Pro-Palestinian protests continue on Chicago campuses; here’s what to know

Hundreds of Chicago-area college students have joined the wave of pro-Palestinian protests sweeping campuses across the country, expressing support for the people of Gaza and demanding their universities divest from Israel.

Protest camps have sprung up at Northwestern University, the University of Chicago and DePaul University in recent days. Students at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Columbia College Chicago and Roosevelt University have also participated in recent protests.

Protesters’ demands have focused on divestment — demanding universities cut ties with Israel and cut ties with businesses supporting the ongoing Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.

On Oct. 7, Palestinian militants launched an unprecedented attack into southern Israel, killing around 1,200 people — mostly civilians — and abducting around 250 hostages.

Nearly seven months of Israeli bombardment and ground offensives in Gaza have killed more than 34,500 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. The war has driven around 80% of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million from their homes, caused vast destruction in several towns and cities and pushed northern Gaza to the brink of famine.

Here’s what we know so far about what’s happened, what the protests are about and what comes next.

How did the protests start?

Students at Columbia University in New York City set up a protest camp on April 17, the same day that university president Nemat Shafik was called to testify before Congress. Shafik faced criticism from Republicans over alleged antisemitism from pro-Palestinian protesters.

The next day, New York City police were called to clear the encampment and arrested over 100 protesters.

The arrests, which New York Mayor Eric Adams says were requested by Columbia officials, garnered national attention and inflamed college protests nationwide. Soon, protest camps had been set up at University of Michigan, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of North Carolina.

What do protesters want?

As the death toll mounts in the war in Gaza and the humanitarian crisis worsens, protesters at Columbia and universities all over the U.S. are demanding that schools cut financial ties to the conflict.

Protesters have said universities should disclose — and unload — any investments in companies doing business with Israel or manufacturing weapons and end programs that partner with Israeli institutions.

“From this divestment campaign to the divestment campaigns all around the world, we demand divestment, repair, justice, freedom for all Palestinians,” Moon G., an incoming master’s student at the University of Chicago Divinity School, told the crowd at the encampment at the university’s Hyde Park campus on Monday.

Organizers at Northwestern called on the university to end its Israel Innovation Project, a STEM program where students, faculty and staff collaborate with counterparts in Israel. At U of C and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, protesters demanded the school refuse future donations from the Crown family, who own a 10% stake in defense company General Dynamics. U of C is home to Crown Family School of Social Work, Family and Practice, and the family has endowed a professorship at SAIC. The family is a major donor to many universities.

Protesters have also called out how universities have responded to the protests and demands.

A statement announcing the Northwestern encampment said students “report the administration is curtailing free speech.” A University of Chicago protester said the university turned down requests for a public meeting regarding divestment from Israel in the fall.

Where are protests happening in the Chicago area?

Northwestern University

Hundreds of people set up an encampment on Thursday on Deering Meadow on Northwestern University’s Evanston campus.

Despite the university enacting an “interim addendum” to its student code of conduct to prohibit tents, protesters kept the encampment up through the weekend before reaching a deal with university administration on Monday to take down all but one aid tent. The agreement allows protest to continue without tents until June 1, the last day of class.

University of Chicago

University of Chicago students set up an encampment in the university’s Main Quadrangle on Monday.

University President Paul Alivisatos said in a statement the school aims to provide “the greatest leeway possible for free expression.” The school will only intervene if the free expression “blocks the learning or expression of others” or “meaningfully disrupts the functioning or safety of the University.”

Police officers stood about fifty feet away from the encampment and appeared not to disrupt the protest or tents. But ever since Columbia University President Minouche Shafik authorized the New York Police Department to dismantle the student encampment there, students have been worried about escalation.

DePaul University

The encampment on DePaul University’s Lincoln Park campus 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.

“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.”

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.

Other protests

Hundreds of demonstrators 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 last Friday.

Students at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign also set up an encampment Friday, resulting in two arrests.

And Chicago Public Schools students also planned on joining the protest efforts with “sit-in” demonstrations at several schools throughout the day Wednesday before heading to local universities to support college students.

