Eva McCord
The encampment on the Quad enters its second day.
UChicago United for Palestine (UCUP) launched an encampment on the quad at 10 a.m. on Monday. After a first day marked by protest, University responses, and tensions between supporters of Palestine and Israel, the encampment enters its second day.
This article is being updated as the situation develops.
Day 2 Summary
The second day of the UChicago United for Palestine (UCUP) encampment on the quad brought continued activity from demonstrators and unaffiliated community members.
Maroons For Israel (MFI) returned to the quad in the morning to rehang flags and banners that had been torn down overnight and to replace a University Student Centers signboard that had been vandalized. UCUP released a statement condemning the antisemitic remarks directed towards MFI affiliates on Monday night and encouraging the protesters “not to engage with counter-protestors or their property.” In the evening, UChicago Kehillah and MFI released a joint statement calling some of the encampment’s chants and actions “deplorable.”
During a rally held midday, new chants included “UCPD, KKK, IDF are all the same” and “Louder, louder, say it more. Not a conflict, not a war.” Rally organizers also read President Alivisatos’s April 29 email “Concerning the Encampment” aloud.
During the afternoon, Reverend Jesse Jackson Sr. visited the encampment and posed for photos with the protesters.
Six individuals not affiliated with the University and UCUP set up a table on the quad in the afternoon, inviting protesters and onlookers to discuss Islam and the conflict in Gaza over coffee. One of the individuals said the group’s audience is primarily Muslims who the group believes are not fully adhering to Islamic teachings.
Throughout the day, several people attempted to film the encampment, but were blocked by protesters holding Palestinian flags and keffiyehs. Among those attempting to film was a Kick streamer going by the username Waxiest, who was also present at the encampment yesterday.
April 30, 9:38 p.m.
UChicago Kehillah and Maroons for Israel released a joint statement on Instagram regarding the encampment and UCUP protests.
The statement denounced the chants “Globalize the Intifada” and “From the River to the Sea” as “deplorable,” writing they “do not advance education, dialogue, or understanding among UChicago students.” Other actions the statement condemned include “the encampment [barring] a campus Rabbi from passing through the area [in front of the encampment]” and hosting Bill Ayers, the co-founder of Weather Underground, “an FBI-designated domestic terrorist organization” that operated in the 1970s.
The two groups said they “stand together in condemning the antisemitic chants, disruptive behavior, and intimidation tactics used by the UChicago United for Palestine, Student Justice for Palestine [sic] (SJP), and their affiliates.”
The statement concluded with the groups expressing that “no amount of hate will break the strong Jewish and Israeli pride on campus. Am Yisrael Chai.”
— Eva McCord and Kayla Rubenstein, Co-Editors-in-Chief; Zachary Leiter, Deputy Managing Editor; Peter Maheras, News Editor; and Nathaniel Rodwell-Simon, News Reporter
April 30, 8:59 p.m.
Organizers have started playing the audio from a joint Instagram Live from Columbia SJP and Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD) coalition, and a large group has gathered around to listen. In New York, NYPD has surrounded the building in which Columbia students are protesting.
— Eva McCord and Kayla Rubenstein, Co-Editors-in-Chief; Zachary Leiter, Deputy Managing Editor; and Peter Maheras, News Editor
April 30, 8:42 p.m.
Lessons in Dabke, a Levantine folk dance, have begun. An organizer listed the steps to the dance and then played music, shaking a tambourine to the beat; the two moves taught were named “Palestine” and “Lebanon.” Approximately thirty encampment members participated in the dance, while a surrounding crowd cheered and clapped.
— Eva McCord and Kayla Rubenstein, Co-Editors-in-Chief, and Zachary Leiter, Deputy Managing Editor
April 30, 8:30 p.m.
Around 40 Jewish members of the protest removed their shoes and gathered onto a large tarp for the Ma’ariv, the evening prayer.
Organizers passed out prayer sheets written in Hebrew and transliterated Hebrew.
After the Ma’ariv, about 20 people gathered in a circle and read a history of Mimouna, a traditional Maghrebi Jewish celebration that marks the end of Passover.
Daniel, a Ph.D. student at the University, told the Maroon that connecting with other Jewish activists in the encampment has helped him expand his conceptions of his own Jewishness.
“[Prayers] weren’t really an important part of my Jewish practice growing up,” he said. “It’s wonderful to sort of come into contact with other Jewish people and enter into ritual together.”
“It’s been a wonderful way to kind of feel like I’m coming into my Jewishness in this space, and sharing it with others and bringing it here,” he added.
Andrew Basta, a fourth-year in the College, helped organize the reading.
“We really recognize that Zionism has a very destructive capacity not just on Palestinians, which of course is the focus, but also on Jewish life,” Basta said. “And so when we go… into the circle, we remember that and renew our commitment to fight against Zionism.”
