BY LEV D. ZILBERMINTS
NEWARK – After 39 days of occupying the grounds in front of the Law School at 123 Washington Street, Newark, the pro-Palestinian tent city has been dismantled. According to photographs and frantic posts by students and their allies on Instagram, Rutgers Police and Newark Police showed up at 7 a.m. on Sunday, June 9, at the Law School grounds. Law enforcement blocked off all the streets coming into the university.
On Thursday, June 6, Newark Solidarity Coalition and Clean Water For Newark posted on Instagram their determination to stick it through until Rutgers Newark divests from Israel.
“We are not leaving. We are not going anywhere. Rutgers once demolished hundreds of black and brown homes to build its buildings. It has taken from Newark and given to Israel.
We will stay here for 3800 days if we have to. We will not stop. We will not rest,” the Newark Solidarity and Clean Water For Newark Instagram post said.
As will be seen elsewhere, this was one of the reasons why Rutgers Newark administration decided it was time to remove the encampment.
Protesters and video expose the City and Department of Safety Statement’s inaccuracy
Video on Instagram came in, showing protesters facing off numerous police at the Rutgers Newark Law School. The police can be seen standing in a row, holding hands, barring protesters from accessing the encampment. Protesters, led by Anthony Diaz, head of Clean Water for Newark, are trying to protect the encampment by gathering in numbers. On the ground, blue tarp, signs, and the remnants of the tents lie. Blue garbage bins can be seen in several places.
According to the Newark Solidarity Coalition’s Instagram post, “They (Rutgers Police and Newark Police) are hitting professors and not allowing legal observers!!!!””
One video shows police standing with zip ties, blocking the way. Students and their allies can be heard chanting slogans, shouting for others to come and join them. The video clearly shows both Newark Police and Rutgers University Newark Police joining forces for what the City’s statement said was crowd control.
According to Newark Solidarity Coalition’s June 9 frantic posts on Instagram, “Come defend the encampment!!! They (Rutgers Newark and Newark police) said they are clearing us in 30 minutes. 123 Washington Street, Newark. Mobilize now!!”
In the comments section, Newark Solidarity Coalition allies gave their responses.
“This is insane! Rutgers is causing all this noise for a peaceful protest!” wrote a user called “beepbeep_122”. His comment was posted about 10:07 a.m. on June 9.
Another user, “babyfigappleredbull” posted their comment around 9:43 a.m. “Go go go!!!! This is so important!!!!” they wrote.
At 8:47 a.m., June 9, The South Orange/Maplewood (SOMA) Green Party posted emojis of three faces with their mouths taped shut, and three Palestinian flags next to them.
User “co.knew1” posted their Instagram comment at 9:47 a.m., June 9. “Get there!” the comment said.
One user, j_dot_rez , posted, “Just seeing this message. What’s the status?”
Only one Instagram user posted as the law enforcement were blocking off all streets leading to the Rutgers Newark Law School. “Runituppvon” simply wrote “!!!!”
Simply put, the residents of the Rutgers Newark Law School Pro-Palestinian encampment were caught off-guard.
Statement from Rutgers University – Newark
Peter T. Englot, Senior Vice Chancellor for Public Affairs & Chief of Staff, Rutgers – Newark issued a lengthy statement explaining the university’s decision to clear out the encampment.
“This morning, {June 9, 2024) the small and sparsely occupied encampment at Rutgers-Newark was dismantled by the protestors shortly after they were informed by university officials that they needed to decamp, reflecting the university’s authority to regulate the time, place, and manner of protest on university property while preserving the First Amendment rights of the students, faculty, and staff to protest. Rutgers-Newark administrators, Rutgers University Police Department in their regular uniforms, and Facilities staff were on site to oversee the decampment, which was orderly and peaceful. No arrests were made.
“From the encampment’s beginning over a month ago, Rutgers-Newark leaders engaged with the protesters about their concerns in good faith through a series of meetings over the first couple of weeks. We met every one of their requests regarding the conditions and terms of negotiations, provided them every reasonable opportunity to be heard, and provided earnest, substantive, and productive responses to a large majority of their concerns.
“Over the past two weeks, however, while the protest remained peaceful, the protestors established a pattern of disengagement, including repeated violations of university fire safety policies (e.g., unsafe use of extension cords from Rutgers buildings and unpermitted use of open flames for cooking), ongoing defacement of property (e.g., graffiti on buildings), attempting to erect a large structure on the site, violations of ID use and building access policies, intensifying and expanding the degradation of the campus environment, and repeatedly delaying in-person negotiations because members of their designated negotiating team has been elsewhere.
“Most recently, the protestors made public statements this past week indicating that they do not plan to honor the path forward for evaluating divestment requests, as codified for all of Rutgers in commitments made by the university on May 2nd.
