UChicago United for Palestine (UCUP) launched an encampment on the quad outside of Swift Hall at 10 a.m. on Monday, following in the steps of pro-Palestinian groups at numerous other universities that have set up encampments in recent weeks.
This article is being updated as the situation develops.
Coverage from days one, two, three, four, five, and six of the encampment can be read on the Chicago Maroon.
Day 7 Summary
In the early hours of Saturday morning, protesters projected large red letters onto Levi Hall spelling out chants and a profane insult towards University President Paul Alivisatos. Later in the day, encampment activity remained mostly low, featuring an Eastern Orthodox Easter celebration alongside the daily Muslim and Jewish prayer services. UChicago United for Palestine (UCUP) also announced the University’s commitment to a “Gaza Scholars at Risk Initiative,” which was later disputed by the University in a statement that said the “Scholars at Risk” program is an existing initiative that impacted scholars are encouraged to participate in.
In the statement, the University also announced that discussions had ended after “the requests of the protesters were inconsistent with the University’s principles.” The University also clarified that contrary to information shared by UCUP, UCPD presence on the quad fluctuates on a needs basis that is unrelated to the negotiations.
Later that evening, UChicago Faculty for Justice in Palestine released a statement claiming that “UChicago admin says immunity against raids ends at midnight.” Many encampment participants were under the impression that the University had given protesters a deadline of midnight to dismantle the camp before a raid, with UCUP releasing a “mass mobilization message” requesting support.
In the hours leading up to midnight, protesters fortified all sides of the encampment with wooden barriers and chain link fencing and worked well into the night on safety and strategy drills. Protesters were also separated into color-coded groups based on how prepared they were to be arrested in the event of a raid.
Despite the preparation and the arrival of almost a hundred onlookers, no raid occurred at midnight.
May 6, 3:05 a.m.
Encampment organizers have announced that a raid is “very unlikely” to happen tonight.
“I know we are tired. I know we are angry. But we need to be here. We can’t leave until they accept our demands,” a UCUP spokesperson said. “It is better to be overprepared than underprepared.”
Organizers advised encampment participants to go home and get some rest. Some people have started trickling away from the quad.
— Maroon Staff
May 6, 2:02 a.m.
The number of people on the quad has slowly decreased over the past two hours. The impromptu rally has concluded, but protesters continue to play music.
— Peter Maheras, News Editor; Sabrina Chang, Deputy News Editor
May 6, 1:11 a.m.
The four color groups dispersed briefly before coming together in a consolidated crowd of roughly 200 protesters. Encampment organizers began leading the crowd in chants including “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” and “Paul, Paul, you can’t hide, you invest in genocide.”
— Tiffany Li, Deputy News Editor
May 6, 12:52 a.m.
After a brief rally, the large group of protesters has split into the four color categories according to how prepared they are to be arrested. Faculty members have labeled themselves as faculty with signs taped on their backs. Approximately 15 faculty are in the red group, meaning they are among the most prepared to be arrested.
The groups have established formations and are undergoing training on avoiding a crowd crush. “Be familiar with who is in your line, because you are going down with them,” an organizer said.
Several groups of unidentified onlookers have arrived to watch encampment activities.
— Katherine Weaver and Sabrina Chang, Deputy News Editors; Elena Eisenstadt, News Reporter
May 6, 12:44 a.m.
Faculty for Justice Palestine (FJP) at UChicago previously released a statement referring to a midnight deadline for protesters to leave the encampment. In a statement to the Maroon, FJP made a correction, saying that the deadline referred to the expiration of a 12-hour period during which police would not take actions to end the encampment. FJP now claims that this buffer expired at midnight and served as an implicit deadline for the encampment to end or face removal.
“It is accurate that they sent no such communication insofar as they never sent out an email to that effect,” the statement read. “However, this information was conveyed to the student negotiators as well as faculty present and was reconfirmed at the start of the talks in person this morning.”
FJP said that organizers were ready to resume negotiations.
“If [the University has] decided that this deadline no longer holds, the students would be ready to return to good faith negotiation,” FJP wrote. “This is yet another distressing sign that university administration continues to act in bad faith.”
— Peter Maheras, News Editor; Nikhil Jaiswal, Co-Editor-in-Chief Emeritus
May 6, 12:19 a.m.
The meeting of roughly 250 protesters has moved to the front of the encampment, near the center of the quad. UCPD officers are recording encampment activities.
Encampment organizers announced that the camp will be divided into red, yellow, and green groups according to how comfortable they are being arrested. “If you’re okay with being arrested by cops, if you’re excited by it, then you’re a red,” they said.
— Maroon Staff
May 6, 12 a.m.
There has been a significant increase in people on the quad, and a large meeting is underway in front of Kent Chemical Laboratory.
— Katherine Weaver, Deputy News Editor; Elena Eisenstadt, News Reporter
May 5, 11:43 p.m.
In a statement sent to the Maroon, UCUP said that “the raid is not certain, but remains likely.” They said that “the university has made clear to students that their ‘immunity’ from police raids would end at midnight tonight.” Throughout the night, encampment participants have expressed to the Maroon that they believed a raid was likely.
— Sabrina Chang, Tiffany Li, and Katherine Weaver, Deputy News Editors
May 5, 11:35 p.m.
Protesters have placed more fencing around the encampment, supported by hay bales, and have lined tents up against the fencing.
Some protesters have put on helmets.
— Sabrina Chang and Tiffany Li, Deputy News Editors
May 5, 11:12 p.m.
Encampment participants are bringing wooden boards reinforced with metal, chain link fencing with green mesh, and sandbags to the encampment from behind the University bookstore on 58th Street and South Ellis Avenue.
The protesters are using the materials to form barricades around the encampment.
— Tiffany Li and Emma Janssen, Deputy News Editors
May 5, 11:10 p.m.
