Students at Wesleyan University protesting the Israel-Gaza war and its U.S. support added their voices to the call for a ceasefire and for the administration to cut ties with companies that profit from the conflict, as well as with Israeli institutions and study-abroad programs.
Setting up a tent encampment at 6 p.m. Sunday evening behind the administration building on the bucolic Middleton, Conn., campus, students supporting Students for Justice in Palestine joined hundreds of their cohorts across the nation in demanding an end to Israel’s bombardment of the besieged Gaza strip.
They also called for the school to reveal funding sources and “divest from ALL companies and institutions that profit” from Israel’s actions in Gaza since the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas, “including weapons, tech and surveillance, and construction companies — with full transparency regarding those investments and a public commitment to divest,” the group said in a statement.
“We will remain at the encampment until Wesleyan meets our demands of divestment, disclosure and academic boycott,” the students said.
The students also demanded immunity from discipline for their demonstrations.
The Wesleyan students join thousands who are protesting on campuses across the U.S. as the Israeli bombardment of Gaza continues in an attempt to roust Hamas terrorists who flooded into southern Israel in October and killed 1,200 people, taking another 240 hostage. Israel’s response to the attacks has killed more than 30,000 Palestinians, according to officials in Gaza.
Columbia University has been the epicenter of the protests, which spread outward amid arrests and flaring tensions with police. Protests quickly spread to New York University, CUNY, the Fashion Institute of Technology and The New School, with studenst setting up tent encampments on campuses.
With News Wire Services