“Over the preceding weeks, university leaders repeatedly made commitments in person and in writing that substantially addressed the protestors’ concerns. We assured them that the
commitments already made by Rutgers on May 2nd in New Brunswick apply at Rutgers-Newark
and we provided ample evidence that we already had begun working to affect those
commitments, including:
- Assuring representation of Rutgers-Newark students in the upcoming meeting of students
with President Holloway and the chair of the Joint Committee on Investment of the
Rutgers boards, in keeping with Rutgers’ investment policy, which clearly articulates the
process for evaluating divestment requests - Forging the connections needed to enroll Gazan students whose universities have been
destroyed - Initiating discussions to identify needs for enhancements to programming on campus for
Palestinian and Arab students - Building on an existing agreement with Birzeit University
- Using appropriate terminology in communications to refer to Palestine and Palestinians
- Continuing to build cultural competency of faculty and staff about Arab peoples and
Islamophobia - Assuring that no member of the Rutgers community – including faculty, staff, graduate
students, undergraduate students, or alumni – found to have been involved in the encampment or related activity will face retaliation from the University, including termination of employment or reduction in compensation.
Further, in response to the more local concerns expressed by the protestors:
- Rutgers-Newark has a well-established track record of investing significant resources in collaboration with the City of Newark and grassroots Newark nonprofits on housing insecurity in our city, working with community partners across the public, private, and nonprofit sectors to advocate and organize community support for innovative public policy and actual affordable housing solutions for Newarkers. The work of our Center on Law, Inequality and Metropolitan Equity (CLiME) has been foundational, literally, in the creation and ongoing work of the Mayor’s Equitable Growth Advisory Commission, for example, and in documenting the urgency of optimizing the use of city-owned land to address housing needs in Newark through the Newark Land Bank.
- Since 2016, Rutgers-Newark has had a free-tuition program for Newarkers – the Rutgers University – Newark Talent & Opportunity Pathways (RU-N to the TOP) Program – that ensures no tuition or mandatory fees for students from families making up to $65,000 a year, with a sliding scale above that up to $100,000 that keeps college very affordable. Indeed, this model was adopted by the State of New Jersey, and we have expanded our own efforts to the point at which we now provide more than $7 million a year (on average over the past five years) to Newark residents to enable them to attend Rutgers-Newark.
- The legal clinics of Rutgers-Newark have been offering free legal services to Newark residents for more than 50 years. Today, there are eleven such clinics, providing free consultation to Newarkers in the following areas: child advocacy, community and transactional law, constitutional rights, criminal and youth justice, education and health
law, entrepreneurship, federal taxation, housing justice and tenant solidarity, immigrant rights, intellectual property law, and international human rights. - At the same time, we do not see an appropriate role for Rutgers-Newark to play in addressing a small number of the protestors’ concerns. These are:
- Seeking to have Rutgers-Newark lobby the Newark Municipal Council on behalf of the Newark Solidarity Coalition for a Gaza ceasefire resolution
- Seeking free health care services for Newarkers from Rutgers Health, which is not a part of Rutgers-Newark, and which already provides such services through free clinics
- Seeking divestment by three other higher education institutions in the Newark area
(NJIT, Essex County College, and Seton Hall University).
“As a public institution, Rutgers-Newark – administration, faculty, staff, and students – is publicly accountable for abiding by policies that apply across all of Rutgers. That includes the policy on investment, which clearly articulates the process for evaluating divestment requests – a process grounded in the democratic principles of consensus building among campus constituencies in order to consider collective action. It has become clear in recent days, unfortunately, that those in the encampment do not plan to abide by that.
“Although the protestors have dismantled the encampment and work has begun to restore the site to its intended uses for the university community, we have offered to continue discussion with the protestors on how we may collaborate on local issues of mutual concern. As we have done concertedly for the past decade and more, we will continue to invest Rutgers-Newark’s intellectual, human, financial, and physical capital collaboratively with community partners toward the ends of achieving racial equity and equitable growth in our community.”
Text of the Joint Statement from the City of Newark and Department of Public Safety
The City of Newark and Department of Public Safety published a joint statement regarding the dismantling of the protesters’ encampment at the Rutgers Newark Law School.
“Newark Mayor Ras J. Baraka and Public Safety Director Fritz G. Frage report that Rutgers University Police made a decision to remove a student protesters’ encampment today, Sunday, June 9, 2024. Rutgers Police requested that Newark Police provide traffic control assistance during its dismantling operation.
“Newark Police officers did not engage nor participate in the dismantling of the encampment until three Newark Police Officers, who were conducting traffic control on the streets outside of Rutgers University, observed a crowd surrounding two Rutgers Police. The university’s police officers had detained an adult male following a foot pursuit. Newark Police Officers provided mutual aid for crowd control. When the crowd was dispersed, Rutgers Police detained the suspect, who was later released from the campus. Newark Police returned to their traffic control locations. No arrests were made by Newark Police.
“Both Mayor Baraka and Director Frage applaud the response of Rutgers University – Newark and thank Chancellor Nancy Cantor for the university’s respectful approach to handling one of the longest-lasting protests in the country. This response, which sought to engage protesters while respecting their rights, serves as a model for campus protests nationwide. The City of Newark appreciates the university’s restraint and tolerance and its honorable upholding of students’ rights to peacefully assemble.
“Prior to this incident, Newark Police Officers had not entered the campus, neither in uniform nor in plain clothes. During today’s mutual aid incident, one Newark Police Officer was observed at the scene flexing his muscles. As a result, the officer is under disciplinary investigation for violating Newark Police policies and procedures.
“Always, the City of Newark and the Newark Police Division work to uphold the public’s rights while respectfully acknowledging various perspectives and points of view.”