UCUP has sent out a “mass mobilization message” on their Telegram channel and posted on Instagram announcing that “UChicago admin says immunity against raids ends at midnight.” They called on people to come to the main quad and show support for the encampment.
In a statement to the Maroon, the University said it had not sent a communication regarding a midnight deadline for the encampment to end.
UCUP’s message also claimed that there will be a risk of arrest.
— Elena Eisenstadt, News Reporter
May 5, 10:54 p.m.
More wooden barricades are being propped up around the southern and western side of the encampment. Wire fencing is also being set up around the perimeter.
— Finn Hartnett, News Reporter; Nathaniel Rodwell-Simon, News Reporter; Zachary Leiter, Deputy Managing Editor
May 5, 10:45 p.m.
At approximately 6:30 p.m., the University released a statement disputing several points shared by UCUP on the state of negotiations to end the encampment.
“University leadership including academic deans worked with student designees of the protesters and faculty to explore possible paths to an agreement within the University’s principles. All agreed to respect the confidentiality of those discussions. Unfortunately, the requests of the protesters were inconsistent with the University’s principles and discussions were suspended.”
Earlier today, UCUP released photos of their communications with the University as part of a social media post about the status of negotiations. The photos have since been deleted from the post, but the Maroon has reviewed and confirmed the veracity of the emails.
“There are material inaccuracies and mischaracterizations in the information being shared on social media,” the University’s statement read. “In particular, the Scholars at Risk program is an existing initiative at the University of Chicago and other leading universities and colleges. The program is open to scholars throughout the world. All scholars impacted by this conflict are being encouraged to participate. In addition, UCPD presence on the Quad has fluctuated based on needs and circumstances and at no point did we reduce—or agree to reduce—the security presence based on negotiations.”
On Saturday evening, the Maroon observed a reduced police presence relative to previous nights, as the Maroon reported this afternoon. According to UCUP, the reduced police presence on the quad was a condition of negotiations between UCUP and the University. Prior to releasing their most recent statement, the University referred the Maroon to a statement stating that substantive negotiations with organizers were ongoing when asked to comment this morning.
— Kayla Rubenstein, Co-Editor-in-Chief; Zachary Leiter, Deputy Managing Editor; Nathaniel Rodwell-Simon, News Reporter; Nikhil Jaiswal, Co-Editor-in-Chief Emeritus
May 5, 9:54 p.m.
Faculty for Justice in Palestine (FJP) at UChicago has claimed that the University issued a deadline of midnight tonight for protesters to disband the encampment, according to a statement released on Sunday night.
In a statement to the Maroon, the University said it had “sent no such communication.”
Throughout the night, members of the encampment have said that they believe a raid is likely tonight.
“Faculty say they are prepared to be arrested alongside student protesters opposed to University complicity with Gaza genocide,” the FJP statement reads.
This comes following a University statement released this afternoon stating that “the requests of the protesters were inconsistent with the University’s principles and discussions were suspended.” In their statement, the University specifically said that all participants had agreed to respect the confidentiality of the meetings.
– Maroon Staff
May 5, 8:50 p.m.
Protesters have begun placing barricades made out of wooden pallets and boards around the side of the encampment facing the center of the quad. The Maroon has observed individuals bringing the materials into the encampment over the past few days.
— Austin Zeglis, Senior News Reporter; Finn Hartnett, News Reporter; Nikhil Jaiswal, Co-Editor-in-Chief Emeritus
May 5, 6:23 p.m.
Protesters at the encampment are singing and receiving Holy Communion on the quad.
– Zachary Leiter, Deputy Managing Editor
May 5, 4:20 p.m.
In a joint Instagram post published by UChicago United for Palestine (UCUP), Palestinian Youth Movement, and US Palestinian Community Network, UCUP announced that negotiators were successful in having the University establish a “Gaza Scholars at Risk Initiative, which will bring 8 at-risk Palestinian scholars to work and study at UChicago.”
Before negotiations began, UCUP demanded preconditions including reduced UCPD presence on the quad, a guarantee that for the 12 hours after negotiations ended the University would not order any raids on the encampment, and amnesty for negotiators.
UCUP wrote that “daytime talks with subordinate deans over our demands” were “emptied of all substance” after being brought to President Alivisatos.
UCUP also wrote that they remain steadfast “as the administration attempts to trick or intimidate our movement into dismantling the encampment in exchange for hollow promises.”
UCUP closed the post with a “Call To Action,” telling “supporters to be prepared to mobilize en masse to support the encampment within the next 24 hours.”
— Eva McCord and Kayla Rubenstein, Co-Editors-in-Chief; Zachary Leiter, Deputy Managing Editor
May 5, 3 p.m.
A UCUP spokesperson, who told the Maroon yesterday that the encampment’s leadership had been “horizontalized,” offered clarification on their remarks.
“I wouldn’t say that we are sharing leadership with other organizations but distributing camp logistical tasks among individuals,” the spokesperson shared in a written statement to the Maroon early this morning.
“[There] is certainly still leadership. [I] again meant more along the lines of distributing labor and recognizing that we have to work together towards a common goal (maintaining the camp),” the spokesperson wrote.
— Emma Janssen, Deputy News Editor
May 5, 2:30 p.m.
Today is Pascha, the Eastern Orthodox Christians’s equivalent to Easter. In commemoration of the holiday, around 20 people gathered at the front of the encampment around noon to listen to Reverend Philip Maikkula, the priest in charge at St. Makarios Orthodox Mission and spiritual advisor to Orthodox Christians at the University.
Maikkula spoke to the Maroon on Saturday about the role of faith during the encampment movement.
“I’m here as a pastor and I feel I have a moral and spiritual and religious obligation to stand up against suffering of all people,” he said.
— Emma Janssen, Deputy News Editor
May 5, 12:39 p.m.
