Hundreds join pro-Palestinian protests at Chicago universities, colleges as Northwestern encampment grows

Students and faculty from four Chicago colleges and universities joined the pro-Palestinian protests that have been roiling campuses across the country Friday. Hundreds of demonstrators hailing from the University of Chicago, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Columbia College Chicago and Roosevelt University marched, chanted and held up signs supporting Palestinians living in Gaza. .

The rallies come a day after protesters formed an encampment on Northwestern University’s Evanston campus to show support for Palestinians living in Gaza and demanded that the university end what they called censorship of speech in support of Palestinians and divest from Israel.

About 1 p.m, protesters managed to overwhelm the intersection of Michigan Avenue and Adams Street, near the Art Institute. Traffic had stopped in both directions. After a tense confrontation with police, the group was pushed into Millennium Park.

Rhoda Rosen, an adjunct professor at the School of The Art Institute, who is Jewish and South African, expressed her support for the protesters and their demands — stating she knows from experience the power of divestment.

“We support your vision of the School of The Art Institute of Chicago and we believe that’s it’s achievable, a vision that imagines what it would be like to be a part of a community that divests from those funds that support the destruction of Palestinian culture,” Rosen told the crowd Friday. “Know that calls for divestment from US companies profiting from South African apartheid had a huge impact in South Africa.”

Organizers at Northwestern were passing out ponchos and umbrellas about 2 p.m. as the rain began. An organizer said community members and alumni have volunteered to donate money and supplies to those at the encampment, many of whom stayed overnight. One person came Friday morning with zip ties and tarps to help cover and protect the tents.

Ashley Bohrer, a Notre Dame professor who lives in Lincoln Park, said she came to the encampment Friday after learning about it from the Chicago chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace.

“I’m really inspired by what the Northwestern University students are doing,” Bohrer said. “I’m here to stand up as a Jew and as an academic to say that Israeli apartheid does not stand for my values, and that university institutions, as centers of knowledge, have an obligation to tend toward social justice and truth.”

Imam Omar Soleiman led afternoon prayer Friday to a crowd of at least 200 gathered Muslim students and community members.

Before prayer, he urged listeners to “stay firm” on “the side of truth.”

“In the very moment that you are camped out on this lawn, there are camps throughout Gaza, specifically Rafa right now, where millions of people facing the worst forms of brutality that we have ever seen play out,” he said, adding that Palestinians “were planting their feet firmly in the ground despite all of the psychological and physical and mental torture and saying ‘We will not move.’”

Hundreds more people met at Levi Hall at the University of Chicago to join the protests.

“It is our duty to separate bombs from education,” said one speaker to the crowd. “We want this university to invest in us, not war machines.”

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.