Delco College Students Demand Admins Support Permanent Ceasefire In Gaza

HAVERFORD, PA — Students at Haverford College are staging an indefinite sit-in while calling for the administration to support a permanent ceasefire in Gaza.

Haverford College Students for Peace launched their sit-in at Founders Hall at 7 a.m. Wednesday.

The group is calling for the school's administration to agree to two demands they say are in alignment with Quaker values.

Those demands are to support an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza and to "take accountability and implement restorative action for their neglectful rhetoric and amplification of harmful language, which has breached student trust."

Haverford College student Kinnan Abdalhamid was shot alongside his friends Hisham Awartani and Tahseen Ahmad on Saturday, Nov. 25 in Vermont. All three are Palestinian and Jason J. Eaton, 48, was charged with three counts of attempted murder in connection.

The group delivered a list of demands to the school administration on Nov. 28, outlining what they described as an urgent need for college-wide commitment to protecting the safety and well-being of our Palestinian, Muslim, and Arab peers.

According to the group, 693 students, representing 48.4 percent of the student body, have signed in support of these demands as of Tuesday. Those include 24 other on-campus student organizations, such as affinity groups, art and performance groups, social clubs, and justice-oriented groups. Additionally, 121 Haverford alumni have joined the group in calling for the administration to meet those demands.

"Haverford administration has not sufficiently acted to ensure the safety of our peers as well as uphold our values calling for global peace," the group said in a statement. "Additionally, following the anti-Palestinian violence against Kinnan Abdalhamid, a Haverford student, the College’s continued inaction has created further harm. We are escalating our action in response to the administration's incomplete and lackluster initial response to our demands, which left many only partially answered and some completely ignored."

Patch has reached out to Haverford College administration for information on the sit-in and demands, and will update the story when additional details are made available.