Activists claim only occupied building to ‘host teach-ins’ on Palestine
After numerous anti-Israel activists took over and trashed a campus building early last week, Pomona College officials followed up on its promise to discipline those involved.
According to the Instagram page of the group Pomona Divest from Apartheid, a dozen Pomona students were “evicted, suspended and banned from campus” and had their meal plans “cut.”
The group claimed “the majority” of those facing sanctions are low-income, first-generation minority students.
“What could anyone possibly have done to justify immediately severing their access to housing, food, medical care, work, education?” the group asked.
The justification would be, as reported by The College Fix, that the activists trashed Carnegie Hall and forced classes “to shut down or relocate” and students “to flee through open windows.”
Pomona Divest from Apartheid alleged Pomona officials are “indiscriminately suspending,” “surveilling” and “mass racial[ly] profiling” students.”
“Admin is throwing charges at anyone and everyone, to see if they’ll stick,” the group said. “At fascist Pomona College, you can be suspended for attending a rally.”
In a joint post by Pomona Divest from Apartheid and Mudders Against Murder, the groups claimed “what really happened” at Carnegie Hall was that activists “entered […] and began hosting teach-ins and programming to recenter Palestine.”
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“Carnegie was not under occupation, Palestine is,” the groups said. They added a mere four-and-a-half hour takeover to teach students about Palestinian rights and resistance, read poetry, and eat pizza does not constitute an “occupation.”
The Claremont Independent reports Thursday’s Pomona faculty meeting “centered” the Carnegie takeover and that President Gabrielle Starr was “visibly emotional.” Regarding the activists’ actions, some faculty pointed out that “rules without consequences are just suggestions.”
In a statement, Pomona’s Faculty Executive Committee chided the activists’ antics, noting “the fact that this occupation took place on October 7, a day that should have inspired a very different kind of gathering, only added insult to injury.”
Starr said in a Friday message that although “the vast majority of those who occupied Carnegie are not Pomona students,” those involved who are enrolled at Pomona and “other Claremont Colleges” would face discipline, the Claremont Courier reports.
“I anticipate that, within the scope of the student code, and commensurate with individual circumstances, sanctions will range widely, including campus bans, suspension and expulsion — a step we do not take lightly,” Starr said. “As always, we have due process on our campus, with opportunities for appeal.”
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h/t to Steve McGuire
IMAGES: CarmenKarin/Shutterstock.com; Pomona Divest from Apartheid, Mudders Against Murder/Instagram
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