Cornell campus clogged by Israel-Palestine protesters. What we know

Cornell University students staged a pre-dawn demonstration Thursday on the university’s Arts Quad, demanding that the university divest fully from companies supporting the ongoing genocide in Gaza and close ties with the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, with which it shares a campus in New York City.

Cornell is continuing to directly contribute to the research and development of weapons for the Israeli Ministry of Defense through its partnership with Technion at the controversial Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute in New York City, according to students from the Ivy’s student-led Coalition for Mutual Liberation (CML).

Starting at about 4 a.m. Thursday morning, the group pitched tents and signs in the university’s historic Art Quad. The students joined the growing droves staging similar acts of protest nationwide in an ongoing movement to establish liberated zones in solidarity with Gaza, including Columbia University and the University of Rochester.

The nonviolent protests include teach-ins, art builds, and other activities highlighting the urgency of Cornell’s response to the Israeli government’s genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, according to CML.

Joel Malina, Cornell's Vice President for University Relations, released a statement on the tents and protest, explaining that the "individuals in tents were advised that they had been dishonest in their event registration and, additionally, were in violation of university policy regarding tents."

Protesters were then offered an alternative location between the campus's Day Hall and Sage Chapel, but declined.

"They were then told that if the tents were not taken down promptly, they would be subject to disciplinary action," Malina said. "They did not comply, and suspensions, for students, and HR referrals, for faculty and staff, will be issued. This is not an outcome we welcome."

"We want to provide avenues for everyone to make their voices heard, but this must be done in ways that respect the policies we have in place to protect the public health and safety of our community and the rights of all to do their work," he said.

Why are students protesting at Cornell and nationwide?

The Cornell University Board of Trustees adopted a commitment in 2016 to divest from companies engaged in “genocide, apartheid, and systematic cruelty against children.”

The Thursday morning protest, organized by CML follows a referendum where undergraduate students voted overwhelmingly in favor of the university divesting from 10 weapons manufacturers, including Boeing, ThyssenKrupp, Elbit Systems, RTX, and Lockheed Martin.

Technion is known for developing advanced drone technology and the D-9R unmanned bulldozer, both playing a documented role in the ongoing conflict in Gaza.

In the weeks building up to the referendum, Cornell has responded to student dissent with “increasingly draconian policies,” the group claims.

Its Interim Expressive Activity Policy banned the use of amplified sound and indoor protests, and restricted the sizes of candles allowed at vigils, reportedly due to safety concerns.

Under the new guidelines, the Cornell University Police Department arrested 24 Cornell students, staff, and graduate student workers staging a sit-in during Cornell University's annual Trustees meetings on March 21.

“These escalations against nonviolent students calling for divestment exposes the moral poverty of Cornell's administration,” The group said in a Thursday statement. “Students and their supporters are prepared to remain in the encampment until their demands are met or the university removes them from campus.”

Cornell students have also had their home addresses exposed and have been harassed by counter-protesters, with one Muslim hijabi-wearing student being spat on steps from campus, CML claims.

Israeli Offensive Forces have reportedly killed over 30,000 Indigenous Palestinians in less than seven months as a part of the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict, creating rising tensions on Cornell’s campus, especially among campus political groups including CML.

Past protests

When the middle-eastern conflict reignited last October, it lit a fire under Cornell’s students who have since staged dozens of protests, calling for Cornell to denounce antisemitism, or on the other side of the coin, admit to contributing to the growing Palestinian death toll.

In the weeks that followed, Patrick Dai, a former Cornell Student, lodged threats against the university’s Jewish population in online chatrooms under monikers that included “hamas soldier” and “Jewevil,” admitting to the threats in a seven-hour interview with the FBI earlier this year and in a court hearing on April 10.

This and the near-removal of a professor for "pro-hamas" comments brought the Ivy League university under the ire of national media attention, the United States Department of Education, which investigated the college for Title IV violations late last year, and Alums for Campus Fairness, a group funding an ongoing ad campaign that demands the university denounce antisemitism and ensure the safety of Cornell’s 3,000 Jewish undergrads.

This article originally appeared on Ithaca Journal: Cornell students stage demonstration against Israel-Palestine war