Activists and organizers who set up an encampment at Johns Hopkins University said that school officials threatened to call the police on them if they didn’t leave last night. They said that school officials also threatened them with academic sanctions.
“We have been clear that the consequences of violating our policies and creating unsafe conditions include academic discipline, which is determined by University officials, and trespass, which is handled by local law enforcement,” a representative for the school said in an email to Baltimore Beat.
Organizers launched the encampment on Monday, April 29.
“The negotiation team offered the following concessions and guarantees in order to allow the encampment to remain overnight: respect for campus quiet hours, offers to take down semi-permanent structures, offers to keep supplies and materials off-site, freedom of movement for students and non-participants, a written guarantee of nonviolence, and continuous presence of de-escalators on-site,” organizers said via a statement from the Hopkins Justice Collaborative.
“The University Administration released a public statement claiming an agreement was reached with our negotiation team to limit the hours of our encampment. This is a false statement. No agreement was reached. In addition, they stated in the email that they met with students for several hours—this is also untrue; negotiations lasted for one hour. What is most egregious is that the message stated that they had concerns over the ‘health, safety, and welfare’ of students. This is in clear contradiction of their threat last night when they admitted that they were willing to risk the safety and wellbeing of students by calling in the BPD and sending students to jail,” the statement read.
One student who stayed overnight and identified himself as TB spoke to Baltimore Beat by phone from the campus on Tuesday morning. He said school administrators threatened to call the Baltimore City Police if the people gathered did not leave. He said that they asked officials if they were willing to risk the safety of students to do so, and the officials didn’t seem to care.
TB said he felt an obligation to remain on campus, and as long as others were with him, he would stay there as long as he needed to.
“We are saving the Palestinian people, speaking up for them since they cannot speak up for themselves at the moment,” he said.
TB asked people to continue to gather at the university to continue to highlight the plight of Palestinians.
“Please join our struggle to fight for the human rights of the Palestinian people to exist,” he said. “We invite you to struggle and fight for the human rights of the Palestinian people.”
“All out to JHU: We need your consistent urgent support!!!” read an Instagram post by the organization Students for Justice in Palestine at Johns Hopkins University Tuesday morning. “We are not letting Johns Hopkins shut down our encampment. We are still here. There have been no arrests.”
“We’re here to urge the university to sever its financial and academic links [in Israel] and its involvement in the ongoing genocide in Palestine,” Sarah, a Hopkins undergraduate, told Baltimore Beat. They chose not to provide their full name due to concerns about being targeted for their pro-Palestine stance.
The encampment had places to get food, supplies of face masks and tables offering free books and newspapers. People spread out blankets, and some sat under tents.
Throughout the evening, activists chanted, “Disclose, divest; we will not leave until our demands are met,” and “Free, free, free, Palestine!”
At around 8 p.m., a Baltimore City Police Department helicopter made tight circles around the encampment. A smattering of police officers stood around the perimeter of the area where people had gathered.
By 10 p.m., six hours after the encampment’s launch, demonstrators had ignored multiple orders to disperse. Instead, they distributed water and food as they prepared to spend the night to ensure their demands were met.
Representatives for organizers met with Hopkins officials, and by 3 a.m., some decided to abide by the university’s request that they leave and return the next day. Others said they felt a strong commitment to remain on campus no matter what.
Over 34,000 Palestinians have been killed during the more than six-month-long Israeli assault, which has been supported by the U.S. government with weapons shipments and diplomatic support. Politico reports 20 State Department lawyers are urging a halt of the flow of arms to Israel because it may be using U.S.-made weapons in violation of international law. Meanwhile, humanitarian experts warn that a famine is developing in Gaza because Israel is blocking food deliveries.
“I was moved to see the courage, moral clarity, and conviction that the student protestors displayed today; this encampment has been established with a clear understanding of how to keep participants safe, and how to keep the space inclusive, thoughtful, and disciplined,” Hopkins English professor Drew Daniel, who visited the encampment, told Baltimore Beat in an email.
The protest is part of a national movement of campus occupations urging universities with substantial endowments to cut financial ties with companies that support the Israeli occupation. At several other universities, hundreds of students and faculty have been arrested nationwide, often violently, after officials have ordered police to clear the protests.
“I want to encourage my fellow faculty members to show up and show solidarity with our students as they speak out against what is happening in Gaza, and to lend their voices to the growing calls from our students to hold Hopkins accountable for its investments in corporations that profit from this conflict,” said Daniel, who was vocal in his support of the student protests against the Hopkins private police force in 2019.
“Consider Emory University, for example, where police used tear gas and were aggressively handling students, throwing them to the ground and arresting them. Rubber bullets have been fired at student occupations. We’re here to ensure that doesn’t happen,” they said.
Dozens spread out blankets and set up pop-up tents at Hopkins Beach, a large grassy area on the Hopkins Homewood campus, and created protest signs.
Over 100 Hopkins faculty and staff wrote an open letter to the university, urging it to allow the protests to continue.
“We call on you to continue fulfilling your responsibilities to protect peaceful protesters, uphold academic freedom, and resist any pressure to criminalize demonstrations. In recent weeks, several universities have allowed extensive protests and have managed to keep everyone safe,” the letter states.
The organizers’ additional demands include a Hopkins boycott of Israeli academic institutions, condemnation of the deaths of Palestinians and a call for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza. They also demand that the university denounce the widespread repression of pro-Palestine speech in the United States, particularly on college campuses, and reaffirm its commitment to free speech without fear of reprisal.
Supporters of Israel, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, have attempted to brand the campus protests as antisemitic.
Sarah, who is Jewish, rejects this notion. “There are many Jewish organizers, including myself, who have consistently supported Palestine, been arrested for the cause and are here to declare that Zionism is not part of our Jewish identity.”
At the Hopkins protest camp, racism, bigotry and antisemitism are strictly prohibited, as outlined in a code of conduct given to participants.
“Antisemitism has no place in this encampment,” Sarah noted, highlighting that Muslim students have faced harassment on campus for expressing pro-Palestinian views.
Organizers say they were inspired to start their own campus occupation by both the historic national wave of student protests and Hopkins’ legacy of successful campus protests.
In 1986, a years-long student campaign pressured Hopkins into divesting from corporations that did business with the white supremacist government of South Africa.
“Students once camped for nine days to protest apartheid in South Africa, and they successfully pushed the school to divest. We are part of that legacy,” Sarah explained.
“The demand to divest is not going to go away, and I hope the administration listens and responds in a manner that lives up to its stated mission to generate ‘knowledge for the world.’ The people of Gaza are a part of that world, and Hopkins needs to act like it,” Daniel said.
Additional reporting by Lisa Snowden.