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.
Coverage of day two of the encampment is ongoing here.
Day 1 Summary
Today saw the launch of UCUP’s encampment on the quad at 10 a.m. Protestors set up tents and demanded that the University disclose its investments, divest from weapon manufacturers and fossil fuel companies, and provide reparations to Palestine and the South Side.
The day was marked by moments of tension. An online streamer moved around the encampment, attempting to film protestors, including those praying. In the evening, Maroons for Israel rehung Israeli flags, which had been approved by University Student Centers, that had been taken down. Maroons for Israel also received derogatory comments from onlookers. Encampment organizers reminded protestors not to engage with counter protesters or pro-Israel observers.
University President Paul Alivisatos and Dean of Students Michele Rasmussen sent emails that said the demonstration violated the University’s policies while emphasizing the University’s commitment to free speech. UChicago United for Palestine and Students for Justice in Palestine responded that they will “continue to disrupt business as usual” until UChicago meets the demonstrators’ demands.
April 29, 11:55 p.m.
In an Instagram post co-published by UChicago United for Palestine and Students for Justice in Palestine, the demonstrators responded to University President Paul Alivisatos’s email by expressing that “[they] will not stand by and attempt to ‘persuade’ the University to stop funding the genocide.” The post went on to describe how the demonstrators had already attempted to reach the University through “rallies, teach-ins, flyering, and marches,” and how the encampment is an “escalatory tactic” in response to the University ignoring these previous efforts.
— Eva McCord, Co-Editor-in-Chief
April 29, 11:25 p.m.
Protesters appear to be winding down for the night as encampment quiet hours have commenced.
— Kayla Rubenstein, Co-Editor-in-Chief
April 29, 10:32 p.m.
Correction, April 30, 2024, 7:45 a.m.: A previous version of this update claimed the person who made the comment was with a dog. Further review of the video shows the man near a dog, not with one.
Maroons for Israel set up their Israeli flags again. Someone near a dog watching them said, “The dog smells some rats.” This incident was caught on video and confirmed by the Maroon.
Noting that the Israeli flags were going up again, encampment organizers made an announcement telling protestors not to engage with “Zionists” or “counter-protestors,” stressing that confrontations were a threat to the entire encampment.
— Eva McCord and Kayla Rubenstein, Co-Editors-in-Chief, and Emma Janssen, Deputy News Editor
April 29, 9:50 p.m.
The string of Israeli flags hung earlier in the day were taken down. The flags, along with the poster on a nearby lamppost, were approved by the University.
This marks 12 hours of the encampment.
— Eva McCord and Kayla Rubenstein, Co-Editors-in-Chief, and Zachary Leiter, Deputy Managing Editor
April 29, 9:34 p.m.
Protesters have formed a circle and are playing bucket drums, chanting: “The people united will never be defeated,” “Free, free Palestine,” “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” “Get up and take a stand, we are taking back our land,” and “Disclose, divest, we will not stop, we will not rest.”
A protester using a megaphone asks “What do we want?” The crowd responds, “Justice; shut it down.”
— Kayla Rubenstein, Co-Editor-Chief
April 29, 9:16 p.m.
Throughout the day, the encampment has drawn the attention of campus organizations, prominent national figures, and various media outlets.
On social media, Doc Films expressed support for protestors. Jewish Voice for Peace, Harper Cafe, Hallowed Grounds, OLAS, and Blacklight Magazine all reposted UChicago United’s promotion of the encampment.
Alex Morey, Director of Campus Rights Advocacy at First Amendment advocacy organization Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), tweeted that “Universities should adopt [UChicago’s] Statement on freedom of expression and the Kalven principles on institutional neutrality. Admins make their lives so much easier with these in place.”
Ben Smith, the editor-in-chief of news organization Semafor and former editor-in-chief of Buzzfeed News wrote on X (formerly Twitter) that events at UChicago showed “the benefits of having clear principals [sic] around speech.”
Maroon reporters have been joined at the encampment by television crews from CBS 2, ABC 7, and WGN 9; reporters from the Chicago Tribune, the Chicago Sun-Times, the South Side Weekly, the Hyde Park Herald, Block Club Chicago; and WBEZ, Chicago’s local NPR station. Press TV, Iran’s state-owned English-language news network, also reported from the encampment.
