Hundreds of University of Chicago students set up an encampment in the university’s Main Quadrangle on Monday, joining groups on over 100 university campuses nationwide in support of Palestinians living in Gaza.
The demonstration comes after five days of protest at Northwestern University’s Evanston campus, where students and faculty occupied Deering Meadow as they called on the school to divest from companies doing business with Israel.
“From this divestment campaign to the divestment campaigns all around the world, we demand divestment, repair, justice, freedom for all Palestinians,” Moon G., an incoming master’s student at the University of Chicago Divinity School, told the crowd.
Rayna A., a senior at the University of Chicago who helped organize the encampment, said the protesters also want more money allocated to education and housing on the South Side. She said the university “refuses to be in conversation” about the demands and turned down requests for a public meeting regarding divestment from Israel in the fall.
University President Paul Alivisatos said in a statement the school aims to provide “the greatest leeway possible for free expression.” The school will only intervene if the free expression “blocks the learning or expression of others” or “meaningfully disrupts the functioning or safety of the University.”
The encampment violates the university’s policies against building structures without prior approval and overnight sleeping on campus, he said.
“Given the importance of the expressive rights of our students, we may allow an encampment to remain for a short time despite the obvious violations of policy—but those violating university policy should expect to face disciplinary consequences,” Alivisatos said.
A noontime rally was punctuated with the chant: “Disclose. Divest. We will not stop. We will not rest.” Nearby, Israeli flags hung on a line strung between two lamp posts.
Police officers stood about fifty feet away from the encampment and appeared not to disrupt the protest or tents. But ever since Columbia University President Minouche Shafik authorized the New York Police Department to dismantle the student encampment there, students have been worried about escalation.
Rayna said that organizers have learned skills to keep their communities safe, but “safety is never guaranteed.”
A junior, who is Jewish and asked not to be identified, said she felt “jarred” when she saw people she knew participating at the encampment. The junior, who has family in Israel, said she has a religious connection to the region.
“We’ve seen [encampments] on other campuses, and it hasn’t turned out well, especially for Jewish students,” she said. “People are scared.”
Adam Gottlieb, the Poet in Residence at the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools, said he wanted to have conversations with people who seemed open. He spoke to passersby for two hours, discussing possible ways forward with the conflict.
“There are some important conversations happening here,” Gottlieb said. “I’m interested in finding what middle ground is possible with people who say ‘We stand for human rights for all.’”
Student protesters set up a pro-Palestine protest camp on the University of Chicago Main Quadrangle on Monday.
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Jim Vondruska/For the Sun-Times
Student protesters set up a pro-Palestine protest camp on the University of Chicago Main Quadrangle on Monday.
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Jim Vondruska/For the Sun-Times
Student protesters set up a pro-Palestinian protest camp on the University of Chicago Main Quadrangle on Monday.
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Jim Vondruska/For the Sun-Times
Student protesters set up a pro-Palestinian camp on the University of Chicago Main Quadrangle on Monday.
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Jim Vondruska/For the Sun-Times
Student protesters set up a pro-Palestinian protest camp on the University of Chicago Main Quadrangle on Monday.
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Jim Vondruska/For the Sun-Times
Student protesters set up a pro-Palestinian camp on the University of Chicago Main Quadrangle on Monday.
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Jim Vondruska/For the Sun-Times
Student protesters set up a pro-Palestinian camp on the University of Chicago Main Quadrangle on Monday.
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Jim Vondruska/For the Sun-Times
Student protesters set up a pro-Palestinian camp on the University of Chicago Main Quadrangle on Monday.
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Jim Vondruska/For the Sun-Times
Student protesters set up a pro-Palestinian camp on the University of Chicago Main Quadrangle on Monday.
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Jim Vondruska/For the Sun-Times
Student protesters set up a pro-Palestinian protest camp on the University of Chicago Main Quadrangle on Monday.
