塔夫茨大学呼吁结束加沙营地，其他学校正在考虑如何应对抗议活动
【中美创新时报2024 年 4 月 29 日编译讯】（记者温友平编译）塔夫茨大学周日（28日）表示，随着学校开始为毕业典礼做准备，抗议以色列加沙战争的学生设立的营地“必须结束”，这是波士顿地区学校官员为平息示威活动而做出的最新努力，试图平衡学生的人数 ‘ 言论自由权，同时让校园为今年最大的活动做好准备。《波士顿环球报》记者丹尼尔·库尔 (Daniel Kool) 和尼克·斯托伊科 (Nick Stoico) 对此作了下述详细报道。
就在麻省理工学院校长莎莉·科恩布鲁斯发布视频信息呼吁塔夫茨营地尽快结束的一天后，人们呼吁塔夫茨营地结束。截至周日晚上，两个营地仍保留在原地。
与此同时，艾默生学院的官员表示，他们希望在警方上周清理营地后，在校园内被捕的学生不会面临法律诉讼。艾默生领导层周日宣布，不会对被捕的学生采取大学纪律处分。
虽然抗议活动席卷了新英格兰和全国各地的校园，但塔夫茨大学官员周日的目标似乎是让营地结束。
塔夫茨大学校长苏尼尔·库马尔在一封由几位高级管理人员签署的信中表示：“在过去的两周里，我们尊重社区成员通过梅德福/萨默维尔校区学术广场上的一个小型露营地倡导自己信仰的权利。” “我们甚至尽可能推迟了毕业典礼的一些准备工作，以便让抗议活动能够和平解决。但现在营地必须结束，最好是和平且自愿地结束，这样我们就可以为校园开学做好准备。学生生活工作人员将于明天早上与抗议者联系，为未来几天内营地的结束做好计划。”
周日晚上，塔夫茨大学的草坪上至少还剩下 15 个帐篷。抗议者拒绝发表评论，但提供了一份简短的声明，声明由一位自称是媒体联系人的组织者发表。“所有人的目光都集中在加沙。我们不会退缩，”他说。
波士顿地区的大学营地是全国学生抗议以色列-哈马斯战争浪潮的一部分，抗议活动呼吁学校谴责加沙不断上升的死亡人数，并要求学校放弃与以色列的经济联系。
警方周四驱散艾默生和周六东北大学的营地后，共有 200 多名示威者被捕或拘留。
艾默生学院院长杰伊·伯恩哈特周日在一份声明中表示，学院不会对抗议者采取纪律处分，并“将鼓励地区检察官不要追究与营地违规行为有关的指控”。他说，学院将为宿舍关闭后必须留在波士顿出庭的学生提供住宿。周四早上，波士顿警方清理了位于博伊斯顿街 (Boylston Street) 公共走道上的艾默生营地，并逮捕了 118 人。
伯恩哈特写道：“在这个充满挑战的时期，学院已尽最大努力确保所有社区成员每天的安全，但我们认识到我们必须做得更多。” “我们的领导团队致力于加倍努力，参与并尊重社区中的所有声音，并积极倾听和学习如何共同前进。”
萨福克地区检察官凯文·海登的发言人吉姆·博格萨尼拒绝对伯恩哈特周日的声明发表评论。目前尚不清楚示威者预计何时被提审，不过一些人表示，他们本周将在波士顿出庭。
东北大学负责通讯的副校长雷娜塔·纽尔 (Renata Nyul) 在一份声明中写道，出示有效大学身份证件的抗议者已被释放，“将在大学学校内面临纪律处分。而不是采取法律行动。”
“那些拒绝透露其隶属关系的人被逮捕，”纽尔周六写道。
州警方周六证实，在东北大学决定要求学生离开营地后，东北大学警方请求他们提供协助。
州警方表示，102 名“拒绝遵守驱散命令”的抗议者被捕，预计将被指控非法侵入和扰乱治安行为。州警方称，他们被带到萨福克县惩教所接受登记和处理。周日还不清楚有多少东北部示威者拥有大学身份证并被释放。
东北大学和艾默生大学的官员没有立即回复周日下午通过电子邮件发送的问题，不过两所学校都承认收到了这些请求。
周日，在艾默生学院，学生和公众穿过博伊斯顿广场小巷，推着推车在砖砌坡道上上下移动。 地面和墙壁上还残留着粉笔痕迹，明显被水溅弄脏了。下午三点左右，一名艾默生警察站在巷子入口处。
上周营地清理时，爱默生大学二年级学生玛迪·巴伦(Maddie Barron)在场，但没有被捕。她说，在伯恩哈特发表声明之前，她“绝对”确信自己和其他抗议者将面临纪律处分。
“我们所有人都非常关心我们在艾默生的未来，但我们也准备为我们的信念而奋斗，”她说。
但巴伦对是否相信伯恩哈特的说法表示怀疑。她说她认为校长一直未能支持他的学生。
“我不确定我是否完全相信这一点，”巴伦说。 “我不相信他们嘴里说的任何一句话。”
