Police begin clearing out pro-Palestinian encampment on campus of University of Chicago

Police began clearing out a pro-Palestinian encampment on the campus of the University of Chicago early Tuesday, taking down tents and setting up barricades to keep protesters away.

The action began around daybreak as campus police surrounded the university’s main quadrangle. According to live reports from the scene, the police were keeping students from entering the quad.

There were no immediate reports of arrests, but work crews could be seen dismantling tents and loading them and other items onto trucks.

UChicago United organizers set up the encampment a little more than a week ago — joining hundreds of other students across the country — to express support for the Palestinian people and to call on the university to disclose its financial investments and to divest from “death in Gaza, the South Side and beyond.”

On Monday, a coalition of over 120 faculty and academic staff from the University of Chicago had called on the school’s administration to resume negotiations with the pro-Palestinian encampment organizers.

University of Chicago Faculty for Justice in Palestine said administrators suspended negotiations Sunday.

Any action to remove the University of Chicago encampment or its inhabitants would be “indefensible,” said Elham Mireshghi, an assistant instructional professor in the Divinity School.

Over the weekend, nearly 70 protesters were arrested at a pro-Palestinian encampment set up outside the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

At Northwestern University, pro-Palestinian protesters were able to reach an agreement with administrators. The deal requires the university to disclose information about any investments to people associated with the university within 30 days of an inquiry, to re-establish a committee with student representatives to advise on investments and to fully fund tuition for five Palestinian undergraduate students, among other agreements — in exchange for the encampment being reduced to one aid tent.

At DePaul University, an encampment remains in the main quad of the school’s Lincoln Park campus. University officials say they have requested a meeting Monday with the DePaul Divest Coalition.