Tensions Flare At UChicago As School President Vows To 'Intervene' In Pro-Palestine Protests

Hundreds of students and community members set up camp on University of Chicago's main quad, 1100 E. 58th St., Monday morning, in solidarity with Palestinians abroad and in the United States who are demanding an end to Israeli military action in Gaza.

The encampment, named "UChicago Popular University for Gaza," has generally avoided severe conflict as other encampments across the country faced harsh police responses and backlash.

"The encampment cannot continue," as there is "no end in sight" after talks between organizers and university officials proved unfruitful, Alivisatos wrote to the university community Friday. News of the letter was first reported by the Chicago Maroon student newspaper.

"The encampment has created [a] systematic disruption of campus," Alivisatos wrote. "… The encampment protesters have flouted our policies rather than working within them, despite UChicago being an institution that allows for many ways to express views."

Around 12:45 p.m. Friday, a group of students carrying American and Israeli flags approached an ongoing pro-Palestinian rally at the encampment, chanting "U.S.A."

Encampment protesters met the group in the middle of the quad with plywood signs and other items as barriers, and tensions continued to rise.

A skirmish between the groups broke out on the quad's north end and lasted for several minutes. The groups then retreated as they continued to chant and monitor each other.

Around 1:15 p.m., about 25 university officers lined up between the encampment and the quad's east end, where many of the pro-U.S. and Israel protesters had gathered. They did not engage with protesters on either side, but some wore helmets and carried shields and batons.

By 4:30 p.m., there were few signs of conflict as pro-Palestinian protesters returned to their encampment and the pro-U.S. and Israel faction largely dispersed. Bystanders, university officers and private security continued to wander about the quad.

When asked about possible disruptions to the encampments Friday at an unrelated news conference, Mayor Brandon Johnson said his office has been in "constant communication" with police regarding the safety of these encampments and commended Chicago Police Supt. Larry Snelling's "commitment to constitutional policing" that allows students to have a safe space to express their views. 

"Our ultimate goal is to make sure that people are are safe," Johnson said. "We're at a critical point in our nation's history. And so protecting people's first amendment right, of course is paramount." But again, it's really requires full assessment."

Snelling said the Police Department has no interest in escalating tensions on Chicago campuses, and said the Department has been working with school leadership to ensure there are no "violent acts" that disrupt otherwise peaceful protests. 

"What we're more concerned about than anything else is the safety of everyone," Snelling said. "At these locations, are people in danger? Those are the things that we would be most concerned about. .. So we take our time we assess the situation, and if it's not necessary for us to go in and attempt to start removing people that we won't." 

Press representatives for Chicago Police were at the quad Friday afternoon, but Block Club reporters did not see any uniformed Chicago Police officers at the scene of the protests between 11:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m..

Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez (25th) arrived around 12:30 p.m., shortly before the skirmish began, he told Block Club.

Sigcho-Lopez, who visited the encampment when it opened Monday and addressed protesters Friday afternoon, has been in touch with Hyde Park Ald. Desmon Yancy (5th), he said. The Pilsen alderperson urged Yancy to "call [Alivisatos] to make sure that they negotiate at the table" with student protesters and "protect the students and the campus," Sigcho-Lopez said.

"It is unacceptable what we see on other campuses — the brutalization of the students for using their First Amendment rights," he said.

Yancy and a spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.

Hamas, the group that controls the Palestinian territory of the Gaza Strip, launched a surprise attack on Israel on Oct. 7 when militants killed an estimated 1,200 Israelis and took around 240 hostages.

The Israeli military launched a full-scale attack in response, with months of airstrikes, raids and other military actions in Gaza. Palestinian health authorities say more than 34,000 people in Gaza — mostly women and children — have been killed, the Wall Street Journal reported Sunday.

For nearly the entire seven months of war, pro-Palestine UChicago students have organized on campus to demand university leaders "divest, disclose and repair."

Organizers with UChicago United for Palestine want the university to acknowledge genocide in Gaza, cut ties with Israeli companies and the Israel Institute, publicize its investments in weapons manufacturers and commit to a program of reparations "from Palestine to the South Side," among other demands.

Three students and two faculty members met with Alivisatos and university Provost Katherine Baicker Thursday to discuss the demands, but reached an "impasse," student organizers said in a statement Friday morning.

"It is clear to [organizers] that the University is negotiating in bad faith," Christopher Iacovetti, a student who participated in negotiations, said in a statement. "[Organizers refuse] to accept President Alivisatos' repeated, condescending offer of a public forum to discuss 'diverse viewpoints' on the genocide, as this is clearly a poor attempt at saving face without material change."

The university encampment is intended to highlight the violence Gazans have faced and the needs of all Palestinians — not the students themselves, organizers have said.

"As the death toll in Gaza climbs … it is more important than ever for students and people of conscience worldwide to stand in steadfast solidarity with the Palestinian people and against the [Israel Defense Forces'] tactics of bombing, imprisonment, torture, starvation, and apartheid," Iacovetti said Friday.

Past student actions include a November sit-in at Rosenwald Hall, during which police arrested 26 students and two faculty members before prosecutors dropped charges, according to the Chicago Maroon. Organizers also gathered daily in the quad starting last fall, giving passersby context on the war that centered on Palestinians.

As the encampment launched Monday, Alivisatos urged protesters to consider other methods to make their points, saying the protest "clearly violates policies against building structures on campus without prior approval and against overnight sleeping on campus."

But leaders did not immediately move to clear out protesters, as the university's general principle is to give "the greatest leeway possible for free expression, even expression of viewpoints that some find deeply offensive," Alivisatos said.

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