Vanderbilt University students mark 1 month in Pro-Palestinian tent encampment
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — A group of Vanderbilt University students has spent the past month in tents on campus, with students rotating in and out as they live inside the encampment.
According to two members of the Vanderbilt Divest Coalition, one of their main goals is to demand the university stop spending money on companies that support Israel.
“Not only to apply pressure to the university to meet some of those demands and help listen to the voices and the demands of the student body,” coalition member Emily Williams said.
College students hold pro-Palestinian protests on Tennessee campuses
Williams and her fellow coalition member, Venicesa White, spoke about their continued efforts to help the Palestinian people. They consider the current Israel-Hamas War a Palestinian genocide.
“Targeted in making sure we understand that there is a genocide going on here,” White said. “The United States is complicit and actively engaging in that.”
Prior to this protest, students rushed Kirkland Hall on March 26, during which time school officials said a community service officer and a university employee were assaulted. The situation ended with three students being charged with misdemeanor assault and a fourth being charged with vandalism, as well as all of the protest participants being placed on interim suspension, according to Vanderbilt.
As the Israel-Hamas War continues, members of the Vanderbilt Divest Coalition aren’t deterred in their mission for change.
The CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater Nashville, Rabbi Dan Horwitz, spoke with News 2 about Vanderbilt’s protest, as well as other protests at colleges across the country.
“There’s nothing inherently wrong with being pro-Palestinian and caring about Palestinian lives,” Horwitz said. “Many Jewish people who are also Zionists care about Palestinian lives and don’t want people to needlessly be suffering.”
Horwitz stressed that the issue is being pro-Hamas, which is an Islamic terrorist organization.
Protesters in custody after Columbia calls in police to end pro-Palestinian occupation
Vanderbilt plans to allow the coalition to continue the protest as long as students comply with school policy and don’t disrupt operations. As far as divesting in companies, university officials said unless they are required to do so by law, they will not boycott or divest from companies for doing business in or with any specific nations.
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