— Zachary Leiter, Deputy Managing Editor
April 29, 9 p.m.
The DJs for Palestine event is still ongoing.
University policy states, “To minimize the disruption of academic and administrative activities, music, amplified sound, or other loud noise is permitted generally only between noon and 1:00 p.m. and after 5:00 p.m. on weekdays and all day on weekends.”
Demonstrators can be seen dancing across the encampment, while others continue to set up new tents in front of Levi Hall. The music is an upbeat mix of techno and pop.
UCPD presence has decreased since the daytime.
— Eva McCord and Kayla Rubenstein, Co-Editors-in-Chief
April 29, 8:25 p.m.
The “DJs for Palestine” event has begun.
— Eva McCord, Co-Editor-in-Chief
April 29, 8:15 p.m.
Chants of “Free, free Palestine!” have restarted. The size of the encampment has grown since this morning, with tents spanning from the front of Swift Hall to the grass just in front of Kent Chemical Laboratory.
— Eva McCord, Co-Editor-in-Chief
April 29, 8:01 p.m.
As the sun sets over the encampment, The Maroon spoke with Novak, a third-year in the College, on UCUP’s plans for feeding protestors.
“Anyone who walks through can grab food, there’s no requirement,” Novak said. “Obviously, we’re trying to feed a lot of people. We want to make sure that there’s food for anyone who comes at any point in the day.”
The encampment has received donations from groups and individuals, as well as local restaurants. They have options for many dietary restrictions, including gluten-free, vegan, vegetarian, allergies, halal, and kosher. “Specifically, because it’s the seventh day of Passover, we have food that’s kosher for Passover, which was provided with the help of Jewish Voice for Peace. So the JVP members were the ones who cooked it.” Novak said. “It was just really nice of them to offer to help us with that because there’s additional kinds of dietary restrictions that go on during Passover, and we wanted to make sure to have those available because we know that there are people who are here who observe Passover.”
— Katherine Weaver, Deputy News Editor
April 29, 6:38 p.m.
Additional UCPD officers have arrived to the encampment.
— Eva McCord, Co-Editor-in-Chief
April 29, 6:29 p.m.
25th Ward alderman Byron Sigcho-Lopez, who represents the Lower West Side and parts of Little Village and Pilsen, spoke to the encampment: “So today I say to you all: I’m so proud as a City Council member to see the unity of the students, their clarity and their courage.”
Sigcho-Lopez also compared the encampment to protests against the Vietnam War: “Make no mistake about it: what we see is history being played out again.”
Sigcho-Lopez expressed his pride at seeing “unity in action” on UChicago’s campus, and commended the demonstrators for standing up in the face of opposition from “reactionaries” and “fascists.”
“There’s no mistake that the resistance starts on college campuses,” Sigcho-Lopez said. “Those reactionary hypocrites that use religion to justify attacks on human dignity and the genocide of 44,000 human beings should be ashamed of themselves and I stand in full solidarity of the movement here at The University of Chicago.”
He ended his speech with chants of “Free, free Palestine!”
— Eva McCord, Co-Editor-in-Chief; Zachary Leiter, Deputy Managing Editor; and Katherine Weaver, Deputy News Editor
April 29, 5:37 p.m.
As the encampment neared its eighth hour, Bill Ayers addressed a group of demonstrators gathered in a section of the quad. Ayers co-founded the left-wing militant group Weather Underground in the 1970s.
— Peter Maheras, News Editor
April 29, 4 p.m.
Maroons for Israel informed the Maroon that the students who had hung the lamppost poster and string of Israeli flags early in the day were not counter-protestors to the encampment. The students were re-hanging a poster that had been previously taken down between its posting on Friday and this morning.
— Eva McCord, Co-Editor-in-Chief, and Zachary Leiter, Deputy Managing Editor
April 29, 3:52 p.m.
