Approximately 200 community members participated in a walkout and rally outside of Hopkins Hall on Dec. 1 at 1:30 p.m. to protest the College’s response to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
SJP and Jews for Ceasefire hung posters outside Hopkins Hall and Sawyer Library bearing various phrases, including “Jews say ceasefire NOW” and “Williams profits off genocide.” Organizers passed out small Palestinian flags on which participants could write their demands to the College and played Palestinian music, including Dammi Falastini by Mohammed Assaf.
During the rally, students from SJP and Jews for Ceasefire also read statements “condemning the resumption of Israeli airstrikes the previous night” after a four-day truce extended to one week collapsed, the Nov. 25 shooting of three Palestinian students in Vermont, and the College’s inaction on divestment..
“We condemn anti-Palestinian violence and the conditions that have created this atmosphere,” an SJP member said from the top of the Hopkins stairs. “We condemn the Biden administration for their continued support of genocide, and we call out the College’s callous refusal to condemn the violence in Gaza.” SJP members conducted various call-and response chants, including “Hey-hey, ho-ho, the occupation has got to go,” and “Every time the media lies, a neighborhood in Gaza dies.”
Members of Campus Safety Services (CSS) were present at the rally but did not respond to request for comment in time for publication. An SJP spokesperson who requested anonymity due to concerns about their safety said the group had not notified administration about the rally, though they had emailed the administration with a list of demands and have been “invited to a conversation.”
Members of Jews for Ceasefire subsequently read their open letter, published in the previous issue of the Record, and described their a meeting with the administration regarding divestment from arms manufacturers during which “the College did not provide us [with] data but said that investment [in arms manufacturing] is not zero.”
“Since the College does not directly invest its money and instead relies on outside fund managers to complete this work, the school does not have an exact record that they can provide to us of the companies its money is invested in,” Mia Calzolaio ’26, a member of Jews for Ceasefire, wrote in an email to the Record. The group met with President of the College Maud S. Mandel, who, according to Jews for Ceasefire, is “willing to convene the [Advisory Committee on Shareholder Responsibility] and will likely do so following winter break.”
This advisory committee is a non-standing committee composed of two faculty members, two staff members, two students, and two alumni that advises the Investment Committee on socially responsible investment of the endowment. It has previously submitted recommendations on divestment from fossil fuels as well as Apartheid-era South Africa.
Dean of First Year Students Christina Walsh attended the rally. “It’s important for me in my role to be here in support of students who have been carrying an increasing amount of pain with the situation in Gaza for the last two months,” she said in an interview after the rally. “Many of us who work in leadership stand in solidarity [with] and 100 percent support for students in the cause of peace.”