In a statement to the Maroon, regarding the reduced presence of UCPD officers on the quad, UChicago United for Palestine (UCUP) wrote that the reduced UCPD presence on the quad was the result of “UCUP [demanding] UCPD off the quad as a precondition for negotiating. [The] administration has only partially complied with this agreement by an apparent reduction of UCPD on and around the quad at certain times.”
The University referred the Maroon to its Saturday evening statement when asked whether the reduced UCPD presence was a result of a request from encampment organizers. The statement said, “This is an update regarding ending the encampment. Substantive discussions between the University and protesters are ongoing.”
— Eva McCord, Co-Editor-in-Chief; Nikhil Jaiswal, Co-Editor-in-Chief Emeritus
May 5, 12:15 p.m.
The entire encampment is now encircled with barriers of various forms, including caution tape, plastic mesh barriers, wooden boards, and wire fencing. Parts of the fencing have been up since Friday night, but it appears that new fencing was added before Sunday morning.
On Wednesday night, encampment organizers put up fencing, then took it down on Thursday morning at the request of UCPD and Facility Services. The fencing was partially put back up again on Friday night following rumors of a second counterprotest against the encampment.
— Katherine Weaver and Tiffany Li, Deputy News Editors; Nathaniel Rodwell-Simon, News Reporter
May 5, 9:30 a.m.
UCUP announced its daily schedule via Telegram at 9:23 a.m. It includes teach-ins on international law and Kashmir/Palestine solidarity, acupuncture and “Know Your Rights” workshops, and an Orthodox Easter Service. The schedule concludes at 9:45 p.m. with Isha, the fifth daily prayer in Islam; no rally is scheduled for today.
The quad remains calm with minimal UCPD and Allied Security presence, as it has been all morning.
— Anushree Vashist, Managing Editor; Katherine Weaver, Deputy News Editor
May 5, 8:15 a.m.
As the encampment enters its seventh day, participants slowly start emerging from tents. All is quiet on the main quad.
— Anushree Vashist, Managing Editor
May 5, 1:05 a.m.
In an email to University President Paul Alivisatos, 11 elected officials expressed their support for pro-Palestine encampments at universities across Chicago and encouraged UChicago administration to “refrain from police intervention.”
“We do not want to see our young people dismissed, arrested or brutalized,” the email reads. They also “welcome the opportunity” to meet with UChicago administration.
The officials who signed the email include 35th Ward Alderman Carlos Ramirez-Rosa and 8th District County Board Commissioner Anthony Quezada, who spoke to protesters on the quad during the rally yesterday, and Alderman Byron Sigcho-Lopez, who spoke at the encampment on May 3.
— Sabrina Chang, Deputy News Editor
May 5, 12:50 a.m.
The protesters have projected large red text on Levi Hall, facing the encampment. The text alternates between “From the river to the sea,” “By any means necessary,” “Free Palestine,” and “Fuck Paul.”
The concert is ongoing, with participants singing and clapping along with the performers.
— Sabrina Chang, Deputy News Editor
MJ23 / May 6, 2024 at 10:34 am
Can I please ask a simple favor from the protestors. Please don’t impinge on the rights of others to get a good education. It is very hard to concentrate with people chanting and screaming into the mikes while classes are going on. As such, can you please create a quiet period between 8 AM and 7 PM. I am not asking you to move or stop protesting. But please be quiet while classes are occurring so that folks who are innocent bystanders can get the education they deserve.
On the one hand, on the other / May 6, 2024 at 6:33 am
I want to commend the Maroon’s hourly updates. No matter if you are for against any of the various sides of this issue, it’s great reporting by an obviously dedicated staff that is very observant of telling, although perhaps somewhat ambiguous, details. For example the incident of the earring touching:
“May 3, 11:45 p.m.
A woman wearing an Israeli flag approached the southern edge of the encampment and began playing a Shofar. A member of the encampment opened an umbrella as she approached and alleged she was playing with his earrings.”
Johnny Graceland / May 6, 2024 at 5:30 am
Is this what $90k a year pays for? Is this why we have the Odyssey Scholarship? Did we construct all these new living facilities, just for entitled, misinformed brats to take up throughway space?
Get back in your dorm rooms, classrooms or libraries, and STUDY! UChicago is where fun comes to die, not where spoiled comes to whine!
Enlightened Idiot / May 5, 2024 at 7:58 pm
This cesspool of a comment section is confirmation that I ought to never associate with UChicago alumni. Granted, I don’t know if it’s representative. Part of me suspects there are a handful of bad-faith actors—some of whom aren’t affiliated with the University—spamming incendiary remarks just for the hell of it.
The encampment is moronic. Bathing in filth, shrieking into the void, and issuing nebulous demands while 1. defying University policy and 2. funding the University with one’s tuition dollars despite calling for divestment is utterly imbecilic. From the responses I’ve read from students and faculty (or at least people claiming to be students and faculty), their antics have only alienated them from the community. Well done.
The Zionists who have been frothing at the mouth here and on campus are equally reprehensible. They pull the “antisemitism” card nearly as much as minorities do the race card. It’s insufferable. Perennial victims.
The US is only partial to Israel because politicians have been bought out by the pro-Israeli lobby. This isn’t a conspiracy; it is publicly available data.
While I disagree with the protesters’ methods, I sympathize with how helpless they feel in the face of unabashed (albeit legalized) corruption.
I pray every day that the money dries up. Down with AIPAC. Israel is a parasite.
Smardinsky / May 5, 2024 at 10:51 pm
Change your name to just Idiot.
Nothing more can be said.
Joe / May 5, 2024 at 11:25 pm
wow, you really are an enlightened idiot.
Why is Israel a parasite?
What would you have done after Oct. 7th?
