Russell Rickford, an associate professor of history at Cornell University writes in “The Encampment as a Beloved Community“: “In the few hours I spent at the encampment recently, I witnessed a safe, dynamic, radically inclusive space. Indeed, I saw an expression of what civil rights workers once called ‘the beloved community’ — a society that enshrines the practice of fellowship, mutuality and agape love.”
Raz Segal of Stockton University said in a recent interview regarding charges of antisemitism at protests: “I think that anyone who visits the many ‘Gaza Solidarity Encampments’ now on campuses across the U.S. sees that these accusations are baseless. They’re actually absurd. … They have all kinds of very dangerous things going on, like poetry readings, prayer also in Hebrew, and these encampments have organized Passover seders, Shabbat services.”
The D.C. Metropolitan police destroyed the Gaza encampment at George Washington University overnight, arresting dozens of students. D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser was scheduled to go before a Congressional committee today, but that hearing has now been cancelled. The hearing was pushed by Rep. James Comer, chair of the House Oversight Committee, who claimed without basis that the protests were antisemitic. On Friday, the protests featured Shabbat services, see video. See students articulating their demands. Interviews can be arranged through the student group Student Coalition for Palestine at GWU: scpalestinegwu@gmail.com. Despite repeated attempts by the students, the George Washington University administration refused to negotiate with them about issues including disclosing and divesting from Israel and weapons companies.
CINDY CORRIE, CRAIG CORRIE, cindy@rachelcorriefoundation.org, @rcfoundation
Cindy and Craig Corrie are the parents of Rachel Corrie who was run over by an Israeli bulldozer as she tried to protect a Palestinian home in Rafah in 2003. They are the president and treasurer of the board of directors of the Rachel Corrie Foundation. They recently appeared on “Democracy Now“; NPR recently ran a story about Rachel’s killing. Rachel graduated from The Evergreen State College, which recently agreed to student demands to negotiate about divesting from Israel. See from Newsweek: “Colleges Are Moving to Divest From Israel.”
While the U.S. and Israeli governments keep insisting that Israel is willing to do credible independent investigations of its killings of Palestinians and others, a 2022 examination of Rachel Corrie’s killing as well as others from The Intercept shows otherwise: “No Path to Justice: Israeli Forces Keep Killing Americans While U.S. Officials Give Them a Pass.”
ARUN KUNDNANI, arunkundnani@gmail.com, @ArunKundnani
Kundnani is the author of What is Antiracism? (2023) and The Muslims are Coming! (2014). He just wrote the piece “As College Campuses Erupt in Protest, Some See a Political Transformation,” which states: “The protest movement against support for Israel now shaking institutions across the country is revealing daily the serious contradictions in U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East.”
See recent IPA news releases: “Attacks on Students” and “A Nationwide Spree of Police Violence.”