— Peter Maheras, News Editor, and Emma Janssen, Deputy News Editor
April 30, 7:59 p.m.
A Kick streamer who goes by the username Waxiest has returned to the main quad and is filming the encampment.
“It’s all good until you show up with a camera,” Waxiest said to a passerby on the quad. “I got [removed for] trespassing from U[niversity] of M[innesota].”
“I can’t wait for the cops to come in and just fuck these guys up.”
— Eva McCord, Co-Editor-in-Chief
April 30, 7:50 p.m.
The Maghrib, or the sunset prayer, has begun.
– Eva McCord, Co-Editor-in-Chief
April 30, 6:55 p.m.
Muslim Imam and scholar Hamza Maqboul made a speech encouraging the protestors to continue.
“You are my heroes. I wanted to stand with you. I wanted to be with you,” Maqboul said. “Not only are you heroes, but it’s working. That insinuation of the devil inside of your ear that you’re wasting your time—it’s a lie.”
– Tiffany Li, Deputy News Editor
April 30, 6:42 p.m.
Protesters, some faculty, and a number of children have been painting wooden signs to put up by the encampment. On the signs are slogans such as “Fuck Genocide Joe,” “Bothered by the encampment? Look away like you do for genocide,” and “Viets 4 Palestine.”
– Zachary Leiter, Deputy Managing Editor
April 30, 6:21 p.m.
UCUP organizers announced that they “do not currently expect a police raid even though anything could happen.”
– Zachary Leiter, Deputy Managing Editor
April 30, 5:40 p.m.
A group of six individuals, none of whom are affiliated with UChicago or UCUP, have set up a table on the quad near the front of the encampment. Signs on the table read, “Drink coffee and discuss with us” and “Why is Gaza occupied?”
The Maroon spoke with one of the people at the table, a 2022 graduate of the Illinois Institute of Technology named Abdallah Abdeljamil.
“We support the Palestinian cause. So we decided, some people here—Muslims and non Muslims—they need the proper culture and proper knowledge on the issue of Palestine: why it’s happened, what the solution is, all these things,” Abdeljamil said. “So we’re just here to discuss with some coffee and some drinks.”
Abdeljamil said the group’s audience is primarily Muslims who they believe are not fully adhering to Islamic teachings. Abdeljamil cited Muslims who appeal to the electoral system rather than the Muslim community regarding issues including the conflict in Gaza.
“The Muslims here, they heavily rely on the democracy here that America has created to solve their problems…. And Islam says, You’re not allowed to do that. Islam says, help comes from the Muslims, not from any other people,” Abdeljamil said.
– Tiffany Li, Deputy News Editor, and Nathaniel Rodwell-Simon, News Reporter
April 30, 5:05 p.m.
Reverend Jesse Jackson Sr., long-time civil rights activist and former U.S. presidential candidate, has arrived at the encampment. He is taking photos with protesters.
– Zachary Leiter, Deputy Managing Editor, and Tiffany Li, Deputy News Editor
April 30, 4 p.m.
Since starting in front of Swift Hall yesterday morning and expanding to just outside of Kent Chemical Laboratory yesterday evening, the encampment has grown even further. Demonstrators have laid down blankets close to the main walkway on the quad.
– Eva McCord, Co-Editor-in-Chief
April 30, 3:27 p.m.
Dean of Rockefeller Chapel D. Maurice Charles spoke to the Maroon, saying, “The current moment is a master class in compassion,” he said. “We may not necessarily be able to empathize with some people because their experience is so far beyond the realm of our own experience, but we can still acknowledge and tend to people who are suffering, and we can acknowledge and tend to people who are afraid.”
– Anu Vashist, Managing Editor; Zachary Leiter, Deputy Managing Editor; and Nikhil Jaiswal, Co-Editor-in-Chief Emeritus
April 30, 3:05 p.m.
The Graduate Students United at the University of Chicago (GSU-UE) 1103 Membership Action released an open letter emailed to University President Paul Alivisatos in response to his email regarding the encampment. “We are writing to register with you our disagreement with the communication you sent,” the letter begins.
The letter states that GSU-UE views a graduate student disciplined for engaging in a peaceful protest as a violation of their contract, and encourages members to “exercise their democratic and contractual rights.”
“What we are seeing at UChicago now occurs in a national context of political repression against those who speak up against the ongoing genocide in Gaza,” the letter reads. It calls for the University to avoid further involving the police and to “return to our historic shared value of unencumbered free expression.”
— Kayla Rubenstein, Co-Editor-in-Chief, and Lee Gutman, News Reporter
April 30, 2:58 p.m.
