ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y. — Student activists began an encampment on the Bard College campus Tuesday, refusing to leave until their demands of boycott, divestment and sanctions of Israel are met by the college administration.
The encampment, dubbed the “Popular University for Gaza” by its organizers, the student group Students for Justice in Palestine, began Tuesday night when students started sleeping in tents in front of Bard’s Hegeman Hall.
Students participating in the encampment said they have scheduled full days of programming in support of Palestine, from facilitated discussions on topics including current events in Gaza to community meals.
Ari Weiss, the encampment’s media liaison and a student at Bard College, said their demands are similar to those of other encampments that have popped up at universities across the country.
“The first demand is to challenge Executive Order 157,” Weiss said. Executive Order 157, enacted in 2016 by former New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo, prohibits state entities from supporting or participating in the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions Movement (BDS), which it deems as “harmful” and “discriminatory.”
“It essentially bans BDS from being enacted on the institutional level at risk of losing state funding,” Weiss said. “Bard relies on its optics of being a progressive institution that defends the First Amendment.” Weiss said if Bard purports itself to be a pioneering force for First Amendment rights, it should challenge Executive Order 157.
Weiss said challenging the executive order would show support to Palestinians in a more tangible way than Bard currently does. “If Bard, as it inadvertently states through conversations on campus, actually does support the Palestinian people, that means supporting total liberation, not just supporting a couple individual Palestinians within a U.S. or Israeli context,” Weiss said.
The group’s second demand is total financial transparency, so the student body is aware of the college’s current investments. Weiss said this financial transparency would assist in the development of investments and endowments “ethically and in alignment with BDS.”
Students are also demanding that Bard offers “full housing and jobs” year-round for all current and incoming displaced students. “Bard claims itself to be a safe haven for people who have refugee or asylee status but proceeds to not support them in the ways that they need in order to actually be safe here,” Weiss said.
On Tuesday night, Weiss said they adopted a fourth demand, which was adopting the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI). PACBI calls for the boycott of Israeli cultural exports, including film organizations, music groups and writers’ unions. “That exists more on the symbolic realm, than something like BDS, which is very financially tangible,” Weiss said.
“It’s not targeting Israeli institutions or individuals,” Weiss said. “It is targeting institutions and individuals that reinforce the Israeli narrative and whitewash the history of Palestine.”
Unlike students who have participated in encampments at other universities, Weiss said that those involved with Bard’s encampment are not worried about arrest. “We do not anticipate arrest, but we always make sure that we are prepared,” Weiss said.
Weiss said the student activists are not breaking any rules by being there, and that they’ve heard nothing negative from the Bard College administration. “It does not say anything in the student handbook about whether or not you are allowed to pitch tents,” Weiss said. “That being said we pitched tents last night, and it is still relatively early.”
According to Weiss, the encampment isn’t meant to bring focus on students, but to the current situation in Gaza within the context of the ongoing Israel-Palestine conflict. “Our organizing does not end at Bard,” Weiss said. “Students are a tactic, a strategy that we implement for the rest of our lives for the liberation of Palestine and the liberation of all people as it intersects with the Palestinian struggle.”
“It’s not interesting asking students where they shower during an encampment,” Weiss said. “Not showering is a small sacrifice if you’re actually here in support of Palestine.”
In a statement to the Freeman, Bard College said it supports the right of its students to protest peacefully. “We appreciate the students’ desire to engage on important issues, and their ‘Popular University’ has done so peacefully, emphasizing education and discourse,” the college said. “We’re in contact with the students and have every reason to believe it will continue to operate in this manner.”
A similar encampment at Vassar College disbanded peacefully on Monday after being on campus for five days.
An encampment at SUNY New Paltz disbanded last week after intervention from law enforcement, leading to the arrests of 133 people.
