DePaul University students have launched an encampment in the quadrangle of the university’s Lincoln Park campus, joining campuses across the country expressing support for the people of Gaza and demanding their schools cut financial ties with Israel.
The encampment officially began at 10 a.m. Tuesday, and by noon, over 100 students had gathered on the lawn. Students shared lunch, some signed in to online classes, and others tossed a volleyball around.
The schedule for Tuesday’s encampment includes speakers, prayers, a teach-in and rally.
“We posted this encampment only a few hours before, and as you can see, we already have numbers,” Henna Ayesh, an organizer with the DePaul University Divest Coalition told the Sun-Times. “I think that’s a testament to the power of the Chicago community as a whole and just [that] people in general support Palestine.”
Students chant and rally in support of Palestinians as they set up an encampment Tuesday in The Quad at DePaul University on the North Side, joining campuses across the country expressing support for the people of Gaza and demanding their schools cut financial ties with Israel.
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Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times
“DePaul Disclose Divest” is written in sidewalk chalk as students set up an encampment Tuesday in The Quad at DePaul University on the North Side, joining campuses across the country expressing support for the people of Gaza and demanding their schools cut financial ties with Israel.
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Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times
Students set up an encampment Tuesday in The Quad at DePaul University on the North Side, joining campuses across the country expressing support for the people of Gaza and demanding their schools cut financial ties with Israel.
|
Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times
Students chant and rally in support of Palestinians as they set up an encampment Tuesday in The Quad at DePaul University on the North Side, joining campuses across the country expressing support for the people of Gaza and demanding their schools cut financial ties with Israel.
|
Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times
Students set up an encampment Tuesday in The Quad at DePaul University on the North Side, joining campuses across the country expressing support for the people of Gaza and demanding their schools cut financial ties with Israel.
|
Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times
Students set up an encampment Tuesday in The Quad at DePaul University on the North Side, joining campuses across the country expressing support for the people of Gaza and demanding their schools cut financial ties with Israel.
|
Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times
(From left) Sophomore Henna Ayesh and alumni Nour Odeh chat with a reporter as students set up an encampment Tuesday in The Quad at DePaul University on the North Side, joining campuses across the country expressing support for the people of Gaza and demanding their schools cut financial ties with Israel.
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Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times
Students set up an encampment Tuesday in The Quad at DePaul University on the North Side, joining campuses across the country expressing support for the people of Gaza and demanding their schools cut financial ties with Israel.
|
Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times
“Viva Palestina” is written in sidewalk chalk as students set up an encampment Tuesday in The Quad at DePaul University on the North Side, joining campuses across the country expressing support for the people of Gaza and demanding their schools cut financial ties with Israel.
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Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times
Students carry in donated food and water as they set up an encampment Tuesday in The Quad at DePaul University on the North Side, joining campuses across the country expressing support for the people of Gaza and demanding their schools cut financial ties with Israel.
|
Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times
Students set up an encampment Tuesday in The Quad at DePaul University on the North Side, joining campuses across the country expressing support for the people of Gaza and demanding their schools cut financial ties with Israel.
|
Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times
Students set up an encampment Tuesday in The Quad at DePaul University on the North Side, joining campuses across the country expressing support for the people of Gaza and demanding their schools cut financial ties with Israel.
|
Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times
Students set up an encampment Tuesday in The Quad at DePaul University on the North Side, joining campuses across the country expressing support for the people of Gaza and demanding their schools cut financial ties with Israel.
|
Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times
Students play volleyball as they set up an encampment Tuesday in The Quad at DePaul University on the North Side, joining campuses across the country expressing support for the people of Gaza and demanding their schools cut financial ties with Israel.
|
Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times
Students set up an encampment Tuesday in The Quad at DePaul University on the North Side, joining campuses across the country expressing support for the people of Gaza and demanding their schools cut financial ties with Israel.
|
Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times
Students set up an encampment Tuesday in The Quad at DePaul University on the North Side, joining campuses across the country expressing support for the people of Gaza and demanding their schools cut financial ties with Israel.
|
Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times
The DePaul students join hundreds of University of Chicago students who established an encampment on their university’s main quadrangle Monday morning.
The demonstrations come after days of protest at Northwestern University’s Evanston campus, where students and faculty occupied Deering Meadow for five days before reaching an agreement with university officials to take down the tents. Protests there will continue until June 1, when classes end.
