Emerson College, MIT, Tufts students start pro-Palestinian camps inspired by Columbia protests

BOSTON — On the first night of Passover, several local college students are demanding their school call for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas following the protests at Columbia University last week.

Dozens of students set up pro-Palestinian camps at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard University, Tufts University, and Emerson College on Sunday night to protest the ongoing war.

“We will be here until the college meets all of our demands,” said Juwaria Jama with Emerson Students for Justice in Palestine.

Students who have set up encampments on college campuses in Cambridge, Medford and Boston say they won’t be budging until their schools prove that they’ve cut all financial ties with Israel.

“We are following on the tradition of the popular university, which is the idea of students taking back the institutions they are a part of,” said Jama.

At one point, more than 100 students were camped out in an alley off of Boylston Street on Emerson’s campus in solidarity with the pro-Palestinian protestors arrested at Columbia last week.

“I don’t think there could be anything more worthy for an Emerson student than the peaceful protests these students are engaging in right now,” said / Benjamin Levy, who teaches interdisciplinary studies at Emerson.

Levy, a Jewish man, is applauding the students who are standing up for what they believe is right in their ongoing calls for a ceasefire in Gaza.

“Protesting Israeli policy is not only not itself Anti-Semitic but is actually in the interest of Jewish populations in the US as well as around the globe,” said Levy.

But some Jewish students and organizations in the Boston area don’t see it that way. The MIT Israel Alliance called their encampment “anti-Jewish.”

The group says many students are afraid to visit the school’s Hillel building fearing potential violence and that some have even evacuated their dorms.

At Emerson, the school’s president Jay Bernhardt addressed concerns in a statement, saying “We encourage thoughtful dialogue and meaningful expression but will not tolerate actions threatening safety, operations, or educational access.”

Bernhardt says the college strongly supports the right to protest without bigotry or hatred in any form.

The protests have pitted students against one another, with pro-Palestinian students demanding that their schools condemn Israel’s assault on Gaza and divest from companies that sell weapons to Israel.

Some Jewish students, meanwhile, say much of the criticism of Israel has veered into antisemitism and made them feel unsafe, and they point out that Hamas is still holding hostages taken during the group’s Oct. 7 invasion.

Emerson College, MIT, Tufts students start pro-Palestinian camps inspired by Columbia protests

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