Two police officers running past the encampment to an unrelated off-campus call led to a crowd of approximately 20 people on the quad rushing through Levi Hall toward South Ellis Avenue.
– Zachary Leiter, Deputy Managing Editor
April 30, 2:02–2:25 p.m.
Nine UCPD officers were on the main quad to mitigate a conflict between a man, who identified himself as an alum, and demonstrators. Seven of the officers had been called in by Deans-on-Call and one of two police officers initially on the scene.
During the Dhuhr, the man was attempting to film praying students, stating, “If they’re praying in public, it’s my prerogative to film them.”
A Kick streamer using the username Waxiest, who also attempted to film prayers yesterday, has returned to the encampment. Demonstrators have once again created a barrier with Palestinian flags, blankets, and keffiyehs to block the streamer’s camera.
As of 2:25 p.m., the men both left without further conflict.
– Eva McCord, Co-Editor-in-Chief; Anu Vashist, Managing Editor; and Zachary Leiter, Deputy Managing Editor
April 30, 1:35 p.m.
The rally has concluded.
– Zachary Leiter, Deputy Managing Editor
April 30, 1:22 p.m.
Following the speaker who read Alivisatos’s email aloud, another speaker criticized the administration’s lack of engagement with UCUP’s demands.
“When the University administration continues to profit off the genocide, to profit off occupation, to profit off of apartheid—for them to send an email that disregards our wishes, that talks to us in a condescending manner about how we protest, without actually discussing with us our demands, [it] is abhorrent,” the speaker said.
A third speaker briefly took the microphone to make an announcement regarding Brown University’s encampment. Yesterday, Brown’s President Christina Paxson sent a letter to encampment demonstrators agreeing to hear a divestment proposal if the encampment was disbanded and further unauthorized protest did not take place.
“I want you to know that these encampments do something, and you do something by being here, and we will win.” the speaker said.
– Tiffany Li, Deputy News Editor
April 30, 1:20 p.m.
As of 1:20 p.m., a petition in support of the encampment has gathered 235 signatures from University teaching staff, including TAs and professors.
The signatories pledge “not to teach or TA for any courses that feed into our institution’s complicity with Israel, including those affiliated with the Israel Institute or hosted by apartheid Israeli universities” and call on the University to meet UCUP protestors’ demands.
– Emma Janssen, Deputy News Editor
April 30, 1:08 p.m.
A rally organizer has begun to read aloud from President Alivisatos’s April 29 email entitled “Concerning the Encampment.” The organizer paused at times to mock the email, eliciting boos from those assembled.
– Zachary Leiter, Deputy Managing Editor
April 30, 12:58 p.m.
“UCPD, KKK, IDF are all the same” is the latest rallying cry.
Organizer Youssef Hasweh also led chants of “We know where our money goes. Bombing Gaza schools and homes,” “Israel bombs, UChicago pays. How many kids did you kill today?” and “Louder, louder, say it more. Not a conflict, not a war.” The crowd at the rally, which has been slowly building in number to more than 200 people, cheered.
“Hey, UChicago, we know you, there is blood on your hands too.”
– Eva McCord, Co-Editor-in-Chief, and Zachary Leiter, Deputy Managing Editor
April 30, 12:52 p.m.
After chants of “Paul, Paul, you’re a liar. We demand a ceasefire. Paul, Paul, you can’t hide. You enable apartheid,” organizers read the UChicago Popular University’s demands to cheering from onlookers.
— Zachary Leiter, Deputy Managing Editor
April 30, 12:38 p.m.
The rally has begun.
Organizers opened the rally with chants including “Intifada, Intifada, long live the Intifada. There is only one solution. Intifada, Revolution.” and “Resistance is justified when people are occupied. Palestine is our demand. No peace on stolen land.”
A representative from MECHA de UChicago, an activist and cultural organization centered around issues concerning the Latine community, told attendees: “As I look right now, at this beautiful crowd today… I see a crowd of individuals with different relationships to colonialism.”
“The fight for Black, brown, and all suppressed people of color is the fight for the liberation of Gaza and all Palestinian people,” they said. “I am here, proud to say, that students all across the United States are the leaders of this revolution.”
An organizer then led rally attendees in a call-and-response of the song “Rise Up,” adapted from the Chance the Rapper song “Blessings.”
— Eva McCord, Co-Editor-in-Chief; Zachary Leiter, Deputy Managing Editor; Peter Maheras, News Editor; and Tiffany Li, Deputy News Editor
April 30, 12:08 p.m.
Organizers said that the rally initially scheduled for 12 p.m. would be postponed until further notice.
– Peter Maheras, News Editor
April 30, 11:05 a.m.
Organizers have started a “de-escalation training” for student marshals. The focus of the training is on using the “four D’s of bystander intervention” (distract, delegate, direct, and delay) to keep protesters safe from hostile outsiders.