Ayesh said several Northwestern organizers have stopped by the DePaul encampment to drop off tents and supplies.
DePaul University’s Divestment Coalition Encampment has published a list of demands, which call on the administration to acknowledge the mounting death toll in Gaza, divest from companies that “advance Palestinian suffering and profit off the occupation,” and join the city of Chicago in calling for a cease-fire.
Nour Odeh, a DePaul alum and organizer with anti-war group CodePink, said groups made similar demands when she was a student two years ago.
“These aren’t new demands, necessarily,” Odeh said, sitting outside her pink tent in the quad. “In my time at DePaul, we were asking for the same thing, for them to publicize their investment portfolio because the students don’t know where their money is going.”
DePaul’s office of the president emailed students Tuesday morning telling them they are “monitoring the situation closely.”
“While tents and unpermitted structures on DePaul’s property violate a variety of university policies, we invite the members of our university community who are protesting to discuss with us how to peacefully express themselves,” the email read. “Our goal is to identify a path forward that allows our community to make their voices heard, while also respecting the rights of their fellow students to continue active engagement in their education and staying in compliance with the law and university policy.”
Ayesh, a sophomore at the University, said the email was just a repeat of past statements and the university has not reached out directly to any organizers. If or when the administration does reach out, Ayesh said the coalition has a team ready to enter into negotiations.
“It’s not anything new,” Ayesh said. “They reinstate their values to DePaul but then don’t actually abide by it.”
About 3 p.m. Tuesday, a handful of counter-protesters arrived carrying Israeli and American flags. The counter-protesters stood in a circle near the entrance to the quadrangle, at times chanting “bring them home” but did not approach the encampment.
Lily Hecht, a freshman and co-president of Hillel, said she joined the counter-protest to show there is a Jewish population at DePaul, and “we’re proud and we support Israel.”
Organizers at the encampment instructed participants not to engage directly with the counter-protesters.
During the counter-demonstration, the hundreds of encampment participants responded with chants of “Say it loud and say it clear: Zionists aren’t welcome here” and “Shame on you.” But there was little interaction between the two groups, and the counter-protesters eventually dispersed.
Many students carried — and tore onstage — flyers with images of a crown, bullets and bombs, symbolizing the Crown family, benefactors to the Art Institute who students say invest in weapons manufacturers.
Targeting Israel for its military approach in Gaza, without targeting other countries that also engage in objectionable actions, fails any reasonable logical standard.
Protesters marched through the neighborhood, flying Palestinian flags and wearing kaffiyehs. They called on Chicago leaders to divest from Israel and also sought the release of Illinois inmates wrongfully convicted and sentenced.
No arrests were made, and protesters exited the building when police entered, a university spokesperson said. The demonstrators dispersed at about 9:30 p.m.
Advocate Medical Group physicians say the organization has fallen short in responding to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, especially compared to donated aid and calls for peace after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
By Violet Miller
[month] [day], [year], [hour]:[minute][ampm] [timezone]
Around 5 p.m. Friday, a large group of protesters had surrounded the Institute of Politics. Shortly after that, a group of police officers, equipped with riot shields, burst into the building and scuffled with protesters.
Gaza is now a humanitarian catastrophe, with madmen and murderers on every side.
By Gene Lyons
[month] [day], [year], [hour]:[minute][ampm] [timezone]
The encampment at the Lincoln Park campus had been been in place since April 30. The action came after school officials said they had reached an impasse with the protesters.
By Mary Norkol
[month] [day], [year], [hour]:[minute][ampm] [timezone]
Students and faculty walked out of class to gather at the pro-Palestinian encampment and call for divestment from companies doing business with Israel.
By Isabel Funk
[month] [day], [year], [hour]:[minute][ampm] [timezone]
Northwestern University President Michael Schill is expected to be grilled by lawmakers next week about his decision to negotiate with students.
The cancellation of the end-of-school-year music festival comes days after the university said it has reached a stalemate in negotiations with organizers of a pro-Palestinian encampment.
By Isabel Funk
[month] [day], [year], [hour]:[minute][ampm] [timezone]
On Tuesday, Chicago’s Jewish community celebrated Israel declaring its independence 76 years ago, on May 14, 1948. Pro-Palestinian demonstrators gathered across the plaza. There were a few altercations, but no arrests were made.