Dean of Students in the University Michele Rasmussen has released an email entitled “Demonstration on the Main Quad.” In the email, Rasmussen writes that the “individuals involved [with the encampment] are on notice that the University is prepared to take further action in the event of continued violations of our time, place, and manner policies.”
“We will continue working to balance the University’s deep commitment to free expression and open discourse with the need to uphold safety and carry on the vital work being done across the University every day,” the email ends.
– Emma Janssen, Deputy News Editor
April 29, 3:30 p.m.
Demonstrators are painting banners in support of Palestine in front of Swift Hall. At least one “Stand [with] Israel” sign has been painted by a student protestor.
— Eva McCord, Co-Editor-in-Chief
April 29, 3:23 p.m.
University President Paul Alivisatos has released an email entitled “Concerning the Encampment.” The email states that “I believe the protesters should also consider that an encampment, with all the etymological connections of the word to military origins, is a way of using force of a kind rather than reason to persuade others. For a short period of time, however, the impact of a modest encampment does not differ so much from a conventional rally or march. 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.” The email went on to state that “[UChicago] only will intervene when what might have been an exercise of free expression blocks the learning or expression of others or that substantially disrupts the functioning or safety of the University.”
— Eva McCord, Co-Editor-in-Chief
April 29, 2:04–3:00 p.m.
Shortly before the Dhuhr began, a man attempted to record demonstrators’ faces while they sat in a circle conversing. The demonstrators held up keffiyehs and paper signs to block the man from taking photos. A UCPD officer told the man to stop. The same man attempted to disturb the ongoing prayer. Demonstrators again formed a barrier with Palestinian flags and keffiyehs.
The man is a streamer on the streaming platform Kick, who uses the username Waxiest. Users on the livestream chat allege that Waxiest was recently on the University of Minnesota’s campus disturbing pro-Palestine demonstrators in a similar manner.
— Eva McCord, Co-Editor-in-Chief; Emma Janssen, Deputy News Editor; and Zachary Leiter, Deputy Managing Editor
April 29, 1:57 p.m.
The Dhuhr prayer, the second of the five daily Islamic prayers, has begun. Conversations on the quad have hushed to a low murmur. During the prayer, demonstrators who are not praying quietly wave approximately a dozen Palestinian flags.
– Eva McCord, Co-Editor-in-Chief
April 29, 1:12 p.m.
The rally has concluded with approximately 300 demonstrators in attendance. The final speaker closed the rally by advising those in attendance to “not talk to cops or Zionists.” The crowd then chanted, “Who keeps us safe? We keep us safe.”
– Eva McCord, Co-Editor-in-Chief
April 29, 12:56 p.m.
Students observing the rally from the outskirts of the quad shared their concerns about the encampment.
“I’m just worried that it’s going to turn into something like it’s turned into at other schools and I’m going to be told to go back to Poland or go back to Germany. Or people are going to praise the death of my family,” a third-year Israeli student in the College said.
“I think that everybody here is wasting their time because I don’t think that the University will respond to this kind of pressure,” Ben, a third-year in the College, said. “It makes me think that all of this is just a very performative act to signal to a lot of their fellow students that they support a cause.”
– Emma Janssen, Deputy News Editor
April 29, 12:40 p.m.
As a speaker from UChicago Jews for a Free Palestine spoke at the rally, a director and rabbi of Chabad attempted to walk through the encampment area before protestors stopped him. UCPD told protestors that they cannot block the path, and the rabbi proceeded to walk in front of the rally’s speaker. He stood behind the speakers as they spoke.
– Eva McCord, Co-Editor-in-Chief; Anu Vashist, Managing Editor; and Katherine Weaver, Deputy News Editor
April 29, 12:19 p.m.
Over 200 demonstrators are outside Levi Hall at a rally UChicago United for Palestine organized at the encampment. The crowd chanted, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” and “Israel bombs, UChicago pays; how many kids did you kill today?”
The chants were called over speakers connected to a portable generator and accompanied by clapping and beating on homemade bucket drums. “Intifada, intifada, long live the intifada,” a speaker chanted over a megaphone. “There is only one solution: intifada revolution.”