What would you do if Hamas was your neighbor?
zman / May 5, 2024 at 5:45 pm
“Today is Pascha, the Eastern Orthodox Christians’s equivalent to Easter”. Equivalent to Easter? It is Easter! This shows how much people know about history. The Bible says the Resurrection occurred after the Jewish Passover. When was this year’s Passover? Huh? The OCs recognize their Jewish roots.
This protest is mere virtue signaling, nothing more, nothing substantial.
“The Portrait of Hanna Gray”. HaHa. I remember Hanna Gray.
Happy Easter!
Another Concerned Parent / May 5, 2024 at 7:46 pm
What do you think the word “equivalent” means?
UIUC Rocket Scientist / May 5, 2024 at 10:44 pm
The appropriate phrase would have been:
“Today is Pascha, the Eastern Orthodox celebration of Easter.”
Another Concerned Parent / May 6, 2024 at 5:18 am
Now explain why this way of formulating it is not covered by the concept of equivalence as normally understood.
zman / May 6, 2024 at 1:34 pm
Two sets are said to be equal if all the elements of both the sets are the same. Two sets are equivalent when the number of elements of both the sets is the same. Equal sets can be equivalent also.
Equivalent sets cannot be equal.
Learn math.
Alum / May 5, 2024 at 5:17 pm
Why are none of the encampment spokespeople identified by name? Isn’t putting a single name and a voice to a group the very purpose behind having a spokesperson? No news outlet should recognize a “spokesperson” while allowing that person to speak with anonymity. That’s an unnamed source, not a spokesperson.
M / May 5, 2024 at 7:09 pm
What is your name, Alum? Practice what you preach.
MM / May 5, 2024 at 7:17 pm
Hi M,
Alum is not a spokesperson for a group. Big difference. Further, Alum’s comment is not a statement to a news organization. Big difference.
Sincerely,
MM
M / May 5, 2024 at 7:29 pm
Hi “MM,”
See my comment below, “MM.” There is no difference. If he can hold them to any standard, I can hold you to any standard.
No difference.
Sincerely,
M
M / May 5, 2024 at 7:14 pm
And don’t give me that “BUT I’m not a source!!! I’m not held to the same standard!!” BS. If you can create arbitrary standards, so can I.
The Portrait of Hanna Gray / May 5, 2024 at 2:16 pm
Tired: Pickleball and ChatGPT
Wired: Pooping in tents and chasing Jewish RSO’s off the Quad
ML / May 5, 2024 at 1:34 pm
It is horrifying to see the amount of comments bashing this article and the encampment. We have a beautiful show of solidarity with the Palestinian people, and there will always be zionists who want to instigate and berate this movement. I’m so grateful for your coverage, and am proud to stand with the UChicago Popular University for Gaza.
ML / May 5, 2024 at 2:54 pm
Everything the cupheads are advocating for will just promote continued war and suffering for generations. So, of course people are against them.
bookish / May 5, 2024 at 3:40 pm
What’s next? How about a live Facetime with psycho Yahya Sinwar from his lair beneath Rafah, shielded by his 15-hostage human shield, all projected onto the side of Levi Hall. The encampment can sell tickets that include a large vegan-certified, gluten-free popcorn; “From-the-river-to-the-sea” brand bottled water, and a keffiyeh (manufactured in China natch, at a Uyghur forced-labor factory).
Another Concerned Parent / May 5, 2024 at 7:19 pm
This is a good effort, but “vegan-certified, gluten-free popcorn” is a bit overdone. Popcorn is typically gluten-free, anyhow, and I guess I don’t know why you’d go for “vegan-certified” and not simply “vegan.” Brevity is important in humor. But with a little work you may get there!
bookish / May 5, 2024 at 9:09 pm
I would say “touche,” however I guess you missed the dietary restrictions posted at the Columbia encampment, and missed the ironic reference. Not to mention those protestors complaining, on camera, about Columbia denying them Chipotle deliveries to the occupied Hamilton Hall. And yet no push back from you about the Hamas-link? With a little work, you may get there…I mean to the serious stuff.
Matt G (alum) / May 5, 2024 at 1:08 pm
Sure, anyone with half a brain gets that “By Any Means Necessary” is a dog whistle trumpeting the campers’ support for October 7th. But what if the campers actually mean it? Is UCUP actually saying they’re in favor of doing ANYTHING to stop the violence and end the conflict once and for all?
Maybe they are; maybe they aren’t. But in the interest of a productive dialogue, I’m going to assume they are, and with that in mind I’ve compiled the list of things than actually be done to achieve this worthwhile goal:
1. Return the hostages and engage in good-faith negotiations toward a two-state solution.
That’s it. That’s the list. One can argue for the next thousand years about who lived in what piece of land during the rule of what empire, and it’s not going to change anything. A peacefully negotiated two-state solution is the only course of action that has a non-zero chance of success. Yet for some reason we don’t hear protestors calling for this. I wonder why not?
It’s almost like the point of the protests isn’t to actually end the violence; just like Hamas’ slaughter of women and children on 10/7 was never intended help the Palestinian people. UCUP are Hamas’ useful idiots, giving them the political cover they need to prolong and worsen a conflict; not resolve it.
Another Parent / May 5, 2024 at 12:43 pm
Shocked to see the projections on Levi Hall, but i guess nothing should shock anyone anymore. President Alivisatos has a choice to make, let some 200 students disrupt the lives of almost 7500 other students who just want to get an education, or let this insanity continue.
The simple solution is to immediately suspend and expel any student who is part of these protests, and ask CPD to come arrest any outsider who is trespassing on campus. Do not let a tiny minority of fringe terrorist supporters destroy this great institution. If you negotiate with this group you risk losing the faith and backing of the vast, vast majority of your students and their families.
M / May 5, 2024 at 12:54 pm
“If you negotiate with this group you risk losing the faith and backing of the vast, vast majority of your students and their families.”