星期四被捕的艾默生二年级学生阿米娜·阿德约拉 (Amina Adeyola) 也持怀疑态度，她说伯恩哈特“刚刚发了一封漂亮的电子邮件”。
“这很有帮助。但这是公关。这不是出自他内心的善良，”阿德奥拉说。“这是为了恢复他自己的形象，学校的形象，他已经把这个形象破坏到了无法挽回的地步。”
她说她不相信伯恩哈特向地区检察官提出的请求有任何分量。
周六，全国各地校园约有 275 人被捕。自从纽约警方于4月18日拆除哥伦比亚大学的一个亲巴勒斯坦抗议营地并逮捕了100多名示威者以来，全国范围内的逮捕人数已达到近900人。此后，学生们在周围的数十个亲巴勒斯坦营地进行了挖掘。这促使管理者做出一系列反应。
据学生主办的《耶鲁每日新闻》报道，周日下午，在纽黑文，耶鲁大学的跨校园绿地上搭起了约 40 个帐篷，而抗议者则用人链封锁了该空间的入口。4月22日，警方在校园的另一个营地逮捕了数十名学生，不到一周后，新营地就建立了。
学生抗议者表示，他们设立营地是为了引起人们对加沙平民困境的关注。10 月 7 日哈马斯领导的袭击以色列后，以色列在报复行动中进行轰炸和入侵，导致加沙平民丧生。更多 那次袭击造成 1,200 多人死亡，另有 250 人被绑架。
与几天前艾默生和东北大学的场景形成鲜明对比的是，周日波士顿地区剩余的帐篷营地基本平静。
在哈佛大学，官员们无限期地限制进入哈佛庭院，上周那里也出现了类似的营地。学校发言人周六在一封电子邮件中表示，只有持有大学身份证的人才能进入院子。哈佛深红学生报纸周五晚上首先报道了这些限制。
据《深红报》报道，周六晚上，抗议者在哈佛园的约翰·哈佛雕像上举起了三面巴勒斯坦国旗。升旗的图片在网上引起了愤怒，其中包括来自德克萨斯州共和党州长的愤怒。
哈佛发言人表示，这些旗帜最终被哈佛设施工作人员移除。
该发言人在给《波士顿环球报》的一份声明中表示：“这些行为违反了大学政策，相关个人将受到纪律处分。”
与此同时，在麻省理工学院，克雷斯吉草坪上的营地周末很平静。抗议者享受周日温暖的天气，躺在毯子上随着音乐跳舞，附近有一些校园警察。
麻省理工学院巴勒斯坦联盟在一份声明中表示，该组织已于周五与大学领导人会面，并定于周六下午举行另一次会议，讨论学校切断与以色列军方关系的要求，但麻省理工学院管理人员在会议确定前不久首先取消了会议。该联盟的声明称。
参加该营地的麻省理工学院电气工程专业一年级研究生普拉拉德·艾扬格 (Prahlad Iyengar) 表示，科恩布鲁斯的视频信息并未得到营地其他人的好评。
“我们仍在谈判桌上。只要是这种情况，我认为政府做清理营地之类的事情就是不明智和不负责任的，”艾扬格说。
《波士顿环球报》工作人员 Sarah L. Ryley 以及记者 Cathy Ching 和 Adam Sennott 为这份报告做出了贡献，该报告使用了美联社的材料。
题图：2024 年 4 月 28 日星期日晚，塔夫茨大学的亲巴勒斯坦营地。ANDREW BURKE-STEVENSON FOR THE BOSTON GLOBE
附原英文报道：
Tufts calls for end of Gaza encampment, as other schools weigh how to proceed on protests
By Daniel Kool and Nick Stoico Globe Correspondent and Globe Staff,Updated April 29, 2024
Tufts University on Sunday said an encampment set up by students protesting Israel’s war in Gaza “must end” as the school begins to prepare for its commencement, the latest effort by school officials in the Boston area to wind down demonstrations as they try to balance students’ right to free speech while readying their campuses for the year’s biggest event.