“Hey Paul, are you scared yet? Because you should be grateful! You should be grateful that all of these students are reminding you of your conscience!” a speaker named Moon from the Palestine Assembly for Liberation and Jisoor said, referring to University president Paul Alivisatos. “You have dropped it, and you have abandoned it. You should be grateful that these students are reminding you of your goddamned humanity.”
“Paul, where do you stand? Because you’re not standing with us! And there doesn’t seem to be so fine a line between academic integrity and the freedom to speak against genocide,” they called.
The next speaker, Yaa Angie from the group We, Not Me, spoke on systemic racism and solidarity between Black Americans and Palestinians.
“Black people in America are experiencing low-level warfare. We are experiencing genocide. So we know all too well the practices that are taking place in Palestine, because those same practices have been employed [in our community],” Angie said. “In uniting in solidarity and lifting up the issues of what’s taking place in Palestine, we say free Palestine from the river to the sea. We say free Palestine from the Mississippi river to the Mediterranean sea.”
A third speaker named Saif from the Chicago Chapter of the U.S. Palestinian Community Network cited the encampment’s inspiration from the more than 100 solidarity encampments across the country. They also cited the Kent State shootings in 1970, an instance of police brutality by the Ohio National Guard against students protesting the Vietnam War.
A fourth speaker named Sanya, representing UChicago United for Palestine, reiterated the demands of the encampment, ending with a chant of “Disclose, divest, we will not stop, we will not rest!”
– Eva McCord, Co-Editor-in-Chief; Anu Vashist, Managing Editor; Katherine Weaver, Deputy News Editor; and Austin Zeglis, Senior News Reporter
April 29, 11:27 a.m.
Three students holding a string of Israeli flags appeared across from the encampment on the quad. The students were observed by seven UCPD officers as they hoisted a sign from a lamppost that reads, “When they show you who they are, believe them.”
The crowd of students around the light pole has grown to approximately a dozen people. The demonstrators received prior approval from the University.
– Eva McCord, Co-Editor-in-Chief
April 29, 11:15 a.m.
The crowd has steadily grown in size since the encampment was launched at 10 a.m. The Maroon estimates the crowd to be roughly 200 people.
– Peter Maheras, News Editor
April 29, 10:40 a.m.
UChicago United’s Instagram, in a joint post with UChicago Against Displacement and Students for Justice in Palestine at UChicago, released an Encampment Events schedule, with a rally scheduled for noon and an Environmental Justice Task Force Teach-in at 1 p.m.
– Eva McCord, Co-Editor-in-Chief, and Austin Zeglis, Senior News Reporter
April 29, 10:30 a.m.
One of the organizers began speaking to the crowd and told them, “Do not engage with Zionists.”
The crowd, led by another speaker, began chants including “Free, free, free Palestine” and “From the river to the sea.” He told the members of the encampment to “get settled in and get ready for a long day of programming,” which was met with cheers.
– Eva McCord, Co-Editor-in-Chief, and Tiffany Li, Deputy News Editor
April 29, 10:18 a.m.
A man began yelling “Don’t touch me!” to another man while walking through the encampment. He was wearing noise-canceling headphones and carrying a white trash bag and a small bottle with a red spout. The air became filled with a noxious smell.
Members of the encampment verbally confronted the individual about the substance inside the bottle.
University of Chicago Police Department (UCPD) officers searched the trash bag after the individual dumped an unidentified clear liquid from the bottle onto the grass across from the encampment.
UCPD later escorted the individual away from the encampment to speak with him before bringing the individual to Rosenwald Hall.
– Eva McCord, Co-Editor-in-Chief; Peter Maheras, News Editor; and Tiffany Li, Deputy News Editor
Matt G / Apr 30, 2024 at 7:10 pm
I respect the administration for allowing these students the space (both literally and figuratively) to express their point or view. It’s the right choice. But at the same time, I hope the administration also takes seriously its obligation to prevent the protestors from infringing on other students’ rights as well
In their response to the President’s letter, the protestors made it clear they seek to disrupt rather than persuade, and it’s imperative the University hold the line in not allowing them to succeed in that goal. What happens at 58th and University will have little to no direct impact on the ongoing conflict in Gaza. However, what the university can do is what it’s always done— shape the next generation of world leaders; and in doing so it must adhere to its principles— a commitment to free expression, and resolving issues through rational dialogue rather than coercion or force. Because a world where the best and brightest have abandoned persuasion is a world with more wars, more bombings, and more dead children. Not less.
