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Update: This post was updated at 7:54 p.m. on May 11, 2024.

Representatives of the Gaza Solidarity Encampment at Syracuse University read multiple prepared statements Friday afternoon outside Hendricks Chapel, which addressed concerns surrounding SU’s communication with the GSE as well as the recent arrest of a non-affiliate.

Their statements claim SU administrators have not officially met with the encampment to discuss its six demands for the university. GSE members also allege several protesters have been targets of “harassment” by community members and SU’s Department of Public Safety.

The speakers included three members of the encampment, GSE organizer Cai Cafiero and two undergraduate students who chose to remain anonymous. They were accompanied by two SU faculty members — Jenn Jackson, assistant professor in the Political Science department, and Carol Fadda, an associate professor of English.

“Despite our victories and shifting SU’s culture of Palestinian erasure and silencing, the administration has treated us in bad faith,” said Cafiero, a graduate student in SU’s School of Education. “The university leadership has failed to stand by agreed upon terms and conditions, and instead has attempted to intimidate and pacify students.”

Each panelist, except for Jackson, delivered prepared statements. The speakers did not take questions.

At around 3 p.m., Cafiero began the conference by announcing that Eural Warren was arrested and charged with trespassing on the Shaw Quadrangle at approximately 2:36 p.m. Friday.

Warren, a Syracuse resident who was convicted of manslaughter in the first degree in 1996, had previously been part of the GSE but was not in the area Thursday after SU administrators first told non-affiliates to leave the encampment on Wednesday, a university spokesperson confirmed to The Daily Orange.

Cafiero said arresting Warren, a Black man, was an example of “weaponized” treatment against nonwhite individuals from working class backgrounds and that his presence did not make students feel unsafe while at the encampment.

“To say that this person in particular is trespassing, it’s an example of targeted harassment that we have been contending with since the very first day of our campus,” Cafiero said.

Cafiero then said the encampment has never refused to relocate or to end the demonstration, instead claiming the university has not engaged with GSE demands nor has it begun negotiations with protesters. The university and members of the encampment have only met to “set the terms” for potential negotiations, Cafiero said.

A university spokesperson wrote in a statement to The D.O. Friday that administrators have met with students in the encampment and confirmed another meeting will take place next week after SU’s upcoming graduation activities.

“University leaders met with some of the students demonstrating on the Quad last week, however Student Experience team members continue to engage them on a daily basis on the Quad,” the SU spokesperson wrote.

The group of speakers went on to restate the encampment’s list of six demands for the university to fulfill, which include support for a ceasefire in Gaza, divesting from companies that support the Israeli government and addressing racism from DPS, among others.

One of the anonymous SU students at the podium said the encampment urges the university to issue a public statement calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. The student pointed to a February 2022 campus-wide email from Chancellor Kent Syverud addressing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and questioned why SU has not issued a similar statement to advocate for a ceasefire in Gaza.

Cooper Andrews | Managing Editor

Five GSE representatives deliver statements under a tent on Shaw Quad. They claimed the university has not engaged with their demands nor have they adequately addressed the “harassment” of encampment members.

The speakers then read off examples of “constant harassment, doxxing, violence and other threats” that they said have taken place since the encampment began on April 29 and called for university protection.

The anonymous student said the encampment has encountered instances of people disrupting the demonstration verbally and physically. They provided several examples, one alleging an unidentified woman entered the camp, filmed students and said, “I would spit on you, but my spit is too good for you.”

The student also claimed intoxicated students have repeatedly harassed members of the encampment late at night to “keep campers awake.”

“Some destroyed art, and one even attempted to tear down our medic tent,” the student said. “Several students’ belongings were rifled through and several students have had their phones stolen.”

The GSE’s statement also said Ari Spinoza, who according to LinkedIn has previously worked with Representative Brandon Williams, has entered the encampment several times and filmed and antagonized encampment members. The student claimed Spinoza has doxxed multiple people in the encampment, and his presence made students feel unsafe.

Spinoza responded to the encampment’s claims in a Saturday statement to The D.O., writing that he has photographed the protest on the Quad “without issue” and that there is no evidence to verify the GSE’s allegations against him.

“The negative news that has come out on the Palestine encampment are not a result of my actions or ‘doxxing,’ rather, they are the result of their own antisemitic and bigoted actions which they are now learning has consequences,” Spinoza wrote.

Their statement also described multiple interactions between DPS and students in the encampment. On one instance, according to the statement, a drunk male student got into a physical altercation with an encampment marshal, who was on duty to monitor the GSE that night and had to call DPS to remove the student from the area.

The D.O. was unable to immediately verify these claims.

The statement also detailed how multiple DPS officers allegedly threatened to charge a student at the encampment with trespassing in Carnegie Library after a group of protesters entered late at night.

The student said one protester was “surrounded” by police while the rest of the group attempted to exit Carnegie. The person was let go by DPS after another encampment member began taking video and reading the officers’ badge number out loud, the student said.

On Wednesday, when SU administrators formally requested that the GSE relocate from the Shaw Quad, the university gave the encampment 30 minutes to make a decision, the student said. The student said that after the encampment didn’t move, the area was “surrounded” with uniformed DPS officers and zip ties, which caused GSE members to think arrests were imminent. No arrests were made Wednesday.

A university spokesperson wrote to The D.O. that following SU’s requests to relocate and for all non-affiliates to leave the encampment, protestors did not comply with administrators’ request to verify that they were affiliated with the university.

“After student protesters refused our request to relocate, Student Experience team members (not DPS) asked the students to hold up their SU IDs so we could confirm only students, faculty and staff were present,” the spokesperson wrote. “They refused to show their IDs.”

Another anonymous student read that SU has failed to meet the GSE’s request to communicate through a centralized encampment email so that the group could document the discussions. Instead, university representatives have approached members of the encampment in-person to communicate plans regarding police presence, the student said.

“Disingenuous treatment at the hands of Syracuse University administration has only heightened tensions as we await for them to come to the negotiating table,” Cafiero said.

Published on May 10, 2024 at 11:49 pm

Contact Cooper at: ccandrew@syr.edu | @cooper_andrews