Students and faculty walked out of class to gather at the pro-Palestinian encampment and call for divestment from companies doing business with Israel.
Protest signs on Wednesday at the DePaul University campus, where students and faculty members walked out in support of the Palestinian people in Gaza. The campus encampment went up April 30.
Jim Vondruska/For The Sun-Times
More than 200 students and community members gathered on DePaul University’s quad Wednesday afternoon to hold a walkout and rally.
Speakers honored Nakba Day, which commemorates the permanent forced removal of 700,000 Palestinians from their homes on May 15, 1948, to establish Israel. Nakba is an Arabic word for “the catastrophe.”
Organizers opened the rally by inviting members of the crowd to share their explanations of the Nakba, before providing their definitions, reminding the crowd that “we’re here to learn.” Henna Ayesh, a Palestinian student organizer whose family was displaced during the Nakba, said the rally showed how the student body supports the Palestinian cause.
Student leaders of the demonstration say they’ve reached an impasse in negotiations with the administration. On Tuesday, the university canceled an end-of-school-year music festival set to take place in the quadrangle, where the encampment sits.
Jim Vondruska/For The Sun-Times
“This encampment has kind of been an envisionment of what it would be like if we were all in a liberated Palestine with each other,” Ayesh said. “My grandfather, when he saw this, he was crying.”
Protesters came wearing keffiyehs, waving Palestinian flags and hoisting signs with slogans such as “When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty.” Some community members brought children and dogs. Speakers played “Hind’s Hall,” a protest song released by Macklemore on May 6.
Speakers addressed the Palestinian liberation movement’s connection to other social movements and the oppression of other groups, including undocumented immigrants, Jewish people, and the climate movement.
“I am here on Nakba Day to remind everyone that ‘Never Again’ isn’t just a quippy slogan to put on a sign or the back of a shirt,” said Owen, a graduate student representing Jews for Justice who did not give his last name. “It holds weight.”
Organizers also reminded the rally attendees about a message from Bisan Owda, a Palestinian journalist from Gaza, who recently shared a video thanking the students of DePaul and the University of Chicago.
“You see us, you hear us. We see you, we hear you, and you are all, together, there for us,” Owda said.
Ayesh said seeing this message is a reminder to keep the encampment going, even though negotiations have stalled and the university continues to reject the demand for divestment from companies that do business with Israel.
Over the weekend, administrators declared they had reached a stalemate with organizers and could not move forward with negotiations. Ayesh said the encampment still wants to negotiate and proposed additional meetings, but the administration did not show up. Still, the people of Gaza remain front of mind for her.
“We see that, whatever they’re going through, they’re recognizing this and they’re proud of us,” Ayesh said. “We have to keep on going. Even though DePaul administration is not seeing us, the people of Gaza are, and at the end of the day, that’s what matters the most.”
On Monday, DePaul announced the cancellation of FEST 2024, an annual music festival that had been scheduled for Friday on the quadrangle, where the encampment is located. Organizers urged students to direct anger about this decision toward the administration for not choosing to relocate the festival or meet their demands.
The DePaul encampment, which started April 30, is now the longest standing in the U.S. and the last remaining in the Chicago area.
Nearly a dozen protesters were taken into custody about 2:41 p.m. Saturday after they allegedly held a demonstration on Franklin Street, police say. Earlier, vandals dropped red dye into Buckingham Fountain and painted pro-Palestinian messages there.
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Graduates marched out of the United Center and held a ceremony outside for students killed in Gaza, saying the university was complicit in the war. Counterprotesters called those statements antisemitic.
Students delivered a petition calling for the reinstatement of Anne d’Aquino on Thursday morning. She was fired on May 8 after she offered an optional assignment, asking students to analyze the impact of “the genocide in Gaza on human health.”
One person, who school officials said was not affiliated with the university, was arrested during a protest against the war in Gaza on Saturday during graduation ceremonies at the University of Chicago.
Youssef Hasweh’s degree is being withheld until disciplinary measures are ‘resolved.’ He says the ‘disproportionate response’ is aimed at deterring other student protesters.
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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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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