Nine Arrested as Swarthmore College Shuts Down Anti-Israel Encampment Citing FBI Scrutiny
“We have heard your demands and do not intend to meet them.”
Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania shut down an anti-Israel encampment this week with the aid of local law enforcement. The tents were set up by the usual suspects of ‘Students for Justice in Palestine’, and the school president alleged that the protest had been noticed by the FBI.
Nine people were arrested, and only two of them were Swarthmore students. Anti-Israel activity has been occurring at Swarthmore for months.
The New York Post reports:
Police arrest 9, break up pro-Palestinian encampment at Swarthmore — as college president cites FBI scrutiny
Police arrested nine protestors, including seven agitators, while breaking up a pro-Palestinian encampment on Swarthmore College’s campus in an ugly scene Saturday — a “terribly difficult” decision the school’s president says was in part prompted by FBI scrutiny.
One current and one former student of the private liberal arts school in the suburbs of Philadelphia were arrested, while the seven others were activists who were not affiliated with the college.
“The promotion of the protest on social media drew the attention of law enforcement agencies, including the FBI, who urged us to bring the encampment to an end as quickly as possible,” Swarthmore President Valerie Smith said in a statement.
Smith said members of a suspended student organization repeatedly invited non-students to join the encampment through Instagram, and unknown individuals began to arrive on campus soon after.
“Many, if not all, of the protestors — both students and non-students — were fully masked and tried to remain unidentifiable,” Smith added.
According to this report from the Swarthmore Phoenix, it sounds like the administration is done playing games:
An email from Vice President of Student Affairs Stephanie Ives was printed and distributed to protesters at around 2:15 p.m., informing those at the encampment that their occupation of Trotter Lawn violated the Code of Conduct. The letter cited the code: “Encampments on and occupation of any College facilities, spaces or grounds is prohibited.”…
Additionally, she raised the concern over protestors using masks to hide their identities. “This current protest strategy will not result in dialogue with the college about your demands,” she wrote. She also wrote that many students have already been identified…
The letter continued, “We have heard your demands and do not intend to meet them.” Ives wrote that the college is considering all options to bring the encampment to a peaceful end while working to issue interim suspensions to those who were warned and remain in the encampment, including students who are just now entering. Further findings could lead to more severe sanctions for students who have already received a sanction for prior misconduct.
This video seems to show the members of the encampment getting a final warning. This was handled well.
🚨: The Final Warning to the Swarthmore Encampment
In a firm and final warning to pro-Palestinian student protesters, Swarthmore College officials and local law enforcement delivered a message demanding the immediate end of an unauthorized encampment on campus. 9 "Students"… pic.twitter.com/wP3N8ieHfV
— Stu (@thestustustudio) May 3, 2025
Students engaged in pathetic chants while the police dismantled the encampment.
As of this morning, the Swarthmore encampment has been "dismantled." Nine individuals were arrested. Are these truly Swarthmore students—or activists affiliated with Philadelphia DSA? pic.twitter.com/R6uyMY8Dwj
— Stu (@thestustustudio) May 3, 2025
The school handled this the right way. No negotiations over demands and no coddling. Shut it down or everyone will be arrested and students will be suspended. End of story.
Featured image via YouTube.
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Comments
Excellent. The only strange thing about this story is why the school’s president would say this was a “terribly difficult” decision. Seems like an easy decision to me, break the rules, suffer the consequences.
Habits are hard to break which why it was a “terribly difficult” decision for the president.
Probably because it was being scrutinized by Kash Patel’s FBI. Had it been Wray, McCabe, Comey, or Mueller at the head of the scrutinizing FBI the encampment would still be there. Perhaps she did it for herself, not because she thought it wrong.
It was handled ok but why the 3 days of warnings? This should have been warned on one day and the next all involved arrested with the immediate and public pulling off of face towels.
“We have heard your demands and do not intend to meet them.”
That is all that needs to be said. And it needs to be said immediately, not once they’ve dug in.
Masks should be ripped off, they & their ID photographed, and published for all to see.
Excellent handling of this issue in general. One improvement would be to bill the parents of the students involved for the cost of additional security and for tear down the homeless shelter. Of course as it is a touching moment what they really should do is expel the students and then bill the parents.
That should be “teaching moment”. It may also be a touching one if its the students last time on campus.
“Students involved?”
It’s becoming clear that students are as crucial to these demonstrations was Joe Biden was to the Biden Administration.
Professional agitators are using any college real estate they can score, with the same detached indifference as travelers use gas station bathrooms.
Paid agents provocateur. Need to follow the money back to their paymasters, who should then be sanctioned.
Note: In a previous life, I used to hang around with communications intercept/intelligence types. I’m using that definition of “sanctioned”.
The Post article doesn’t name the arrested individuals. An arrest is a public event — we should know who the arrested are.
The seven non-students should be prosecuted and served with no-trespass orders by the College. If they land on campus again, it’s an automatic arrest and charge.
To expound on the non-Voltaire Voltaire quote, stay mindful of how many times the MSM does not report the name of a leftist, political, or LEO offender, while simultaneously reporting the names of others, even after that offender has been convicted.
I generally do not disagree with this policy for minors — even minors being tried as adults, as they are not yet convicted, but once they are, no more anonymity.
Then never forget that Kyle Rittenhouse was 17, and the MSM had no problem dragging him through the sewer.
“Police arrested nine protestors, including seven agitators….”
So actual agitators, not CHS in the J6 style? Not on the FBI payroll?
Their guilt is pathetic and overbearing, and causes harm. Without these performances they would only have Teslas to key.
Good for the Univ leadership. Now they need to follow up and prosecute these ‘protesters’ particularly for trespass which prevents their presence on campus and negatively impacts the immigration status of anyone on a Student Visa.
Also thanks to local law enforcement that stepped up and did the actual work of removing the encampment. All I can see the university administration did was, after a long delay, allowed local police onto campus to remove these masked people who had set up their little masked city on university property.
Probably, many badly behaving students escaped consequence for the trouble they caused especially Jewish students and community members. But it’s better than many other university administrations have done and, unlike Columbia, it didn’t take a building occupation to let police onto campus to do their jobs.
Thank you FBI for forcing a university administration to clean up this problem on their campus. Please continue to do so on other campuses as well. That president should be happy, because he may just have saved Swarthmore’s tax exempt status!
I think this is a good example that these “protests” are being led by professional agitators with just a few actual students involved. Only 2 of 9 were actual students. The 7 non students need to be arrested on RICO charges and held in jail. The 2 students get immediate suspension and depending on their record, expulsion. Start doing that and these “protests” will disappear pretty fast.
BTW Where are all of the identical green tents that suddenly showed up everywhere?
like bto said
you aint seen nothin yet
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