BURLINGTON, Vt. (WCAX) – Students from both the University of Vermont and Middlebury College set up encampments Sunday in solidarity with Gaza.
UVM students and other community members set up the encampment around 3p.m. Sunday.
UVM students for Justice in Palestine set up the encampment to protest the university’s ties and funding to Israel.
They have a list of demands from the university – including asking them to disclose all financial investments within UVM’s $800 million endowment; divest all weapon manufacturers from Israeli companies and companies involved in the occupation of Palestine; an academic boycott of Israeli institutions; cancel Linda Thomas Greenfield as speaker for UVMs 2024 Commencement and revoke her planned honorary degree from the university; and amnesty for all students engaged in protests for Palestinian freedom, and guarantee of no charge for protestors.
Students chanted and played drums. They set up a “Liberation Seder” with Jewish Voice for Peace and UVM Jews for Liberation.
Around 8-10 UVM officers monitored the encampment.
UVM Hillel provided a statement to Channel 3 in response to the encampment.
“Hillel remains in ongoing communication with UVM police and administration about the concerns we’ve heard from Jewish students, parents and alumni,” UVM Hillel Executive Director Matt Vogel said. “Every student, especially in the tense end of this semester, deserves the right to study and life in safety. Hillel will be open tomorrow at 9a.m. with a safe place to study and be in community together.”
Middlebury College Students for Justice in Palestine also set up an encampment.
“The students of Middlebury College are rising up alongside campuses across the country to show leadership and trustees that we demand no rest until divest,” SJP Middlebury wrote in an Instagram post.
Middlebury students also listed their demands – including divestment of funds from Israel, protester amnesty, an academic and cultural boycott, direct affiliation with Palestinian academic and cultural institutions, and Middlebury College to release a public statement.
This protest follows the many happening across the country with students asking universities to divest support from Israel.
Both UVM and Middlebury College do not allow overnight camping on school grounds.
