Anti-Israel groups at IU call for president to resign after disciplining encampment protesters
Pro-Palestine students at Indiana University Bloomington have criticized the university administration for pursuing disciplinary actions against encampment protesters.
The student activists recently sent an open letter to the school in response and blasted the university.
Pro-Palestinian student groups at Indiana University Bloomington have criticized the university administration for pursuing disciplinary measures against the demonstrators who took part in an anti-Israel encampment on campus.
17 students and faculty were arrested on April 25 following the establishment of a pro-Hamas encampment at the school. Police ultimately resorted to approaching the scene in riot gear following multiple instructions given to protesters to take down tents and disperse.
Local prosecutors recently announced that they will not charge the protesters, who were arrested for criminal trespassing. In response, the Indiana University Board of Trustees announced that it will charge the students with “personal misconduct” violations.
Pro-Palestinian students at the university recently sent an open letter to the school in response to its decision to pursue disciplinary measures.
The letter was co-signed by six groups at Indiana University: IU Divestment Coalition, IU Bloomington Palestine Solidarity Committee, IU Indianapolis Palestine Solidarity Committee, Indiana Graduate Workers Coalition, IU Academics for Justice in Palestine, and Indiana Jewish Voice for Peace.
In their statement, the student groups demanded “[d]ivestment from Israel and Israeli institutions” in addition to the resignations of the university’s president, provost, and vice provost.
“This is part of a pattern,” the student groups wrote about Indiana’s decision to discipline the protesters. “Indiana University has a history of targeting voices that speak out for Palestine and Palestinians, violating its own policies as well as the civil rights of its students and faculty.”
“Last fall … the university invoked dubious security concerns to cancel the long-awaited art exhibit of a world-renowned Palestinian artist,” the statement continued. “Undergraduate students, graduate students, and even faculty have all voiced their disdain for this administration’s suppression of dissent through votes of no confidence.”
“However, it is clear that its commitment to supporting genocide outweighs any educational mission this institution claims to have,” the students argued.
The Indiana University Board of Trustees has recently proposed a ban on camping as well as protests at night. Additionally, the policy would ban protests in classrooms as well as within 25 feet of the entrance to a building or parking lot.
Pro-Hamas students took issue with these proposed reforms as well, writing: “Again, the inclusion of this newly formed restriction is clearly targeting the current protests calling for an end to IU’s investment in the genocide of Palestinians.”
Campus Reform has contacted Indiana University Bloomington for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.
