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Rhode Island School of Design Considering BDS Proposal by Pro-Hamas Group
Students protest outside the Rhode Island School of Design building at 20 Washington Pl. on Monday afternoon where classmates are staging a sit-in and calling on RISD President Crystal Williams to divest from Israel. Photo: USA TODAY NETWORK via Reuters Connect
The Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), a neighbor of and frequent academic collaborator with Brown University, has agreed to consider a boycott, sanctions, and divestment (BDS) proposal submitted by the vocal pro-Hamas student group Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP).
According to The Brown Daily Herald, the news was announced during an anti-Zionist demonstration held on the RISD campus Thursday. The original proposal, however, was submitted in March, while campuses across the country, RISD included, were convulsed by pro-Hamas protests which called for further mass casualties of Israeli civilians of the kind Hamas perpetrated on Oct. 7. RISD administrators reportedly agreed to advance the boycott resolution in exchange for a promise that SJP would not disrupt spring commencement.
“In May RISD President Crystal Williams agreed to convene a meeting between the members of the Board of Trustees Investment Committee and a select number of student activists, under the condition that RSJP would not disrupt commencement activities,” the Daily Herald reported.
SJP, the Herald added, is demanding that RISD reject any future investments in defense conglomerate Textron, whose subsidiaries have sold Israel various aviation products and other technologies. Previously, the group had insisted on severing ties with a vital source of RISD income — the Rayon Foundation Trust, currently valued at over $28 million— because the man who established it, Royal Little, founded Textron. The group also has demanded divestment from Airbnb, founded reportedly by RISD alumni, for permitting rentals of West Bank properties owned by Israelis. President Williams said in May that RISD has no holdings in Airbnb.
The Rhode Island School of Design has not yet responded to The Algemeiner’s request for comment on this story.
Despite the college’s concession to SJP, campus chapter leader and spokesperson Jo Ouyang still harbors suspicions of its intent.
“I think this trustee meeting is really a crucial step for us to remain in communication with the Board of Trustees, and we hope to have future meetings,” Ouyang told the Herald. “But this will also not stall our tactics and strategies of protesting on this campus and calling for divestment now.”
American universities have largely rejected demands to divest from Israel and entities at all linked to the Jewish state, delivering blows to the pro-Hamas protest movement, which students and faculty pushed with dozens of illegal demonstrations aimed at coercing officials into enacting the policy.
Earlier this month, Brown University Corporation voted down a proposal — muscled onto the agenda of its annual meeting by an anti-Zionist group which held the university hostage with threats of illegal demonstrations and other misconduct — to divest from ten companies linked to Israel. According to the university, the Corporation heeded the counsel of the Advisory Committee on University Resources Management (ACURM), which witnessed earlier this semester a presentation — delivered by the pro-Hamas group Brown Divest Coalition (BDC) — in support of divestment and determined that the idea is unviable.
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
The post Rhode Island School of Design Considering BDS Proposal by Pro-Hamas Group first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.