The call for the Tufts encampment to conclude came a day after MIT president Sally Kornbluth released a video message calling for an encampment there to end soon. Both encampments remained in place as of Sunday night.
Meanwhile, officials at Emerson College said they are hoping students arrested on their campus won’t face legal action after police cleared an encampment last week. Emerson leadership announced Sunday that it would not be bringing university disciplinary action against students who were arrested.
While protests have roiled campuses across New England and the country, Tufts officials Sunday appeared to be aiming for an encampment denouement.
“Over the past two weeks, we have respected our community members’ right to advocate for their beliefs through a small camp site on the academic quad on our Medford/Somerville campus,” Tufts leaders said in a letter signed by several top administrators, including president Sunil Kumar. “We have even delayed some preparations for Commencement as much as possible to allow the protest to resolve peacefully. But now the encampment must end, ideally peacefully and voluntarily, so we can prepare the campus for Commencement. Student Life staff will be reaching out to the protesters tomorrow morning to plan for the end of the encampment in the next few days.”
At least 15 tents remained on the lawn at Tufts on Sunday night. Protesters declined to comment but offered a brief statement, spoken by one organizer who identified himself as the press contact. “All eyes on Gaza. We won’t back down,” he said.
The college encampments in the Boston area are part of a national wave of student protests against the Israel-Hamas war calling on their schools to condemn the rising death toll in Gaza and, for some, divest from financial ties to Israel.
A total of more than 200 demonstrators were arrested or detained after police broke up the encampments at Emerson on Thursday and Northeastern University on Saturday.
Emerson College president Jay Bernhardt said in a statement Sunday that the college will not bring disciplinary action against the protesters and “will encourage the district attorney not to pursue charges related to encampment violations.” He said the college will provide housing to students who must stay in Boston for court appearances after their dorms close. Boston police cleared the Emerson encampment, which was set up in a public walkway off Boylston Street, on Thursday morning and arrested 118 people.
“The College has done its best to keep all community members safe every day during these challenging times, but we recognize that we must do more,” Bernhardt wrote. “Our leadership team is committed to redoubling our efforts, engaging and respecting all voices across our community, and actively listening and learning how to move forward together.”
Jim Borghesani, spokesperson for Suffolk District Attorney Kevin Hayden, declined to comment on Bernhardt’s statement Sunday. It was not immediately clear when the demonstrators are expected to be arraigned, though some have said they have court dates in Boston this week.
Renata Nyul, vice president for communications at Northeastern, where more than 100 demonstrators were detained as police cleared an encampment from Centennial Common on Saturday morning, wrote in a statement that protesters who produced valid university IDs were released and “will face disciplinary proceedings within the university, not legal action.”
“Those who refused to disclose their affiliation were arrested,” Nyul wrote Saturday.
State Police on Saturday confirmed that Northeastern University Police requested their assistance after the university decided it would require students to leave the encampment.
State Police said 102 protesters “who refused to comply with orders to disperse” were arrested and were expected to be charged with trespassing and disorderly conduct. They were taken to the Suffolk County House of Correction to be booked and processed, State Police said. It was not immediately clear Sunday how many of the Northeastern demonstrators possessed university IDs and were released.