Mark / Apr 30, 2024 at 8:37 am
There are people at the encampment who are clearly not uChicago students.
If people wanted to camp out on the quad with posters they probably could’ve gotten permission for it; this antagonism goes against the spirit (and letter) of uChicago free speech.
You would change a lot more minds by being respectful towards your fellow students and the University – but I guess the outside agitators won’t let you…
Jack / Apr 29, 2024 at 11:57 pm
The fact that I consistently have had to hear about privileged people getting into hissing matches for the last 2 weeks and will now continue for the foreseeable future is going to be a great business opportunity for the Jewel-Osco liquor department.
John Doe / Apr 29, 2024 at 6:33 pm
These protests have never been about Israel, Palestine or occupation.
It is about tacit and sometimes over support for the blatant anti semitism that is built into the fabric of Islam that is hammered into every Arab’s brains since childhood.
Don’t believe me? Just Google the references provided in the parenthesis
Narrated Abu Huraira: Allah’s Messenger said, “The Hour (judgment day) will not be established until you fight with the Jews, and the stone behind which a Jew will be hiding will say. “O Muslim! There is a Jew hiding behind me, so kill him.” (sahih bukhari 2926)
You will surely find the most bitter towards the believers to be the Jews and polytheists ….. (Quran 5:82)
O believers! Take neither Jews nor Christians as guardians—they are guardians of each other. Whoever does so will be counted as one of them. Surely Allah does not guide the wrongdoing people (Quran 5:51)
Hadith: Tirmidhi 1602 That the Messenger of Allah said: “Do not precede the Jews and the Christians with the Salam (hello). And if one you meets one of them in the path, then force him to its narrow portion.”…
Quran 7:166-167: So when they exceeded the limits of what they were prohibited, We said to them: “Be you monkeys, despised (hated) and rejected.” And (remember) when your Lord declared that He would certainly keep on sending against them (i.e. the Jews)”
Quran 98:6: Verily, those who disbelieve (in the religion of Islam, the Qur’an and Prophet Muhammad from among the people of the Scripture (Jews and Christians) and polytheists will abide in the Fire of Hell. They are the worst of creatures.”
When there is so much hatred in Islam against people of other faiths, anything and everything Muslims and their allies do will be colored by this hatred. Everything else is just a smoke screen.
anon / Apr 29, 2024 at 10:24 pm
As a non-Muslim who knows countless Muslims and has spent years in Muslim-majority communities and societies, your comment suggests to me someone who is regurgitating ignorant talking points rather than speaking from personal experience. Whatever the case may be, your claims are entirely inconsistent with my experiences. I hope few are so foolish as to be persuaded by your attempt to draw sweeping conclusions about a group of *1.9 billion individuals* based on cherry-picked passages from a holy book. If one wished to go through life assuming the worst of Christians, one could cherry-pick from their holy book too. Yet anyone who experiences a bit of the real world is liable to find that most people on earth are actually pretty well-intentioned and in many ways surprisingly alike.
Getting underneath this thick layer of Islamophobia, it seems deep down it’s hard for you to come to terms with the fact that today’s youth in the US are refusing to mindlessly fall in lock-step with Israel as it obliterates thousands upon thousands of men women and children. If you were willing to spend half an hour listening to these student protesters you would discover a culturally, ethnically and religiously heterogeneous group of people brought together by sincere humanitarian concerns and lucid critiques of UChicago’s administrators.
Thoughts from Bernie Steinberg, former director of Harvard Hillel:
“It is not antisemitic to demand justice for all Palestinians living in their ancestral lands. The activists who employ this language, and the politics of liberation, are sincere people; their cause is a legitimate and important movement dissenting against the brutal treatment of Palestinians that has been ongoing for 75 years. One can disagree with any part of what these activists say, but they must be allowed to speak safely and afforded the respect their morally serious position deserves.”
