BOSTON — The protest encampment at Tufts University has come down, but the students who put up the tents say they will continue to fight until the school fully divests from Israel.

Tufts Students for Justice in Palestine, which set up the tents in early April, removed the encampment on the academic quad Friday night after failing to reach a deal with university leadership.

The organizing group, which threatened to boycott graduation if officials turned to police to forcefully remove the tents, called the offer from leadership a “bad-faith deal that fails to end the university’s complicity in the ongoing genocide in Palestine.”

“The administration even refused to comply with our demand to extend amnesty to students involved in the Gaza Solidarity Encampment and recent protests for divestment,” Tufts SJP said in an Instagram post late Friday.

“This is not related to the negotiations,” the group said of the encampment breakdown. “We may elaborate on this at a further date as we need this time to process and develop our approach to discussing the matter.”

Student newspaper Tufts Daily reported that the university’s executive director of public relations Patrick Collins confirmed the decision to remove the encampment came independently.

“We’re pleased that the encampment has been taken down and that protest on the academic quad has been resolved peacefully and voluntarily,” Collins wrote in a statement to the newspaper. “The protesters’ departure was not the result of an agreement with the university.”

Students for Justice in Palestine is demanding Tufts disclose its Investments to Israel, divestment from the country, call for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war and drop attacks on students.

More than a hundred pro-Palestinian protesters took their demands to campus on April 26, vandalizing school property with explicit messages including “F*** the trustees.”

“Rather than take a bad faith deal that would forfeit our right to organize — and our values — we chose to walk away from this offer to maintain the integrity of the struggle for Palestinian Liberation,” Tufts SJP stated Friday night. “While we did not achieve victory today, as SJP, we vow to continue organizing and disrupting business as usual until this university cuts its ties with and fully divests from the zionist entity.”

...continued

©2024 MediaNews Group, Inc. Visit at bostonherald.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.