Go clutch your pearls elsewhere.
UIUC Rocket Scientist / May 5, 2024 at 1:13 pm
Are you a member of the University faculty, staff, students or hospital personnel?
Are you an outside agitator?
You don’t seem to respect the views of others, yet you demand that the university respect yours.
Do you have a real interest in university funding or are you just another one of the outsider dingleberries who have attached themselves to these protests because you thrive on chaos?
Just asking for the university community.
M / May 5, 2024 at 3:16 pm
“Are you a member of the University faculty, staff, students or hospital personnel?”
Yes, unlike the “concerned parent.” 🙂
Another Parent / May 5, 2024 at 1:47 pm
Also, someone needs to start posting names and photos of this fringe group so that their deeds can follow them for the rest of their lives. If they are so proud of what they are doing, i am sure they would want everyone in the world to know.
M / May 5, 2024 at 6:29 pm
“so that their deeds can follow them for the rest of their lives”
Mask off. You’re weird.
MM / May 5, 2024 at 7:20 pm
Dear M,
(1) “Weird” is a very thoughtful response
(2) Regardless of your personal view of the protests, do you not find it “weird” that a large portion of those at the encampment are masked to protect their identity?
Sincerely,
MM
Lindi / May 5, 2024 at 12:37 pm
Special thanks to the Maroon reporters, you are doing very important work!
John Doe / May 5, 2024 at 10:37 am
Here’s a simple way to support ending the killing of innocent civilians in Gaza
1) Demand that Hamas return the hostages
2) Demand that every Hamas combatant wear military uniform so they are easily identifiable
3) Demand that Hamas flght Israel in the desert.
Civilians casualties will end immediately
Do you see any such demands from the protestors? NO
WHY? BECAUSE THE CIVILIAN CASUALTIES ARE JUST AN EXCUSE TO SHOWCASE THEIR ANTI-SEMITISM AND JEW HATRED
Nancy Hammond / May 5, 2024 at 12:28 pm
Your post demonstrates your ignorance of the issue. Recommended reading: Rashid Khalidi, Columbia Univ professor, the Iron Cage for a history of Palestine from the British mandate to present
A / May 5, 2024 at 1:15 pm
Khalidi’s piece does not address anything the above poster writes. Stop hiding behind civilians and in tunnels you built with aid money. Don’t massacre woman and children and take hostages and then expect that your women and children won’t be massacred. On what page does Khalidi address these obvious truths?
Lindi / May 5, 2024 at 8:11 pm
Hamas are horrible, including to the people they purport to represent. But massacring women and children as “an eye for an eye” doesn’t make it less horrible. Doing what our enemies do makes us like them.
A / May 5, 2024 at 8:48 pm
Who said it isn’t horrible? All I said is it is expected. There are almost no examples in history where a brazen attach on a much more powerful country or group isn’t met with an overwhelming response. In this case if you don’t want the response don’t carry out the atrocity…
Smardinsky / May 5, 2024 at 11:02 pm
100% correct and confirmed by today’s rockets attacks, which Hamas launched from Rafah. Hamas is the enemy of Palestinians. They want the innocent to die in order to celebrate their cause. They place zero value on human life.
UIUC Rocket Scientist / May 5, 2024 at 1:36 pm
The post is correct.
If the Palestinians in Gaza unconditionally surrender to Israel, turn over their leaders to the Israel system of justice for the 10/7/2023 murders and return the hostages, then the war is over.
Otherwise, Israel leadership has indicated this time they will not stop until they can ensure that there will be no future attacks from Gaza.
alum / May 5, 2024 at 1:41 pm
Collectively punishing 2 million people for the actions of even the government those people goes against the Geneva convention. It is a war crime.
UIUC Rocket Scientist / May 5, 2024 at 4:46 pm
The last I heard and you can update me on this if I am wrong, Hamas and the Gaza government have not agreed to abide by the Geneva Convention and so, by the terms of the Convention, they are not protected by any of it’s provisions.
The behavior of the Palestinians on 10/7/2023 would suggest that they don’t feel bound by the Geneva Convention. Raping and killing women and children and taking them as hostages would tend to violate the Convention.
In the early 1930’s, Germany elected the Nazi Party to run it’s government just like the Palestinians elected Hamas in 2006. The Germans knew the Nazis intended to harm Jews and the Palestinians knew that Hamas intended to harm Jews.
The Nazis caused the deaths of 75 million people in WWII.
Lots of Germans died during the bombing and invasion of Germany to end the Nazi Party.
Lots of Gazans are dying during the bombing and invasion of Gaza to end Hamas.
It’s not collective punishment: It’s collateral damage.
The Germans eventually unconditionally surrendered. Hamas won’t.
Lindi / May 5, 2024 at 8:03 pm
And you are clearly ok with collateral damage
John Doe / May 5, 2024 at 1:56 pm
I have actually changed mind. I now realize that I was not fairly engaging with the substance of these clearly thoughtful and passionate student protesters (much like I was when I was young). To say they must demand that a terrorist organization do something before Israel stops the mass murder of civilians is obviously a cruel and disingenuous point to make. Obviously we should treat the innocent people who have had to endure such hardship and suffering with respect and compassion. I apologize for this oversight of mine.
Mrs B / May 5, 2024 at 10:27 am
The disrespectful projected-text proves these protesters are just brats. Give them fair warning to leave, then bring on the bulldozers.
Alum / May 5, 2024 at 11:45 am
advocating murder of peaceful protesters very cool
Nancy Hammond / May 5, 2024 at 12:41 pm
All who acknowledge and protest this genocide are the adults in the room. But you advocate violence. Shame
Mrs B / May 5, 2024 at 4:56 pm
You sillies, “bulldozer” is a euphemism. You know, the same way “From the river to the sea…” doesn’t imply violence.