Source: The Harvard Crimson
Lastly, your notion that every Arab is taught Islam since childhood seems to suggest that you’ve never heard of Arab Jews, Arab Christians, not to mention Arab ppl who are secular / non-religious… With the entire internet at your disposal, there is honestly no excuse for remaining so ignorant.
Amos / Apr 30, 2024 at 6:37 am
Oh, come on. That’s 3rd derivative Islamo-apologia. It is obvious to anybody with a pair of eyes that the project of integrating Muslims into the West has been a complete failure. What we get are rage, intolerance, fanaticism, and the importation of tribal strife. True, some delicious kebobs and lentils too.
John doe / Apr 30, 2024 at 1:24 pm
I hope you are not a UChicago student out alum. You are either a demagogue or dunderhead needed on your illogical note
I notice that you have deliberately tried to conflate Muslim with Islam. Islam is a terrible toxic ideology incompatible with Western democracy because it does not recognize any other legitimate model of governance other than it’s own Jurisprudence. This is the Ijma of the Ulema ( the consensus of the Islamic scholars) unlike the pathetic muffins of a Western Islamic apologist.
Anti Semitism is built into the fabric of Islam. I challenge you to quote me any “tafsir” ( commentary) from early Islamic scholar that has a different take on the verses I have quoted that agrees with your position.
Now to the Palestinian question
1) A majority of the Palestinians don’t want a two state solution. They want a one state Muslim majority country where Jews will be a minority. We will know what happened to the Jews who were in a minority in Syria, Iraq, Jordan, Lebenon, Iran, Egypt etc. Only a fool would agree to this
2) Why wasn’t a separate state of Palestibe formed between 1948 and 1967, when all the West bank and Gaza was in Arab hands? Because, it has never been about a two state solution. It has only been about wiping out Israel.
3) When Muslims are in the minority, they agitate for s separate Homeland like they did for Pakistan and Bangladesh, but they want to deny that right to the Jews
So yeah, eff you and your Islamophilia.
John Doe / Apr 30, 2024 at 2:04 pm
Almost every argument made by The pro-Palestinian side is inane and disingenuous. Let’s just look at just one of these idiotic arguments.
“Israel is a European settler colonial state”
Complete nonsense.
Mizrahi Jews (read Jews from the Middle East) are nearly 45% of Israeli population.
Israeli Muslims are another 21%.
European Jews are only 30% of the population, yet Israel is a European settler colonial state?
Muslim Arabs are the poster boy example of settler colonialists. They spread Islam by the sword, took sex slaves, castrated male African slaves and employed them to guard their Harems and destroyed native cultures in Iran, Iraq, Egypt, Turkey, Syria, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, India and many other countries. They destroyed or converted many Jewish, Christian, Buddhist, Zoroastrian and Hindu places of worship because of their extreme and intolerant iconoclasm.
Finally when they were given a chance to have their own Palestinian state, they focused on wiping out Israel instead of creating a Palestinian state from the West Bank and Gaza which were in Arab hands till 1967.
A majority of the Palestinians support a murderous death cult called Hamas which still has the destruction of Israel in their Charter.
So spare me the righteous indignation about settler colonization here. It rings hollow.
Amos / Apr 29, 2024 at 5:08 pm
What a grotesque Alinsky-style cliche this is. Screeching and cosplay “activism” are neither free speech nor self-actualization. Just the acrimonious low-impulse-control behavior of he and (mostly) she baboons.
Jacob Myrene / Apr 29, 2024 at 7:55 pm
Sir, step away from the thesaurus.
Jacob Myrene / Apr 29, 2024 at 4:37 pm
Thank you for your hard work. I am grateful for the Maroon’s thorough coverage.
Musings from my trip to the quad (DAY 1):
1. I like stargazing as much as the next person, but it’s overcast today.
2. “A lemonade?” —> “A little rain?” Mmmm.
3. What happens if I stand with both Israel AND Palestine? If I strode onto the quad waving a Palestinian flag in one hand and an Israeli flag in the other, would people implode?
4. What would Alivisatos’s email look like if it was Kawaii-pilled?