Princeton Faculty Demand University Reinstate Arrested Anti-Israel Grad Students

A group of more than 100 Princeton faculty and post-docs have signed a letter demanding that the university reinstate and expunge the records of two graduate students who were arrested for trespassing while participating in an anti-Israel protest last week.

“This repressive action, undertaken at the behest of the University administration, constitutes a grave threat to freedom of speech, dissent, and assembly on the Princeton campus,” reads the open letter, which was released on Saturday.

An activist group called “Princeton Israeli Apartheid Divest” claims two graduate students, Hassan Sayed and Achinthya Sivalingan, were arrested for trespassing and “evicted” on Thursday. A Princeton University spokesperson confirmed that two graduate students had been arrested for trespassing and immediately barred from campus, pending a disciplinary process, but have not been evicted from university-owned housing.