This story is breaking and will be updated as additional information becomes available.
Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and Jews for Justice (J4J) continued their encampment on Sawyer Quad, termed the “Popular University for Gaza,” for a second day. About 100 people were at the encampment at its peak attendance in the afternoon and 39 tents were present at the encampment at 7:19 p.m. on Thursday, according to an SJP spokesperson. On Thursday morning, an unknown student removed posters of Israelis held hostage by Hamas that had been hung up by students the previous evening. The same group of students rehung the posters on Thursday afternoon.
On Wednesday night, J4J released a report of its findings on the College’s endowment “in close collaboration with SJP,” according to a joint statement by J4J and SJP. The 20-page report, titled “Williams Divest Now!: A Comprehensive Report from Williams Jews for Justice and Students for Justice in Palestine,” reaffirms joint J4J and SJP demands for the College to disclose its investments and divest from weapons manufacturers.
“With this report, we are showing the administration that we have done our research and that our call of divestment is just, urgent, widely supported, and actionable,” the statement read.
The report includes statements of support from sixteen student groups and cites testimonials from students, faculty, and alums.
“I hope that people will take the opportunity to read it,” Mia Calzolaio ’26, a member of J4J, told the Record. “I really stand by our chants [at protests], but also it’s really hard to sum it up in a sentence of shouting, so I hope that people will take the time to read it.”
Two students told the Record that at about 10 p.m. on Wednesday night, they hung posters outside the Paresky Center of the Israelis held hostage by Hamas following the Oct. 7 attack. The posters were captioned “KIDNAPPED” and the contact email listed was “[email protected].” The posters were affiliated with the #KidnappedFromIsrael project, which describes itself as an unfunded campaign that seeks to bring attention to the Israelis held hostage by Hamas and “one of the most widespread guerilla public artworks in history,” according to its website.
The following morning at around 9:40 a.m., the posters were taken down by a student, said Joey Kauffman ’27, who was leaving Paresky as the posters were being removed.
Kauffman said that he approached that student and asked them to leave the posters up. The other student refused, Kauffman said. “They were like, ‘I think you’re supporting the genocide of Palestinians by putting these up, or justifying it,’” Kauffman said of the other student, who he said he was not able to identify. Kauffman said he told the student that the hostages were “not guilty at all of anything,” but that the student removed the posters and left.
At 12:30 p.m. on Thursday, approximately 70 student protestors linked hands and marched from the encampment in Sawyer Quad to the lawn outside of the Paresky Center. Still holding hands, the students formed a circle around the flagpole and chanted for about 20 minutes. The chant included slogans such as “Williams College, you can’t hide, you’re supporting genocide,” “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” and “What do we want? Divestment. When do we want it? Now.”
An SJP spokesperson confirmed that the demonstration was planned. “12:30 [p.m.] is the usual big rush for lunch time,” they told the Record. “We wanted to be very visible to the community.”
Starting at about 12:50 p.m., the original group of students that hung the posters of Israeli hostages was joined by more students, who replaced them on the front windows of Paresky and added more. In an interview with the Record, Arielle Levy ’26, one of the students rehanging the posters, explained her desire to express her views in a manner that she said she viewed as similar to the encampment. “It’s important to me that people also understand that there’s death on both sides,” she said. “Everyone has the right to freedom of speech. It feels as though the hostages are not being talked about.”
At about 1 p.m., Dean of the College Gretchen Long and Co-Director of the Davis Center D. Clinton Williams were present at the encampment and spoke with many of its members. According to an SJP spokesperson, Long made them aware of a fire hazard caused by an electrical cord running from Schapiro Hall to the encampment. In an email to the Record, Williams noted that the potential fire risk stemmed from the number of electrical appliances connected to a single source of electricity. Long did not respond to request for comment in time for publication.
Williams wrote in an email to the Record that he was also at the encampment to a check on the “health and well-being” of the students present, which he noted that a member of the Davis Center staff has done each of the last two days. “We would also provide this type of support for any student/student group exercising their right to protest,” he added.
Williams said that he discussed the encampment’s demands with SJP negotiators — students who engage with College administrators to communicate their demands, according to an SJP spokesperson.“The [negotiator] explained that they would like to sit with senior administration and voice their concerns about Williams’ investments,” he wrote. “I later conveyed this message to members of senior staff.”
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