Converge on Princeton: Reunions, May 21-24
I’ve been making the case to pro-Palestine activists wherever I go: the experience of being shut down at LeMoyne, NYU, U of Texas at Dallas, and Rutgers (with the prospect of retaliation at Michigan) and elsewhere is certainly a dispiriting one, but the answer is not to keep demanding entry where entry has effectively been denied, but to find opportunities for visibility when and where they present themselves.

The golden opportunity that presents itself is Reunions at Princeton University, which takes place this year from Thursday, May 21 to Sunday, May 24. During this time, about 25,000 people are expected to converge on Princeton, both town and university, for its annual Reunions festivities.

Gaza Solidarity Encampment at its first location near McCosh Hall, April 2024

These people are your captive audience. Come to Princeton, and find a way to say whatever it is you want to say in defense of Palestine, or against the US-Israeli war against the Lebanon and Syria, etc. All of town is your stage. No need to look to some Higher Authority for casting or direction. Just come to Princeton with your own activist group, find a place in town where you’ll be visible to the throngs, and put on your own act, whatever it is. Bring your own signs, flags, chants, and shtick. Just save the date, show up, and stand up.  

Gaza Solidarity Encampment at its second location, Cannon Green by Nassau Hall, May 2024

A couple of pieces of advice: Princeton will be packed. For that reason, it’s advisable to take mass transit here rather than drive (both driving and parking will be miserable). The New Jersey Transit Northeast Corridor train brings you right up to campus, and there are bus options as well. Look them up. 

From Dor Guez’s exhibition, “Colony,” at Bainbridge House, December 2022.

Second, it’s probably better to rally or protest in town, not on campus. Whereas in town you have clear constitutional and procedural rights to rally, speak, flyer, and protest, those rights are much less clear on campus, where the University has its own arcane rules, and a zealous Department of Public Safety that will arrest anyone for anything. Much of campus will be fenced off for the Reunions festivities anyway, and hard for non-University people to penetrate.

Be aware that you’re not allowed to pass out flyers on campus without prior permission, and the chances of their granting you permission are zero. So town is your best bet, but feel free to surround campus to capture the attention of people making their way to it. (Incidentally, Princeton Rail Station and the surrounding plaza is owned by the university, and so, technically subject to university rules.)

Washington Rd, April 2024

Third, just FYI: local activist Sireen Sawalha (author of My Brother, My Land) usually holds a Palestine protest on Saturday afternoons around 3 pm at Palmer Square, so if you show up there at that time, you’re likely to find her there with her cohort. 

The indefinite closure of Cannon Green: mid May 2024

Finally, I’m not advising anyone to break the law (to reiterate something I’ve said before). I’m advising you to visit Princeton, which is perfectly legal, and to commemorate the sesquicentennial of our great revolutionary nation by celebrating Palestinians’ and others’ kindred right of revolution and resistance. What better way to celebrate the revolutionary legacies of James Madison, Benjamin Rush, Aaron Burr, Richard Stockton, John Hart, and John Witherspoon than to do so in comparative perspective, alongside the legacies, living and historical, of Yasser Arafat, Leila Khalid, Ghassan Kanafani, Marwan Barghouti, Ahed Tamimi, Muhammad El Kurd, and so many others?

Leila Khaled painted into the Wall at Bethlehem, Summer 2019

If people can inundate Princeton to celebrate the University, they can inundate Princeton to protest the treatment of Palestine, Lebanon, and Iran. Princeton loves to brag about its revolutionary history. Come here during Reunions and remind them what that’s all about.