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Jim Vondruska/For the Sun-Times
Student protesters set up a pro-Palestinian camp on the University of Chicago Main Quadrangle on Monday.
|
Jim Vondruska/For the Sun-Times
Student protesters set up a pro-Palestinian protest camp on the University of Chicago Main Quadrangle on Monday.
|
Jim Vondruska/For the Sun-Times
Student protesters set up pro-Palestinian camp on the University of Chicago Main Quadrangle on Monday.
|
Jim Vondruska/For the Sun-Times
Student protesters set up a pro-Palestinian protest camp on the University of Chicago Main Quadrangle on Monday.
|
Jim Vondruska/For the Sun-Times
Student protesters set up a pro-Palestinian camp on the University of Chicago Main Quadrangle on Monday.
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Jim Vondruska/For the Sun-Times
A ‘sustainable and de-escalated path forward’ at Northwestern
Students and faculty mounted pro-Palestinian protests at several Chicago universities and colleges last week, including the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Columbia College Chicago and Roosevelt University.
Students at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign also set up an encampment last week, resulting in two arrests on Friday. An undergraduate spokesperson for the encampment who asked not to be identified told the Sun-Times Monday, “Nobody here wants to be here. We are here for a goal. And that goal is divestment from Israeli companies ...”
“We respect the rights of freedom of speech and expression and remain committed to providing a safe environment for all members of our community,” UIUC spokesperson Robin Kaler said in a statement. “However, we do not allow camping tents to be set up on campus property.”
Gov. J.B. Pritzker said he had “been in touch” with Illinois universities regarding the encampments and protests were interfering with students’ ability to attend class at many schools.
“It is obviously very important to me that we keep order. It’s also important to me that we protect people’s right to protest and their First Amendment rights,” Pritzker said.
By early afternoon Monday, Northwestern University administration announced in a statement it had reached an agreement with protesters to bring the encampment there to an end.
University President Michael Schill said the agreement represents a “sustainable and de-escalated path forward.” The agreement allows protest to continue without tents until June 1, the last day of class. The demonstrators will be allowed to keep one aid tent.
Organizers announced the agreement and spoke before a crowd of about 200 students. They said although the tents have to come down, they plan to continue demonstrating until full divestment is achieved.
As a first step toward divestment, the agreement requires the university to disclose information about any investments to people associated with the university within 30 days of the inquiry. It will also re-establish a committee to advise on investments that will include student representatives. The university also committed to fully funding tuition for five Palestinian undergraduate students, supporting visiting Palestinian faculty and students at risk, providing an immediate temporary space for MENA and Muslim students, and renovating a building for future use.
Organizers said they are sharing some of resources they have collected with the encampment that formed Monday at the University of Chicago.
“What is so beautiful about the fact that we have reached an agreement today ... is that the Chicago community does not have to be split between two places,” Jordan, an undergraduate organizer, said about the U of C encampment.
“Whether you joined up on Friday or whether this is your first time here, you are all essential parts of this movement for this win today,” Jordan said.
Contributing: Aidan Sadovi
The flags, along with signs and banners, had been placed on Deering Meadow, where a pro-Palestine encampment stood for five days before organizers reached an agreement with university administration.
By Sun-Times Wire
[month] [day], [year], [hour]:[minute][ampm] [timezone]
Protesters’ demands have focused on divestment — demanding universities cut ties with Israel and businesses supporting the war in Gaza.
The Israel-Hamas war is heightening fears of unrest, but convention leaders say they’re confident in their partnerships with Mayor Brandon Johnson, Chicago Police Supt. Larry Snelling and the U.S. Secret Service.
In a press conference at the school Thursday morning, students criticized university president Paul Alivisatos and shared their experiences when police began emptying the encampment early Tuesday.
Rafah has become the most recent focus of Israel’s military, which describes it as Hamas’ last holdout. Chicago-based Dr. John Kahler has seen conditions deteriorate as Gazan refugees fled south to the city.
En la madrugada del martes, agentes del campus rodearon el patio principal de la universidad y les impidieron la entrada a los estudiantes, según informaron desde el lugar de los hechos.
One protester said they were hit by an officer and taken to Thorek Memorial Hospital for treatment, according to a complaint filed with the Civilian Office of Police Accountability.
