The number of area students building outdoor encampments to protest the war in Gaza rose dramatically on Wednesday, as hundreds of students at Harvard University and dozens more at Brown University erected tents, tarps, and banners and called on their schools to divest from Israel.
Tents at Harvard and Brown went up three days after similar encampments were established at MIT, Emerson College, and Tufts University. The New England protests follow the arrest last week of more than 100 students at another encampment at Columbia University, and they come amid rising tensions and protests on campuses across the country.
Some of the other universities and public officials have also turned to law enforcement for help. Boston police and fire warned Emerson officials of possible action, due to a violation of a city ordinance. At the University of Texas Austin, police bulldozed into protesters, with at least 20 people arrested, the Associated Press reported Wednesday night.
At Harvard, the Palestine Solidarity Committee, which was formally suspended earlier this week, chanted, marched, and cheered, holding Palestinian flags and signs within the yard. About an hour later, it set up 19 tents inside the yard, according to Lea Kayali, a law student and one of the Harvard student organizers. The historic campus’s criss-crossing paths, usually trod by tourists and other visitors, were relatively empty Wednesday, with security officers checking IDs at the gates.
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The Harvard encampment, which organizers called a “liberated zone,” was orchestrated by a student group called the Harvard Out of Occupied Palestine Coalition.
“We have established this liberated zone to call for an end to Harvard’s moral and material complicity in the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people,” the coalition said in a statement read aloud at Wednesday’s rally. “As students, educators, and graduate workers, we have a duty to fight against this genocide.”
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Jason Newton, a Harvard spokesperson, said university officials are “closely monitoring the situation and are prioritizing the safety and security of the campus community.”
Among the Palestine Solidarity Committee’s demands are that Harvard disclose any institutional and financial investments in Israel, similar to the demands of student organizers at MIT, Emerson, and Tufts.
In Gaza, more than 34,000 people have been killed as a result of Israel’s bombardment and ground offensive, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, a retaliatory operation following the Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7, which left more than 1,200 people dead and another 250 others kidnapped.
Tala Alfoqaha, a Harvard law student who is Palestinian and has family members she said were killed in the region, said the Harvard encampment was put up in solidarity with those at Columbia University, MIT, and other colleges but that she wants the focus to remain on Gaza.
“I’ve been waking up to images of bloodshed every single day for these past six, seven months, following an entire lifetime of watching Palestinian death be treated as the status quo,” Alfoqaha said. “And I think right now that status quo is being interrogated. And I think many people are coming to that realization right now, that we can’t continue on as normal.”
The Harvard Jewish Alumni Alliance called on Harvard to clear out the encampment and discipline or arrest — or both — “these illegal protestors who are violating all acceptable university rules concerning free speech,” the group’s leader Eric Fleiss wrote in a forum on WhatsApp Wednesday.
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At Emerson, where protesting students on Sunday set up tents in the now chalk-filled alleyway of Boylston Place — a dead-end alley connecting Boylston Street and the state transportation building — anxieties about the possibility of police clearing the encampment resonated throughout the afternoon.
Boston police and fire departments warned Emerson College administrators that “imminent law enforcement action” could take place in the alley, according to an email obtained by the Globe that Emerson administrators sent to students Wednesday morning.
Police and fire commissioners told Emerson leadership that the tents occupying Boylston Place, which is partially owned by the college and is also a public right-of-way, are in “direct violation of city ordinances.” The email pointed to a city ordinance against unlawful camping that bans people from setting up tents and tarps on public property.
“These are not Emerson College rules but laws and ordinances enforced by the city and the commonwealth,” read Emerson’s email to students, which was signed by college president Jay Bernhardt and other administrators.
In response, students formed a human barricade around the middle of the afternoon, two to three rows deep, blocking both ends of the alley. Other students, professors, and members of the public were allowed to pass, but the goal, students said, was to prevent police and Emerson administrators from entering.
“People are ready for what’s going to come,” said Amun Prophet, an Emerson senior. “The more bodies there are, the less risk of arrest there is for everyone.”
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By 5 p.m., the tents were still up, and though about a dozen students stood in counterprotest across the street, waving an Israeli flag and playing Israeli music, police had not intervened.
Meanwhile, tents remained on MIT’s Kresge Lawn into the evening Wednesday, as students prepared for their fourth overnight. Protesters crafted makeshift gutters out of cardboard and tarps to help with drainage, as showers fell throughout the afternoon and evening.
At Brown, students with the Brown Divest Coalition said in a press release that they plan to stay put until the university meets certain demands: dropping charges against 41 students arrested during a sit-in at University Hall last December and divesting the university’s endowment from “companies enabling and profiting from Israel’s military occupation of Palestinian territory.”
“The risk of suspension and the risk of arrest are pretty minimal in terms of what’s actually happening on the ground in Gaza,” said Arman Deendar, a Brown University junior participating in the encampment. “This feels like the least we can do as students who go to a really elite university and occupy a really privileged place.”
The encampment at Brown follows months of protests, during which 61 students have been arrested for their involvement in demonstrations in support of those in Gaza.
On Tuesday, the university’s administration sent an email to all Brown community members warning of the potential repercussions for those who participate in the encampment.
“Conduct reviews and processes for any students in violation of University policies will begin immediately and could result in discipline up to and including separation from the institution,” the email read, in part. “For graduating students, conduct processes could impact graduation and, for seniors, the ability to participate in Senior Week activities and Commencement.”
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Encampments in support of Gaza and Palestinians have also popped up on campuses at the University of Michigan, the University of California at Berkeley, the University of Minnesota, and Vanderbilt University.
On Monday, dozens of students were arrested at Yale University and more than 100 were arrested at New York University at similar encampments, according to the Associated Press.
House Speaker Mike Johnson visited Columbia’s campus to meet with Jewish students Wednesday afternoon, the Associated Press reported. After meeting with Jewish students on campus, Johnson called on Nemat Shafik, the university’s president, to resign, as protesters booed from the crowd.
Madeline Khaw can be reached at maddie.khaw@globe.com. Follow her @maddiekhaw. Daniel Kool can be reached at daniel.kool@globe.com. Follow him @dekool01.