UChicago United for Palestine (UCUP) set up an art installation on the quad over the weekend consisting of 23,000 small flags arranged in the shape and colors of the Palestinian flag. UCUP members spent Sunday afternoon and evening as well as Monday morning drilling and hammering flags into the frozen ground.

A sign titled “Honor the Martyrs” posted in front of the flags explains the purpose of the installation. “The 23,000 flags each honor a life lost,” the sign reads. “6,747 of the flags have names, reflecting the identified Palestinians as of October 26, 2023. The remaining 16,253 names have yet to be reported. Many more remain buried under the rubble. As of January 21, 2024 [the date of the installation], 25,474 Palestinians and counting have been killed.”

The installation is on the portion of the quad in front of Eckhart Hall.

Katja Stroke-Adolphe, a student at the Law School and one of the installation’s organizers, cited the University’s response to the conflict and the impact of it on Gazan students as motivators for the installation.

“One of the things that’s really important about this installation and honoring the martyrs in this way is it being held here on this university’s campus,” Stroke-Adolphe said.

“Students in Gaza are not able to go to school. Students in the West Bank have been mass arrested. Students have called for academic boycotts of Israeli institutions. UChicago claims neutrality but then maintains its ties with the Israeli institutions, sponsors them on campus, sponsors classes associated with them on campus, and invests in genocide, while claiming neutrality and ignoring the voices of the academics and institutions in Palestine.”

Yousef Casewit, an associate professor of Qur’anic studies at the Divinity School, spoke about his motivation for volunteering at the construction.

“In the Islamic tradition, there’s a beautiful saying by the prophet that says, ‘If you see something really unjust, then you stop it with your hand,’” Casewit said. “And if you can’t, with your tongue. And if you can’t, with your heart. It has many meanings, one of them being if you don’t speak out when you see injustice, you inflict moral injury upon yourself. So it’s healing. It’s not just the right thing to do—it’s the wholesome thing to do, it’s the healthy thing to do.”

“The University is supposed to be a haven for the mind, and it’s supposed to be a place where we can think through complicated narratives and intricately complex geopolitical situations and propaganda structures and so on,” Casewit continued. “So speaking out with your tongue, drilling holes with your hand, disavowing what’s going on with your heart, I think, is part of being someone seeking knowledge and seeking an integral life of basic human decency.”