Students were expected to demonstrate at schools including Chicago High School for the Arts, Payton College Prep, Hancock College Prep, Jones College Prep and Kenwood Academy High School.

Are their demands being met?

Most protests remain ongoing, but student protesters had some of their demands met as part of a deal with Northwestern administration to end the encampment announced on Monday.

University President Michael Schill said the agreement represents a “sustainable and de-escalated path forward.” The agreement allows protest to continue without tents until June 1, the last day of class. The demonstrators will be allowed to keep one aid tent.

As a first step toward divestment, the agreement requires the university to disclose information about any investments to people associated with the university within 30 days of the inquiry. It will also re-establish a committee to advise on investments that will include student representatives. The university also committed to fully funding tuition for five Palestinian undergraduate students, supporting visiting Palestinian faculty and students at risk, providing an immediate temporary space for MENA and Muslim students, and renovating a building for future use.

Brown University, another Ivy League school, reached an agreement Tuesday with protesters on its Rhode Island campus. Demonstrators said they would close their encampment if administrators consider divestment from Israel in October — apparently the first time a U.S. college has agreed to protester demands to vote on divestment.

What about allegations of anti-semitism?

In a statement, the Illinois Holocaust Museum described the protests convulsing campuses as “a moment of grave crisis” and says the Holocaust is being used as a political and rhetorical tool. It also said Columbia University in New York offering hybrid classes for students anxious about being on campus is a “worrisome sign.”

“There is nothing antisemitic about supporting the Palestinians’ rights or demonstrating in support of Palestinians,” the statement said. “But within these protests have been worrisome and persistent examples of antisemitic expression. … Bad actors are using the cover of free speech in this moment of tension to normalize dangerous ideas that cause real harm to Jewish students and communities.”

The museum said statements like “From the River to the Sea, Palestine is Arab,” “Students will go home when Israelis go back to Europe, US, etc. (their real homes)” and “All you do is colonize” were “explicitly calling for the murder of these protestors.”

For Palestinians, the phrase “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” has been a rallying call for decades, signifying what they believe is their right to peacefully return to the land that is now Israel.

Sivan Spector, a member of Jewish Voice for Peace Chicago’s Coordinating Committee — an organization supporting the movement for a free Palestine — said in a statement she had spent Sunday at the Northwestern protest encampment with other Jewish Chicagoans, where she felt welcomed and didn’t experience or see any antisemitism.

Have there been arrests or violence in Chicago?

Despite tense moments with police on Northwestern’s campus on Thursday and downtown on Friday, no arrests have been reported at Chicago protests.

That hasn’t been the case at campuses nationally, where the Associated Press reports over 1,000 have been arrested.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams says about 300 people were arrested in overnight police crackdowns on pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia University and City College. Police carrying riot shields burst into a building at Columbia University late Tuesday that pro-Palestinian protesters took over about 20 hours earlier.

Dueling groups of protesters clashed Wednesday at the University of California, Los Angeles, around a tent encampment built by pro-Palestinian protesters. Counter protesters tried to pull down a line of parade barricades, plywood and wooden pallets at the edge of the camp. The university canceled classes on Wednesday.

At least a dozen people have been arrested at the University of Wisconsin in Madison on Wednesday as police removed tents erected by protesters. Police pushed into the protesters with shields Wednesday morning, resulting in a scrum. Protesters chanted “students hold your ground” and “long live Palestine.”

What happens next?

Northwestern protesters plan to continue their protest until June 1. At the University of Chicago, the president’s statement said the encampment violates the university’s policies against building structures without prior approval and overnight sleeping on campus, but the camp may be allowed to stay for now.

“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,” Alivisatos said.

The end of the semester — and May graduations — remain a looming deadline for universities.

The University of Southern California canceled its May 10 graduation ceremony Thursday, a day after more than 90 protesters were arrested on campus.

Contributing: The Associated Press, Isabel Funk, Jessica Ma, Violet Miller, Sophie Sherry, Aidan Sadovi