Pro-Palestinian protesters take over University of Chicago building

A group of pro-Palestinian protesters occupied the Institute of Politics at the University of Chicago Friday afternoon, demanding the university divest from Israel.

Around 5 p.m., a large group of protesters surrounded the building as others occupied it. Shortly after, a group of University of Chicago police officers equipped with riot shields burst into the building and scuffled with protesters.

One was seen pushing protesters away from the front door of the building, located on Woodlawn Avenue near 57th Street. Some protesters were later seen climbing out of a second-story window, followed by police.

Chicago Police Department officers were also on the scene.

Police had cleared a pro-Palestinian encampment on the university’s Main Quadrangle early in the morning Tuesday. On Friday afternoon, organizers set up tents on the lawn in front of the institute’s building.

University of Chicago spokesperson Gerald McSwiggan said a group of masked protesters entered the building, attempted to bar the entrance, damaged university property and ignored directives from campus police to clear the way.

“The University of Chicago is fundamentally committed to upholding the rights of protesters to express a wide range of views,” McSwiggan said in a statement. “At the same time, University policies make it clear that protests cannot jeopardize public safety, disrupt the University’s operations or involve the destruction of property.”

Ellery Jones/Sun-Times

By late afternoon, a crowd of several hundred had gathered around the building, including a handful who draped themselves in the Israeli flag.

Protesters have raised banners and pinned a Palestinian flag to the second floor of the building. A spray-painted banner, hanging on the building’s porch, listed demands that included “free Palestine” and “abolish the university.”

For a while, police tried to keep the crowd off the street to allow traffic to to pass, but eventually they closed Woodlawn Avenue to vehicles.

On Instagram, UChicago United, which took part in organizing the encampment, declared the Institute of Politics the “Liberated Cashbah of Basel Al-Araj” for the Palestinian activist and writer who died in a gunfight with Israeli police in a raid in 2017.