John Doe / May 5, 2024 at 10:17 am
A minimum of 580,000 people, mostly Muslim civilians have been killed in the Syrian civil war. Almost 380,000 and counting, 70% of which are Muslim children under age 5 have been slaughtered in the Yemeni civil war.
Muslims have killed tens of thousands of other Muslims in the Sahel, Burkina Faso, and Somalia
Every day in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan etc. Buddhists, Sikh, Hindus and Christians are lynched to death, forcibly abducted and forcibly converted to Islam and dehumanized as “dhimmis” (second class citizens)
Do you see any campus protests for these? Anybody calling for cease-fire for any of this? Anybody calling for disinvestment in these cases or scholarships for citizens of these countries? Anybody seeking global intifadah for these slaughters?
You will never see any protests for any of these on any University campus
Every wonder why? I will tell you.
Muslim on non Muslim violence: Leftists and Islamic apologists don’t care. They may even support it. Oct 7th is just one great example of many
Muslim on Muslim violence: Leftists and Islamic apologists don’t care about this either.
Non Muslim on Muslim violence: Oh man!!, Now you are talking. The entire Islamist and leftist machine gears up for protests, whether it is Rohingyas or Gazans.
Don’t have any sympathy for the protestors. They are a bunch of informed hypocrites
The University is fast losing credibility here. Grow a pair and end this charade. Expel these students for deliberately and provocatively violating University policy. Send a strong message. I was an alum will not be donating unless I see Chicago act on this quickly
Lindi / May 5, 2024 at 11:45 am
Yes, there should be more international and national attention to all these other conflicts, Syria, Yemen, Haiti, Sudan… But the fact that there are other conflicts to which we should ALSO pay attention does not mean calls for ceasefire here are disingenuous. True, the trail of military aid can aalso be traced in the conflict in Yemen, but that takes slightly more work, it is not staring us in our faces the way it is here. Your focus on the religious identity of the victims is misleading. It is also fair to say that if the victims in this conflict were not Muslim, or looked more like “first world citizens,” the US and the international community would not have allowed this much destruction, would have shown a lot more outrage at the bombing of children, and would not have allowed starvation. The logic of implicit (and not so implicit) racial bias can easily be identified.
That said, I agree that many of the slogans used by the protesters are unnecessarily offensive and do damage to their goals.
UIUC Rocket Scientist / May 5, 2024 at 10:08 am
For a bit of a historical perspective:
Jews were not allowed to own property in Israel from the time Muslims moved in to 1873 during the Ottoman Empire.
The Ottoman Empire established land ownership registration which the British continued after 1917 when the Ottoman Empire ended.
When Israel was established by the UN in 1948, Arab countries that disagreed with this went to war and seized the West Bank. During that first war, thousands of Arabs in Israel fled the land they lived on or owned (many were tenant farmers) to avoid the conflict.
After the war ended, Israel needed to have an economy and that meant that land that could be farmed had to be farmed. The owners of those lands that were Arab either never actually lived on those lands or fled during the war.
Israel adopted a series of laws intended to force those absentee land owners to farm the land or face the state taking control of them.
The land disputes that exist now can be legally tried in Israeli courts.
Many of the Palestinians complaining about their land being stolen never owned the land in the first place because they were tenant farmers.
The flag being displayed on the Quad came from the PLO, a terrorist organization, that hijacked planes, slaughtered the Israeli team in Munich and bombed buses full of children over and over again.
The Gazans were given the opportunity to govern themselves as were the West Bank residents.
The PLO became the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and has more or less chosen a peaceful course.
The Gazans elected Hamas as their government. Hamas is a terrorist organization committed to the destruction of Israel and a return to the pre-1873 situation in Israel.
October 7 was what the Gazans were promised and supported when they elected Hamas.
If 9/11 had occurred in America on the scale of 10/7 in Israel, the death toll would have been over 50,000.
This protest isn’t going anywhere and the protestors are violating university policies.
It’s time for an end to it.
bookish / May 5, 2024 at 10:02 am
I suppose President Alivisatos is delaying action in order to see how truce negotiations play out this week. If a temporary truce is worked out in Egypt, then the encampment can be ordered to disperse within 24 hours. The problem with that strategy is that the protestors’ demands keep compounding and their rhetoric keeps escalating, mimicking Hamas talking points. It should be clear to all by now that the protestors have no clear leadership and have been infiltrated by even more radical elements who are out to provoke a physical confrontation. The grim irony is this all comes down to a single man’s choice. I am referring to that psychopath Yahya Sinwar, in his subterranean lair surrounded by a human shield of 15 hostages. And it is quite possible, even probable, that Sinwar wants Israel to attack Rafah and create even more “necessary martyrs” to bolster his power. I see a no-win situation unfolding for President Alivisatos, one that is mostly out of his control. In that set-up, restoring order to the campus becomes the priority regardless of what happens in Cairo.
CP28 / May 5, 2024 at 9:36 am
“By any means necessary” translates to full approval of October 7. These people are terrorist supporters. Disgusting.
How can they be permitted to flout the rules that supposedly apply uniformly to all students?
Anonymous / May 5, 2024 at 8:57 am
I was there yesterday. I saw peaceful protesters passing out food, making signs, welcoming visitors, making speeches. The vast majority are UChicago students or alumni. The leaders are trying their best to keep the encampment free of garbage, drugs, and violence. All I saw was an attempt to be heard, to condemn the unlawful genocide in Gaza. Their right to free speech under the 1st amendment in their own country trumps any foreign government’s attempts to suppress that speech. UChicago, you have a responsibility to engage in civil negotiations with your own students, and not give an ear to outsiders who have no stake in the matter.
Anon Minority / May 5, 2024 at 9:51 am
This is antisemitic. You’re distorting reality to further discrimination against Jews and whites.
