RISD students occupy building in pro-Palestinian protest. Here's what they demand.

PROVIDENCE – Rhode Island was headed toward another extended campus standoff involving university students and the conflict in Gaza late Tuesday afternoon.

Activists from the Rhode Island School of Design remained inside Washington Place, an administrative and academic building in downtown Providence, where they had stayed through the day despite the university's request that they depart.

Twenty-three RISD students and a non-student identified as a "member of the Providence community" were on the second floor of the brick building between the Providence River and North Main Street, according to a 21-year-old student who identified himself as a "marshal" for the protest action, emphasizing that he is not a group leader.

"We expect them to stay as long as necessary," said the student, Oliver McGovern, "If RISD doesn't make any attempts to remove them, then they will stay indefinitely."

Like campus protesters across the nation, RISD students for Justice in Palestine has established a deliberately disruptive presence. It has refused to leave until the university meets its demands, which include a public condemnation of Israeli military operations in Gaza "as a genocide."

After taking over the second floor of 20 Washington Place on Monday, the student activists declared they had renamed the colonnaded building "Fathi Ghaben Place." Ghaben, a prominent Palestinian artist, died in Gaza in February.

The students' activism drew the attention of national news media on Tuesday.

RISD had asked the students to vacate "out of respect for their peers' academic experience," RISD spokeswoman Jaime Marland said Tuesday morning.

In the meantime, the school moved classes to another building.

"While we have and continue to affirm our students’ right to freedom of expression, freedom of speech and peaceful assembly, we also respect the rights of the many students who want to attend their classes," Marland said via email.

What do the protesters want?

The group posted video to social media showing protesters outside the building as occupiers inside unfurled a sign reading "Disclose, Divest, Defend Gaza."

Another video showed students inside chanting, "Free Free Palestine."

The group said students have barricaded the second floor of the building and urged others to come out and show support, saying "We need a crowd to force the university to divest, not arrest!"

The group said it will not leave until RISD President Crystal Williams meets the following demands:

• "Provides total fiscal transparency of RISD’s investment portfolio."
• "Commits to a holistic divestment from companies, corporations and institutions that are implicated in sustaining Israeli Apartheid."
• "Establishes a student oversight committee for future investments."
• "Publicly condemns the Israeli Occupation of Gaza as a genocide."

More: What were the Columbia protests like from the inside? Mark Patinkin finds out from a student

How has RISD responded?

Williams went inside the building and met with students Monday night, the group said. A RISD spokeswoman later confirmed that Williams and a provost "were on-site meeting with them into the night."

The students claimed Williams gave them until 8 a.m. Tuesday "to decide their next steps."

"The 23 occupiers in Fathi Ghaben Place remains steadfast and continue to occupy the second floor after talks with President Crystal Williams," the group said in a 9 a.m. social media post.

RISD issued the following statement: "We have and continue to affirm our students’ right to freedom of expression, freedom of speech, and peaceful assembly. RISD condemns violence and injustice, and we decry antisemitism, Islamophobia and all forms of hate. The wellbeing of all of our students has been and remains our top priority, and we continue to support all members of our community."

Fearing arrest, the protesters were alarmed late Monday night when three Providence police cruisers pulled up.

"Update: they left after telling us to get off the road," the students wrote on Instagram at about 11 p.m.

Chat with a RISD activist

Outside the hall, the activists employed some of the same banners and other signage seen last week on the campus of Brown University. More than 50 hung out on the sidewalk along Washington Place.

With a keffiyeh draped over his shoulders, McGovern, who is from Greenwich, Connecticut, spoke to the media and sought out an interview with The Providence Journal.

He said his knowledge of the conflict stems in part from courses taken in high school and at RISD, where he took a course focused on architecture in the Global South and the Middle East.

He learned about a separation barrier in the West Bank, imposed by Israel as a necessary security measure and despised by Palestinians as a tool of segregation and occupation.

On the sidewalk in Providence, McGovern described the students' activity as an expression of love and a stand against all violence. His commentary encompassed Hamas' killing of entire Israeli families on Oct. 7 as well as the retaliatory Israeli military campaign, including heavy aerial bombing, that has killed entire Palestinian families in much larger numbers.

"We are trying to stop violence, not proliferate it," said McGovern.

McGovern would not say no, or yes, when asked if he supported the destruction of the state of Israel, saying he refused to answer a question framed that way.

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: RISD students occupy building in pro-Palestinian protest. Here's what they demand.