Politics
Indian-origin student at Princeton arrested for participating in a pro-Palestine protest, barred from the university
Indian-origin student at Princeton arrested for participating in a pro-Palestine protest, barred from the university
Achinthya Sivalingan, an Indian-origin student, was one of two students arrested Thursday at Princeton University in the United States for engaging in a pro-Palestine protest on campus.
Sivalingan and Hassan Sayed, both from Coimbatore, were arrested early Thursday morning as student protesters set up tents in the university courtyard, according to the Princeton Alumni Weekly.
“According to a paper provided by demonstrators, the arrested students are Achinthya Sivalingam and Hassan Sayed. Urvi, a first-year Ph.D. student who only wanted to be named by her first name, described the arrest as “violent” and claimed zip ties were placed around their wrists, according to the college alumni magazine.
ARRESTED FOR TRESPASSING
In a statement, Jennifer Morrill, a spokesperson for the University, noted that erecting tents violated University regulations, resulting to the arrest of the two students for trespassing “[a]fter repeated warnings from the Department of Public Safety to cease the activity and leave the area.”
Additionally, Morrill stated that Sivalingan and Sayed “have been immediately barred from campus, pending a disciplinary process.” She added that the remaining tents were “voluntarily taken down by protestors.”
Sivalingam is pursuing a Master of Public Affairs (MPA) in International Development at Princeton, while Sayed is a fifth-year PhD candidate in the famed university’s economics department.
SIVALINGAM AND SAYS ‘NOT EVICTED’
According to The Daily Princetonian, student organizers have circulated an Instagram document urging alumni and other university members to call and email the University to stop disciplinary actions, claiming that Sivalingam and Sayed were removed from their campus housing and given only five minutes to collect their belongings.
However, in a statement, university spokesperson Michael Hotchkiss emphasized that no one has been ‘evicted’.
“No one has been ‘evicted’ from the university today. Under University protocol, Public Safety may initially accompany students barred from campus (for any reason) to their University housing to collect whatever belongings they require in the short term until the specific terms of their bar from campus are determined by the designated administrator,” Hotchkiss stated.
He went on to state, “Those who were banished from the primary campus nowadays are allowed to remain in their university-owned lodging, as the assigned chairman chose that their bar did not apply to their non-dormitory residences.”
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Pro-Palestine energizers have cleared through driving colleges in the United States, with hundreds of understudies taking to their campuses to condemn the fatalities in Gaza caused by the Israeli military campaign.
These shows are one of the earliest instances of clashes between law enforcement and understudies challenging the rising passing toll in Israel’s struggle with the Palestinian activist group Hamas. Student nonconformists have been encouraging their colleges to strip their speculations about Israel and advocate for a quick ceasefire.