Reality on the ground is different from what policymakers understand in war rooms, far from the constant sound of bombs and drones, a Chicago-area doctor who has volunteered in Gaza writes. Thaer Ahmad, a Palestinian American, walked out of a meeting with President Joe Biden about a month ago and is calling for a cease-fire in Gaza.
After Oct. 7, chairs with the photos of hostages seized in Israel by Hamas were placed outside Am Shalom synagogue in Glencoe, waiting for the hostages’ release. “Our 248 chairs will stay up as long as they have to,” Am Shalom’s senior rabbi writes.
The group the People’s Art Institute accused law enforcement of yanking people’s hair, strangling them, and hitting people with batons and metal fences at the Saturday protest.
Around daybreak Tuesday, campus officers surrounded the university’s main quadrangle and kept students from entering, according to reports from the scene.
Según los informes, en el campus de Lincoln Park de DePaul los contra manifestantes intentaron enfrentarse a los manifestantes, pero los pro palestinos utilizaron tácticas de desescalada para mantener la paz. En todo el país se ha detenido a más de 2,500 manifestantes desde el 18 de abril.
The University of Chicago Faculty for Justice in Palestine on Monday reaffirmed support for the “peaceful, welcoming and educational space” students had created and called on school leadership to return to “good-faith” negotiations.
An official familiar with Israeli thinking says Israeli officials are examining the cease-fire proposal approved by Hamas. But the official warns that the plan “is not the framework Israel proposed.”
Counterprotesters at DePaul’s Lincoln Park campus reportedly tried to clash with pro-Palestinian protesters. Nationwide, more than 2,500 protesters have been arrested since April 18.
Police said the museum asked them to clear the encampment on Saturday, hours after organizers set up tents in the Art Institute’s North Garden which they said were intended to pressure the school regarding the “occupation of Palestine.”
On a mostly peaceful day, tensions briefly bubbled over when counter-protesters confronted the demonstrators at the university’s Edward Levi Hall. An altercation prompted campus police to respond.
Las protestas contra la guerra han invadido los campus universitarios en las últimas semanas. Los estudiantes apoyan a los palestinos en los ataques de Israel contra Gaza, denuncian lo que llaman censura por parte de sus universidades y piden a las instituciones que dejen de invertir en fabricantes de armas y empresas que apoyan a Israel.
Classes disrupted, fellow students threatened, clashes with police, and the yo-yo story has to wait.
Tensions were higher Tuesday when hundreds of New York police officers raided Columbia University and City College of New York while a group of counterprotesters attacked a student encampment at UCLA.
The backlash comes days after the university made an agreement with encampment organizers to take steps toward divesting from Israel.
“I remember coming out of my apartment one day and spotting Chicago cops dragging young protesters out of one section of Lincoln Park and shoving them into trucks, while nearby poet Allen Ginsberg was chanting in a circle of peaceful protesters not far away from the radical Abby Hoffman,” remembers Dan Webb, who later became a U.S. attorney.
El campus se une a las protestas en todo el país para pedir a las universidades que dejen de invertir en empresas que apoyan a Israel.
Anti-war protests have swept college campuses in recent weeks as students support Palestinians in Israel’s attacks on Gaza, decry what they call censorship from their universities and call on institutions to divest from weapons manufacturers and companies supporting Israel.
They are willing to risk the completion of degrees or acquiring police records as allies of suffering civilians in Gaza, a reader from Hyde Park says.
The campus joins protests across the country calling on universities to divest from companies supporting Israel.
The two-part, four-hour film on WTTW comes just in time for the 750th anniversary of a key event in Dante’s life.
Déjà vu is a heck of a thing. Whether it’s 1970 or 2024, war weighs heavily on campuses — and on athletes.
“Bad actors are using the cover of free speech in this moment of tension to normalize dangerous ideas that cause real harm to Jewish students and communities,” the museum said. But a member of Chicago’s Jewish Voice for Peace said the protesters are saying what Jewish institutions are “afraid to say.”
As the death toll mounts in the war in Gaza and the humanitarian crisis worsens, protesters at universities all over the U.S. are demanding that schools cut financial ties to Israel and divest from companies they say are enabling the conflict.