Another alum / May 5, 2024 at 10:13 am
There is no responsibility to engage in negotiations. The students have already been heard. The 1st amendment guarantees you a right to express your view, not to have others agree with your views or take any other action in response.
Making demands using occupation of a public space as leverage is not free speech, it is attempted extortion.
David Reichman / May 5, 2024 at 10:13 am
“Their right to free speech under the 1st amendment in their own country trumps any foreign government’s attempts to suppress that speech.”
Aside from the unsurprising ZOG allusion to “a foreign government” people really need to stop making the totally incorrect claims that these protestors have a right to free speech.
1.There is no right to free speech on private property.
2.The purported free speech violates the free speech of others who would like to use that space. Thus, even if this were not private property, the 1st amendment does not protect speech of people who take over public grounds for an encampment.
3.The protest is in clear violation of “time, place, manner” restrictions on campus.
This is the furthest thing from protected free speech. The university has been overly generous here in not removing the encampment which they are fully within their rights to do.
Cassandra / May 5, 2024 at 10:20 am
This is not a free speech vs. a foreign government’s attempt to suppress it issue. This is a free speech vs. hate speech issue, and free speech vs. safety issue, or even a free speech vs. private property rights issue.
But my favorite is the assumption that the campers speak for all students, as if that’s a given. How many students are there in tents? 150? 200? Estimating a College population of roughly 7,400, then what is that, on a good day, maybe 2.7%? It’s not a lot. It’s just loud and coordinated with other schools so it seems bigger than it actually is. Even if more students show up, it’s still not a lot.
Oh and a side note, who is cleaning up the mess? Are their salaries even as much as one year’s tuition, food, and boarding at UChicago? These are the actual working people, and the campers are taking advantage of them.
Oh and calling black police officers the KKK? Nice. They’re working people too, with mortgages and families to take care of.
And please don’t get me started on blocking Jewish members of the community from walking on pathways.
John Doe / May 5, 2024 at 10:35 am
Do you know what’s a simple way to support ending the killing of innocent civilians in Gaza?
1) Demand that Hamas return the hostages
2) Demand that every Hamas combatant wear military uniform so they are easily identifiable
3) Demand that Hamas flght Israel in the desert.
Civilians casualties will end immediately
Do you see any such demands from the protestors? NO
WHY? BECAUSE THE CIVILIAN CASUALTIES ARE JUST AN EXCUSE TO SHOWCASE THEIR ANTI-SEMITISM AND JEW HATRED
MJ23 / May 5, 2024 at 10:54 am
It is definitely not quiet for kids who are taking classes in buildings around the quad. They are interfering with the right of my child to get an education. My child is a second year and states that it is impossible to concentrate in class because people are screaming into the microphone. It is absolutely interfering with the right of other people to get an education for which parents are paying a dear price in tuition. I have no problem with protesting and civil discourse. Please take it to a park away from campus, camp there and be as loud as possible for as long as you would like. It is not fair that other people can’t get their education who are not involved in this.
student / May 5, 2024 at 11:37 am
I’m sympathetic to this despite my agreeing with the protestors’ demands. That said, last Friday I was attending an event in a building on the Quad during the peak of noise (when the two side-by-side protests were at their most tense moment), and there was still only a faint background sound that did not disrupt the event at all. My own personal experience – and I’m not claiming it is representative of the whole campus – has been that there is a strong correlation between saying the protests are disruptive and not liking what they’re about.
MJ23 / May 5, 2024 at 12:49 pm
In my case, that is not true. I am solely focused on ensuring my child gets the education he deserves. My child would not say what he did, if it was not truly disruptive. The disruption of education needs to STOP. Please go ahead and protest but take it somewhere else and stop hurting innocent bystanders. You can’t concentrate in your math class while somebody is screaming into the microphone.
student / May 5, 2024 at 9:05 pm
I respect your points here MJ23. Your wish from the protestors is similar to what I wish from Netanyahu and from American universities investing in weapons manufacturers, that they would let children get the education they deserve, not to mention nutrition and life; that they would stop hurting innocent bystanders. There is an irony in the fact that what we want sounds so similar. I cannot change Netanyahu, but American universities are in the midst of a change for the better. For your son’s sake I hope the admin of UChicago recognize that their position is ethically unjustifiable and society will leave them behind.
When we think of civil rights and anti-segregation and women’s suffrage protests, we have a way of forgetting that sometimes their disruptiveness was part of their effectiveness. If we remembered that, I think we may entertain that sometimes an injustice is so urgent and severe that business ought not to go on as usual til it’s corrected. Still, I appreciate that in contrast to many commenters here you take issue with the protests in a way that doesn’t doubt the humane nature of their concerns, and doesn’t doubt the protestors’ sincerity.
In my view, the loud, disruptive global outcry at the horrors in Gaza – and the attempt to channel that outcry into material change on the local level – reflects that we all really are one people, or as John Donne put it, no man is an island.
another student / May 5, 2024 at 1:15 pm
I’m writing to concur. I also have had classes in the two buildings nearest to encampment while they held rallies. I did not hear anything more than faint background noise. It certainly was not any more disruptive than an ambulance driving by (which happens quite often because the hospital is across the street from Cobb hall).
For people who really are worried about disruptions to campus life and our education, making sure there is not a dramatic escalation in violence like we saw at Columbia recently would be the best course of action. The University should engage with its own students’ grievances in good faith and resolve this issue peacefully. I do not see how an attempt to forcibly remove a large portion of the student body from its own campus with riot police would somehow result in a less disruptive environment.