By David Struett
[month] [day], [year], [hour]:[minute][ampm] [timezone]
The flags, along with signs and banners, had been placed on Deering Meadow, where a pro-Palestine encampment stood for five days before organizers reached an agreement with university administration.
By Sun-Times Wire
[month] [day], [year], [hour]:[minute][ampm] [timezone]
Protesters’ demands have focused on divestment — demanding universities cut ties with Israel and businesses supporting the war in Gaza.
By Ellery Jones
[month] [day], [year], [hour]:[minute][ampm] [timezone]
The Israel-Hamas war is heightening fears of unrest, but convention leaders say they’re confident in their partnerships with Mayor Brandon Johnson, Chicago Police Supt. Larry Snelling and the U.S. Secret Service.
By Tina Sfondeles
[month] [day], [year], [hour]:[minute][ampm] [timezone]
In a press conference at the school Thursday morning, students criticized university president Paul Alivisatos and shared their experiences when police began emptying the encampment early Tuesday.
By Mohammad Samra
[month] [day], [year], [hour]:[minute][ampm] [timezone]
Rafah has become the most recent focus of Israel’s military, which describes it as Hamas’ last holdout. Chicago-based Dr. John Kahler has seen conditions deteriorate as Gazan refugees fled south to the city.
By David Struett
[month] [day], [year], [hour]:[minute][ampm] [timezone]
En la madrugada del martes, agentes del campus rodearon el patio principal de la universidad y les impidieron la entrada a los estudiantes, según informaron desde el lugar de los hechos.
By Mary Norkol
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One protester said they were hit by an officer and taken to Thorek Memorial Hospital for treatment, according to a complaint filed with the Civilian Office of Police Accountability.
By Sophie Sherry
[month] [day], [year], [hour]:[minute][ampm] [timezone]
Reality on the ground is different from what policymakers understand in war rooms, far from the constant sound of bombs and drones, a Chicago-area doctor who has volunteered in Gaza writes. Thaer Ahmad, a Palestinian American, walked out of a meeting with President Joe Biden about a month ago and is calling for a cease-fire in Gaza.
After Oct. 7, chairs with the photos of hostages seized in Israel by Hamas were placed outside Am Shalom synagogue in Glencoe, waiting for the hostages’ release. “Our 248 chairs will stay up as long as they have to,” Am Shalom’s senior rabbi writes.
The group the People’s Art Institute accused law enforcement of yanking people’s hair, strangling them, and hitting people with batons and metal fences at the Saturday protest.
Around daybreak Tuesday, campus officers surrounded the university’s main quadrangle and kept students from entering, according to reports from the scene.
By Mary Norkol
[month] [day], [year], [hour]:[minute][ampm] [timezone]
Según los informes, en el campus de Lincoln Park de DePaul los contra manifestantes intentaron enfrentarse a los manifestantes, pero los pro palestinos utilizaron tácticas de desescalada para mantener la paz. En todo el país se ha detenido a más de 2,500 manifestantes desde el 18 de abril.
The University of Chicago Faculty for Justice in Palestine on Monday reaffirmed support for the “peaceful, welcoming and educational space” students had created and called on school leadership to return to “good-faith” negotiations.
By Sophie Sherry
[month] [day], [year], [hour]:[minute][ampm] [timezone]
An official familiar with Israeli thinking says Israeli officials are examining the cease-fire proposal approved by Hamas. But the official warns that the plan “is not the framework Israel proposed.”
Counterprotesters at DePaul’s Lincoln Park campus reportedly tried to clash with pro-Palestinian protesters. Nationwide, more than 2,500 protesters have been arrested since April 18.
Police said the museum asked them to clear the encampment on Saturday, hours after organizers set up tents in the Art Institute’s North Garden which they said were intended to pressure the school regarding the “occupation of Palestine.”
On a mostly peaceful day, tensions briefly bubbled over when counter-protesters confronted the demonstrators at the university’s Edward Levi Hall. An altercation prompted campus police to respond.
Las protestas contra la guerra han invadido los campus universitarios en las últimas semanas. Los estudiantes apoyan a los palestinos en los ataques de Israel contra Gaza, denuncian lo que llaman censura por parte de sus universidades y piden a las instituciones que dejen de invertir en fabricantes de armas y empresas que apoyan a Israel.
By Nader Issa
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