A group of around 20 Tufts students, almost all dressed in black and wearing keffiyehs, came together to protest a lecture by Israeli Defense Forces Lieutenant Colonel Eran Shamir-Borer during his visit to campus on Monday morning for a lecture sponsored by the International Security Studies Program at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. The protesters described Shamir-Borer as a "genocide apologist."
The students gathered outside The Fletcher School at 11:30 a.m. before entering Cabot Intercultural Center through the Edwin Ginn Library. Upon entering Cabot around 11:40, the students lay down on the lobby floor to perform a "die-in," symbolizing Palestinian deaths in Operation Protective Edge over the summer. Police officials required that the students move to accommodate a safe pathway through the lobby. One of the protesters periodically explained the cause of the protest, counting down until Shamir-Borer's lecture at noon.
Outside, other protesters read aloud the names of Palestinians killed in the Gaza Strip during the conflict between Israel and Gaza this summer. The die-in continued until around 12:15 p.m., when the indoor protesters joined their peers outside.
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