This story originally appeared in Baltimore Beat on May 09, 2024. It is shared here with permission.
Despite threats of disciplinary action, pro-Palestine demonstrators encamped at Johns Hopkins University remained there the following day.
Representatives for the university handed out forms on Wednesday, May 8, asking demonstrators who had been camped out on the area known as “the beach” since the week before to agree to leave and not return. If they did so, the school officials said, they would “defer taking conduct action” against them.
“We refuse the University’s scare tactics,” the Hopkins Justice Collaborative said via a press release sent out Wednesday afternoon. “After yesterday’s meeting with the administration, which produced a miserable offer to the encampment, this move from the University reads as despicable and fear-mongering. The encampment has yet to receive any word from the administration about resuming negotiations.”
In a statement to Baltimore Beat, a JHU representative said, “We are pursuing other avenues for those who remain and would remind everyone that participation in the encampment is a trespass.”
Dozens of college campuses have launched protests amidst growing calls for a ceasefire in Gaza. The student movement is seeking to pressure institutions to cut ties with Israel over its war that’s killed over 40,000 Palestinians in the last seven months and is continuing to kill civilians.
The anti-war protests persist as Israel threatens a full-scale invasion of Rafah, a city on Gaza’s southern border with Egypt where 1.4 million Palestinians — more than half of the territory’s entire population — have sought refuge. The United Nations has warned that hundreds of thousands of civilians could die if Israel invades Rafah.
Under increasing pressure from young activists in the streets and within his own administration to protect Palestinians from Israeli human rights violations, President Joe Biden on Wednesday threatened to halt additional military aid to Israel.
“I made it clear that if they go into Rafah … I’m not supplying the weapons that have been used historically to deal with Rafah, to deal with the cities – that deal with that problem,” Biden told CNN. Last month, Biden approved a $15 billion weapon shipment to Israel over the objections of over 250 human rights organizations.
Israel blames Hamas, the political and military organization that controls the Gaza Strip, for civilian deaths. Hamas killed 1,200 Israelis and captured 240 hostages during its deadly surprise attack on Oct. 7.
Earlier this week, Hamas agreed to a ceasefire deal, which Israel rejected, reportedly because it called for a permanent ceasefire. Amid negotiations, Israel seized the Rafah border crossing, cutting off the main artery for food and humanitarian supplies into the region.
“If the crossing is not urgently reopened, the entire civilian population in Rafah and in the Gaza Strip will be at greater risk of famine, disease and death,” a UN official told the Washington Post.
Meanwhile, northern Gaza is already experiencing “full-blown famine,” said World Food Programme executive director Cindy McCain. McCain is the widow of late Republican Senator John McCain.
A May 8 poll from Data for Progress, a left-wing polling firm, found 70% of Americans and 83% of Democrats support a ceasefire in Gaza, 54% of Americans and 68% of Democrats supported suspending arms sales to Israel for blocking aid to Gaza. A majority also said they believed Israel is committed genocide in Gaza, including 56% of Democrats.
At the Hopkins encampments, activists say they remain committed to their protest in solidarity with Gaza as the conditions there grow more dire. Organizers say they are concerned the school will use force to evict them. The Baltimore Police Department has thus far found no reason to intervene against the encampment.
On May 7, representatives from seven Baltimore-area colleges held a joint press conference to collectively urge their schools to end ties with Israel.
“We organize in protest of the systemic violence against Palestinians, and all people, in recognition that peace cannot be achieved without freedom from oppression,” read the statement from students at Johns Hopkins University, Towson University, the University of Baltimore, University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA), and Goucher College.
“There are no universities left in Gaza. It is our duty to recognize our position of privilege and refuse to be complicit in genocide,” the letter continued. “The students of Baltimore condemn the notion of “neutrality” in fighting for social justice and implore our universities to use their institutional power for the liberation of Palestine.”
In a statement, JHU said the university is “continuing to work to bring the encampment to a close given the serious risk of conflict and harm to the university community, as seen here already and at peer institutions around the country.”
On May 3, the Johns Hopkins Krieger School of Arts and Sciences (KSAS) Faculty Senate wrote a letter urging JHU President Ron Daniels to engage with protestors and not use force to disband the camp.
“[G]iven the non-violent nature of the protest, and the willingness of students to use this opportunity for education and training, we urge President Daniels to continue to follow principles of dialogue, engagement and de-escalation,” they wrote. “Wesleyan and Oberlin both are permitting encampments. We see no reason why it should be necessary to address the encampment at Hopkins through police action.”
According to a recent report from The Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project, “the overwhelming majority of student protests since October — 99% — have remained peaceful.”
Daniel Levy, an Israeli peace negotiator under two former Israeli prime ministers and president of the U.S./Middle East Project who has turned into a fierce critic of the Israeli government,, said the protests are making an impact.
“People should not feel disheartened. What they are doing is having an impact: the fear of how this could play out politically. And so, I would say, in these crucial moments, those efforts should be redoubled because they are meaningful,” he told the independent news program Democracy Now!
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