially warned organizers that their tent-pitching was in violation of campus policy. This marks the first time a political protest has gone through the university’s permit system.
“We appreciated all day just the peaceful engagement and the ongoing dialogue between the university and the protesters,” said Emily Guerrant, a spokesperson for MSU.
MSU students set up the encampment on campus at the People’s Park next to Wells Hall to protest the university’s investments with Israel amid its months-long war in Gaza.
Organizers arrived at the site at 5:30 a.m. with more than a dozen tents. By nightfall, nearly 60 MSU students and community members had joined the encampment. Individuals brought lights, food, kitchen equipment and a portable sink.
David Hogan, a Jewish MSU Sophomore protesting at the encampment, says he feels that graduation ceremonies and the presence of families on campus are influencing the university’s decision making to allow for the protest.
“They know, because commencement starts tomorrow, if they didn't grant us the permit, it would have probably escalated more,” said Hogan.
The protest continued throughout the day without any major incidents. Campus police arrived at 8:30 a.m. asking the group to remove the tents it had set up. No arrests or fines have been reported.
The encampment follows similar actions at colleges across the country, where students have set up similar pro-Palestinian sit-ins.
"We're not leaving here until MSU commits publicly and actually divest from the state of Israel immediately, and then put a system in place for divestment from weapon manufacturing and its complicity in the war machine," said Saba Saed, a member of the Arab Cultural Society who helped organize the protest.
The protesters are targeting university companies and holdings that work with Israel's government, including the multinational investment firm BlackRock, weapons manufacturer Lockheed Martin and nearly $240,000 in Israeli bonds.
MSU officials say the university is against pulling back on those investments.
"They are not going to divest," said Guerrant.
Protesters say the university’s continued commitment to their investments goes against the college’s promoted values, pointing to the war's impact on the campus community, including the death of a former student, Tariq Thabet, and several members of his family by an Israeli airstrike in Gaza last year.
A poster of the Fullbright Scholar remained a centerpiece of the encampment.
"Our money has funded the genocide," said Saed. "And the university still doesn’t think it’s appropriate to divest from Israel."
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