– Zachary Leiter, Deputy Managing Editor
April 30, 10:45 a.m.
UCUP released their schedule of events for the day. It includes a rally at noon, teach-ins from Faculty for Justice in Palestine (FJP), and a speech by an imam later this evening.
-Nathaniel Rodwell-Simon, News Reporter
April 30, 10:32 a.m.
Overnight, the words “ESCALATE FOR GAZA!” were spray-painted on the wall in the walkway between Wieboldt Hall and the Classics building.
– Peter Maheras, News Editor, and Nathaniel Rodwell-Simon, News Reporter
April 30, 10 a.m.
As 10 a.m. nears, the encampment has now entered its 24th hour on the quad.
– Peter Maheras, News Editor
April 30, 9:51 a.m.
UCUP released a statement to the Maroon regarding Maroons for Israel’s torn-down installations.
“UCUP has communicated a clear set of community guidelines as part of its encampment and onboarding process, chief among which is not to engage with counter-protestors or their property. This was reiterated over megaphone twice last night after a lone actor tore down Maroons for Israel flags without UCUP’s knowledge. We are here for the people of Gaza, not to engage in turf wars or escalations with counter-protestors, particularly in ways that endanger those in and around the encampment and distract from our key demands.”
— Kayla Rubenstein, Co-Editor-in-Chief
April 30, 9:40 a.m.
Content warning: mentions sexual violence.
A Jewish student who told the Maroon she feels unsafe on campus is writing in chalk on the main quad, “#Me Too, Unless They’re a Jew,” a reference to acts of sexual violence perpetrated by Hamas on October 7.
Other Jewish students’ chalk writings say “Am Yisrael Chai,” “Bring them home now,” and “Not Jews with trembling knees.”
— Eva McCord, Co-Editor-in-Chief; Zachary Leiter, Managing Editor; Peter Maheras, News Editor; and Nathaniel Rodwell-Simon, News Reporter
April 30, 9:03 a.m.
A community meeting has been announced and will be starting shortly. Food and coffee provided by campus cafe Grounds of Being is being served to encampment participants.
— Eva McCord, Co-Editor-in-Chief
April 30, 8:24 – 8:53 a.m.
Maroons for Israel (MFI) returned to the quad to set up their installations taken down overnight. The group is also acquiring a new Student Centers board to replace the one that had been vandalized. This is the third time their approved installation has been taken down and rehung.
MFI told the Maroon that the “desecration of a University-approved installment” was “despicable and shouldn’t be tolerated at the University of Chicago.”
— Eva McCord and Kayla Rubenstein, Co-Editors-in-Chief, and Zachary Leiter, Managing Editor
April 30, 7:50 a.m.
UCUP released a statement to the Maroon regarding the 10:32 p.m. update in which an individual who was near a dog and watching students rehanging their Israeli flags said “The dog smells some rats.”
“We have learned about a disgusting antisemitic comment made by an older adult man standing beside a dog near the encampment last night. While we are not aware of this person’s identity or affiliation with the camp, we want to reiterate that antisemites, racists, and bigots have no place in this action or coalition and are not welcome here. We are here for the people of Palestine — anyone trying to coopt the Palestinian struggle for their own bigoted ends has no place in our movement. To these individuals: stay as far away from our encampment as possible.”
— Kayla Rubenstein, Co-Editor-in-Chief
April 30, 7:03 a.m.
The man who released a foul-smelling “non-toxic stink bomb” on the quad at 10:18 a.m. yesterday confirmed that he is back this morning. In screenshots of the order shared with the Maroon, the man purchased and released “SUPER STINK (Mega Size 60ml) – Fart Spray.”
Later in the day, he attempted to apologize to protesters with coffee shop gift cards. He claims to have checked Hallowed Grounds, Pret, and the University Bookstore for gift cards in the immediate vicinity, but the only place that offered gift cards was Starbucks. He purchased three $100 gift cards but stated the protesters “politely declined” the offer.
Media representatives from the encampment claim that the man approached non-student protesters.
— Kayla Rubenstein, Co-Editor-in-Chief
April 30, 6:55 a.m.
According to the encampment’s media representative, around 5:30 a.m., two Palestinian flags near Harper Memorial Library were taken down, and outside individuals tried to wake up members of the encampment with loud music.
— Eva McCord, Co-Editor-in-Chief
April 30, 6 a.m.
The encampment has entered its twentieth hour. The string of Israeli flags located across the quad from the encampment have been taken down. The Student Center sign, to which the flags had been tied, has been covered in phrases such as “Fuck Biden” and “U of C destroyed Bikini Atoll + now they want to destroy Palestine.”
— Eva McCord, Co-Editor-in-Chief