A / May 5, 2024 at 1:56 pm
Funny how people distort the meaning of words these days…racist, Zionist, genocide…
There was no violence at Columbia unless you think some damage to a building, some protesters claiming they were mildly hurt during arrest (which are not substantiated claims), or the random protester or counter protester claiming he/she was poked in the eye is “violence.” It degrades the very real claims that people make when there is real violence at the hands of police, etc.
MJ23 / May 5, 2024 at 2:49 pm
That is great you didn’t hear anything. I am glad your education is not being disrupted. But it is disrupting the education of others. Why can’t the protest move to a site beyond the campus where it would not disrupt the education of others? How about moving to Washington Park and stay until the protestors are satisfied with the outcome.
StrongMindedJew / May 5, 2024 at 8:50 pm
There is no genocide in Gaza regardless of how many times you say this nonsense. The Jewish people went through an actual genocide not too long ago. Both my parents were the sole survivors of their entire families. Equating the situation in Gaza to that is beyond offensive.
These idiot protesters are doing their level best to enable another genocide in the Jewish people in Israel, which should be opposed by any Jew and person of conscious.
In comparison, the Gazans are facing terrible conditions as a result of a war Hamas instigated. They can and should capitulate, return the hostages and kick Hamas out of Gaza to wherever these modern day nazis want to go.
Smardinsky / May 5, 2024 at 11:14 pm
Hamas cannot win its war. So, surrender and save the lives of the innocents. But this won’t happen because Hamas wants the world to see innocent Palenstinan
blood spilled, for which they will blame Israel.
Anon Minority / May 5, 2024 at 8:35 am
“Today diversity, tomorrow Queers for Palestine, never the soup kitchen around the corner.”
UChicago is bankrupting itself. Who in their right mind would donate to a haven for terrorism and NAZISM?
Those characterizations are not hyperbolic. Agents of the wokerati variety—likely dispatched by foreign entities (*cough cough Iran*)—have sieged the quad, erected a fortress, and hoisted their flag up to replace ours. That is not just a declaration of sovereignty; it is a casus belli.
Do people not appreciate the significance of this? American soil has been surrendered to agents who swear allegiance to another country. Therefore, Alivisatos and his cronies in the administration are abetting terrorism by allowing this to continue.
Summon the Army. NOW.
Oh, wait—that answers to the president! Given how Brandon empathizes with affirmative actionites—even going so far as to denounce SCOTUS’s ruling last June as “radical” despite it prohibiting ***OVERT*** discrimination against whites and Asians—he is unlikely to intervene.
The Jews I know are already beginning to rally around conservatives. They have six million reasons to.
Expect a Trump victory in November.
And do not forget that affirmative action is responsible for this terrorism.
Anon Minority / May 5, 2024 at 8:50 am
Not one non-Asian minority in sight. NOT ONE. Yet people still don’t understand affirmative action has enabled this. WAKE UP.
Anon Minority / May 5, 2024 at 10:51 am
Typo. I meant: “Not one ASIAN in sight. NOT ONE.”
And it’s true. And you know it. Diversity is our strength!
Honest question / May 5, 2024 at 9:48 am
If I understand correctly, you’re happy that these students’ humanitarian concerns are, in your view, helping secure a Trump victory; you think this multi-ethnic protest makes clearer than ever why affirmative action is harmful, just like you knew all along; and you believe this protest is overwhelmingly hateful and terroristic in a way that’s actively eroding the ranks of Jewish American leftists and bringing them into the arms of your party instead.
If you think all this, shouldn’t you be happier?
Sincerely,
Asian student at UChicago
Anon Minority / May 5, 2024 at 10:48 am
“you’re happy that these students’ humanitarian concerns are, in your view, helping secure a Trump victory”
I did not state that I supported Trump, nor did I insinuate that.
“If you think all this, shouldn’t you be happier?”
This is a non-sequitur. Why would I relish my university being turned a haven for filth, hysteria, and degeneracy?
Your attempt to characterize me as a sadistic MAGAot have failed, and reveal your bias towards this affirmative actionary.
You’re likely a poser, anyways. Did you dispatch that remark from the encampments?
Alum / May 5, 2024 at 7:08 am
Given the context, “By Any Means Necessary” is clearly an endorsement of mass murder.
This is not okay.
Alum / May 5, 2024 at 6:32 am
What happens when the protesters across the nation start suing the universities for the sexual assaults that FOR SURE are happening at the encampments amongst and between student protestors and (more importantly non-student professional agitators and predators) who just want to sleep in chaos next to teenagers? These people are taking s*its on the quad. It’s a disaster. Time to clean it up. This is not “free speech” and does not fall under the Chicago Statement.
This is why we can’t have nice things.
Time for the adults in the room to be adults.
John Welch / May 5, 2024 at 11:19 am
My first job after leaving UC was to give psychiatric tests to mental patients who wanted to get out of Bronx State Hospital and to be re-integrated into their South Bronx communities. One of the standard questions was “Do you ever see things that other people don’t seem to see?” I tried to dress the question in disguising language, such as “Sometimes, when you’re walking down Southern Boulevard, does it seem like…”
Do you, “Alum” ever, walk down Ellis or University Avenue and, maybe, see things that nobody else sees?
Why are you “anonymous”? Do you have a name?
Rebecca Potter / May 6, 2024 at 5:56 am
Like a Greek Chorus, there are many alums here using one name, “Alum”. Why? Because many of us have commented before on UC social media and have been doxxed and/or harassed by campus bullies with no small amount of time to do so and not enough awareness of what constitutes reasoned or polite debate. People are people, John. SA occurs everyday, everywhere. To think it does not or has not happened in the environment of chaos of the encampments is foolish. I was a schoolteacher at private schools for 25 years and it happened every time we took kids on retreat when they were older than middle school. Wake up! The encampments are a danger to the entire community and have nothing to do with free speech. It is a mess of intersectionality and confusion that is being co-opted by people other than students, and most importantly- it will not lead to change. Time to move on.