Officials from Northeastern and Emerson did not immediately reply to questions emailed Sunday afternoon, though both schools acknowledged receiving the requests.
At Emerson on Sunday, students and members of the public passed through the Boylston Place alley, wheeling carts up and down its brick ramp. Chalk scars remained on the ground and walls, smudged by apparent splashes of water. An Emerson police officer stood at the entrance to the alley around the middle of the afternoon.
Maddie Barron, an Emerson sophomore who was present but not arrested when the encampment was cleared last week, said she was “absolutely” sure she and other protesters would be facing disciplinary action before Bernhardt’s statement.
“All of us were very concerned about our future at Emerson, but we were also prepared to fight for what we believe in,” she said.
But Barron expressed doubt about whether to trust Bernhardt’s claims. She said she believes the school president has consistently failed to stand by his students.
“I’m not sure if I entirely believe that,” Barron said. “I do not trust a word that comes out of their mouth.”
Amina Adeyola, an Emerson second-year student who was among those arrested Thursday, was also skeptical, saying Bernhardt “just sent a pretty email.”
“It’s helpful. It is PR though. It’s not coming from the goodness of his heart,” Adeyola said. “It is meant to rehabilitate his own image, the school’s image, which he has damaged to a point of no return.”
She said she does not believe that Bernhardt’s request to the district attorney will carry any weight.
About 275 people were arrested on Saturday at campuses across the country. Those have pushed the number of arrests nationwide to nearly 900 since New York police removed a pro-Palestinian protest encampment at Columbia University and arrested more than 100 demonstrators on April 18. Since then, students have dug in at dozens of pro-Palestinian encampments around the country, prompting a range of responses from administrators.
In New Haven, about 40 tents were erected on Yale University’s Cross Campus Green Sunday afternoon, while protesters made a human chain to block entrance to the space, according to the student-run Yale Daily News. The new encampment comes less than a week after police arrested dozens of students at another encampment on campus on April 22.
Student protesters say they have set up the encampments to bring attention to the plight of civilians in Gaza, where more than 34,000 people have been killed during Israel’s bombardment and invasion during retaliatory operations following the Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7. More than 1,200 people were killed and another 250 were kidnapped in that attack.
In a sharp contrast to scenes at Emerson and Northeastern days earlier, the remaining Boston-area tent encampments were largely calm Sunday.
At Harvard University, officials restricted access to Harvard Yard indefinitely, as a similar encampment went up there last week. Only people with university identification cards may enter the yard, a school spokesperson said Saturday in an email. The restrictions were first reported Friday night by The Harvard Crimson student newspaper.
Protesters raised three Palestinian flags over the John Harvard statue in Harvard Yard on Saturday night, according to the Crimson. Images of the flag-raising drew anger online, including from the Republican governor of Texas.
The flags were eventually removed by Harvard facilities workers, a Harvard spokesperson said.
“The actions are a violation of University policy and the individuals involved will be subject to disciplinary action,” the spokesperson said in a statement to the Globe.
Meanwhile at MIT, the encampment on the Kresge Lawn was calm over the weekend. Protesters enjoyed Sunday’s warm weather, laying on blankets and dancing to music as some campus police officers stood nearby.
The MIT Coalition for Palestine said in a statement that the group had met Friday with university leaders and another meeting was scheduled for Saturday afternoon to discuss demands that the school cut ties with the Israeli military, but MIT administrators canceled the session shortly before it was set to begin, the coalition’s statement said.
Prahlad Iyengar, a first-year grad student studying electrical engineering at MIT who has been participating in the encampment, said Kornbluth’s video message was not well received by others at the camp.
“We are still at the negotiation table. As long as that’s the case, I think it would be unwise and irresponsible for the administration to do something like clear the encampment,” Iyengar said.
Sarah L. Ryley of the Globe staff and correspondents Cathy Ching and Adam Sennott contributed to this report, which used material from the Associated Press.
