New York, May 10 (RHC)-- In New York City, faculty at The New School have launched the first faculty encampment to protest the violent police crackdown on their students.

The professors named the encampment after the Palestinian poet Refaat Alareer, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike in December.

One faculty member, Suneil Sanzgiri, told reporters: “Following police raids and violence, The New School faculty established the Refaat Alareer faculty solidarity encampment.  The call from students and Palestinians in Gaza is clear.  We cannot give up.  We must escalate and persevere to demand our universities divest, disclose and boycott from the war profiteers and institutions justifying and aiding the genocide in Gaza.”