New Orleans, LA – On Friday, September 13, Tulane University encampment arrestees held a press conference outside the Orleans Criminal District Court ahead of their court appearance. They read a resolution signed by over 40 of New Orleans’ community organizations, demanding that charges against pro-Palestine encampment protestors and activist Toni Jones be dropped.

Nearly 30 activists in New Orleans have been arrested since October 2023, facing a litany of trumped-up charges for standing against genocide and in solidarity with Palestinians. The organizations released a statement calling on District Attorney Jason Williams and City Attorney Donesia Turner to take action, denounced Tulane University for “unjustly pursuing these charges” and called on the school to end its witch-hunt against student protestors.

“Currently, we are witnessing Tulane prosecute students academically and criminally, while admitting in negotiation meetings with students that they purposely overcharged us,” said Tulane SDS member and encampment arrestee Vonne Crandle. “We’ve seen Tulane host IDF soldiers, we’ve seen a professor assault a student for demonstrating against companies complicit in the genocide, and we watched as nothing was done to the professor while the student was banned from campus the same weekend,” he went on to say.

Crandle was referring to Tulane professor and ex-CEO of CNN Walter Isaacson’s attack on student Rory Macdonald, as Macdonald disrupted a panel featuring Exxon and Halliburton Labs during New Orleans Entrepreneurship Week in March. Isaacson is also on the board of Halliburton Labs, which is heavily involved in Israel’s chemical industry.

Macdonald, one of the 14 encampment arrestees, spoke outside the courthouse as well, stating, “Since our arrests, I’ve been brought back to court over and over again, I’ve been suspended and kicked off my campus, I’ve had my scholarship threatened by Tulane.”

Macdonald continued, “This is the people versus Tulane University.”

Signatories of the resolution represented a broad array of community leaders from New Orleans, including criminal justice reform, housing justice, faith-based, and labor organizations.

Toni Jones, an organizer with New Orleans Community Oversight of the Police (NOCOP) and arrestee at an earlier Tulane protest in response to Isaacson’s misconduct, spoke about this solidarity. Jones stated, “When we see someone in danger, and we can help them, we have got to help. It’s not only the right thing to do, but our duty. How could you condemn a fellow man to die without making an effort to help?”

Notably, many of the resolution’s signatories had previously supported D.A. Jason Williams’ election campaign four years ago. Later, inside the kuffiyeh-packed courthouse, prosecutors seemed disorganized as they were confronted by the defendants’ attorneys for not submitting discovery material in time. The D.A.'s office is not only losing public support, but also expending its severely strained capacity to pursue these charges. Arrestees say Tulane University is applying significant pressure to ensure that the protestors be prosecuted. The 14 activists arrested at the encampment last May will face trial on September 20.

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