BRYN MAWR- The pro-Palestinian encampment on Bryn Mawr’s campus has entered its third day. Upwards of 25 tents have formed a circle on Merion Green, in an attempt by both the organizers and the occupants to take up “more space,” Bi-Co Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) organizer Maddie Kessler BMC ’24 said. SJP organizers have asked that the space be referred to as “The People’s College for the Liberation of Palestine”, urging other participants to refer to it as such and not simply as “the encampment.”
The protest began on April 27, joining dozens of other American colleges and universities as they call for Bryn Mawr College to divest 5 million dollars, around 0.5% of the college’s endowment, from Israeli tech companies and publicly call for a ceasefire.
Organizers of the event told the Bi-Co News that campus safety visited the space earlier in the day after receiving a complaint about an “outside agitator.” The Bi-Co News received confirmation that a call was made to the College’s help desk concerning the encampment, which was then referred to Campus Safety. SJP organizers said that they witnessed no evidence of this claim.
In response to a Bi-Co News request for comment, Lillian Burroughs, the Bi-Co Executive Director of Campus Safety, referenced a campus safety report. The report, filed on 1:33 p.m. April 29, stated that “campus Safety asked an irate neighbor to leave the campus after he arrived and stated that he was going to take down the signs and tents at the encampment.”
At around 3:30 p.m., SJP and Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) organizer Maddy Kessler asked all students participating in the protest to move their tents into a larger circle in order to take up more space on Merion Green. Kessler implied that this would be done in preparation for May Day and to prevent administration from putting up a stage on the lawn, stating that “May Day is a holiday for the liberation of the workers” and that the protesters would remain resolute till administration meets their demands.
Mana, a Bryn Mawr College student who asked to only be reference by their first name and is not affiliated with the organization of the encampment, told the Bi-Co that they were “here to send a message to our admin that the student body does indeed stand with what we passed in the ceasefire resolution.” This is in reference to the Bryn Mawr College plenary resolution, which was passed by 89.7% of the student body, demanding for the college to call for a ceasefire resolution. According to SJP, administration has been previously unwilling to meet with them concerning this resolution.
When asked about their position on moving for any sort of May Day commencement, Mana told the Bi-Co News that they “personally would not be moving. As far as I’m concerned, I have my own tent. If there is no effort on behalf of the admin to even try to listen to us, and May Day rolls around, I don’t intend on moving.”
Bryn Mawr college Student Activities coordinator Mia Harvey and Bryn Mawr College traditions representatives did not respond to a Bi-Co News request for comment.
At 4:30 p.m., Dr. Elizabeth Kolsky, a professor of history from Villanova University and mother to a Bi-Co student, gave a talk titled “Historical Frameworks for Understanding Israel’s Genocide.”
Kolsky began her talk by leading the chant “From the River to the Sea, Palestine Will Be Free.” She also spoke of her admiration of the student protesters, saying that they have “moral courage [people] twice [or] three times your age do not have.”
Kolsky stated that she her historical expertise was focused in South Asian history and British Colonialism. However, Kolsky noted that she had been teaching about Israel-Palestine for twenty years, and had taken to teaching about the conflict in less traditional spaces since October 7 when Hamas breached the Gaza-Israel border. Kolsky also noted her identity as a Jewish American woman.
Kolsky began by critiquing the media as framing the current Israeli army’s onslaught in Gaza as a “fact-free, history-free conflict.” She continued by stating the current war is a “conflict over land, not a religious conflict.” Kolsky continued by saying that the conflict “begins with Christian European antisemitism”, which then gave rise to “Jewish nationalism,” or Zionism.
Kolsky stated that Zionism, as a movement, “hitched its wagon” to British imperialism through an adoption of their language of colonization. In essence, Kolsky stated that Zionism was a settler colonial project, and that settler colonialism is “inherently genocidal”. Kolsky also stated that “colonialism is a form of violence that can only be beaten by a greater form of violence”.
Later that evening, at around 8 p.m., SJP and JVP organizers held general body meeting event to go over the state of the encampment. The organizers began the meeting with pro-Palestinian chants, such as “resistance is justified when people are occupied” and “smash the settler Zionist state”.
An SJP organizer read through community guidelines, telling participants to follow organizers guidances and come to them should there be any agitators. In addition, SJP emphasized that the “People’s College” was a substance-free zone and “not a party”. They later stated that campus safety is not permitted to be in the “liberated zone”.
During the discussion, organizers said this upcoming Wednesday, May 1, is to be a strike of all academic classes in a claim of solidarity with other Palestinian movements. Organizers said that attending class in the “liberated zone” would not be breaking the strike.
The organizers also discussed the possibility of staying throughout May Day if SJP demands were not met, saying specifically that they would “have their own May Day” and would not observe a “bourgeois celebration of genocide”.
Organizers are set to meet with administration on April 30 concerning their demands.
