Police clear Pro-Palestine encampment from campus; Protesters condemn university's actions

CHICAGO - Chicago police and DePaul Public Safety officers, early Thursday morning, cleared an encampment of pro-Palestine demonstrators from the university’s Lincoln Park campus.

The DePaul Divestment Coalition started their demonstration on April 30 near Fullerton and Seminary avenues. Since then, participating students have been camping out on the quad.

According to Chicago police, the university signed a trespassing complaint Thursday morning. It prompted CPD to work with the university to disperse the encampment.

Demonstrators are now blasting DePaul University President Robert Manuel and other officials for their handling of student protesters’ demands, which include disclosure and divestment from the war in Gaza. Hundreds of protesters gathered outside the student center Thursday evening to denounce the university’s actions.

"We simply refused to accept a sanction, saying that we as students would give up our right to protest if we signed an agreement that included amnesty," said Parveen Mundi, student body president at DePaul University. 

During the rally, one alum even tore up his diploma in front of the crowd.

Students then took to the streets, marching for about an hour near campus.

"DePaul’s upper administration has once again demonstrated their allegiance to their stakeholders and egregious salaries," said Ethan Schatz, a student at DePaul University.

DePaul's Students for Justice in Palestine group called the dispersal of the encampment a "violent police raid," saying a hijab was pulled from a woman’s head, and several other students were injured.

"Today what we see is an attack on human dignity, an attack on morality," said 25th Ward Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez, who attended Thursday evening’s rally.

Early Thursday morning, as the orders were issued, police said protesters voluntarily left the encampment.

No arrests were made during the encampment’s dispersal; however, two people were later taken into custody for blocking the street in the 1100 block of W. Belden Ave. around 6:20 a.m., CPD officials said.  

DePaul President Robert Manuel issued a statement Thursday as the encampment was being removed, saying it was dismantled due to "credible threats of violence." 

He cited instances of fireworks being thrown into the encampment and threats from phone numbers connected to anarchist groups.

"Our Office of Public Safety and Chicago Police are now disassembling the encampment," the statement read. "Every person currently in the encampment will be given the opportunity to leave peacefully and without being arrested. I urge all there to leave peacefully and return home."

In a second statement issued later in the day, Manuel said:

"We had worked very hard to balance the need to allow the protesters to make their voices heard with the equally important need to ensure that the rest of our community was safe and could further their academic pursuits. Unfortunately, the encampment morphed from a peaceful exercise to an unsafe environment that attracted outside agitators, disrupted campus operations, and affected our neighbors’ day-to-day existence in their homes and schools."

Following the teardown of the encampment, protesters gathered across the street from the quad on Fullerton Avenue, chanting and raising signs.  

Manuel said the quad and other green spaces on the Lincoln Park campus would be closed to everyone for repairs, and anyone who tried to breach the fence around it would be arrested and suspended. 

"Since the encampment began, DePaul has taken great care to provide the greatest leeway possible for free expression," Manuel said in a statement. "However, the expression of some has now led to the disruption of university operations, interference with student learning, and safety threats to individuals and the public. For example, we are aware of a death threat against a student and reports of individuals threatening to slit the throats of people they perceive to be Jewish or in support of the Israeli State. We are also aware that there was a bounty put out to identify certain members of the encampment. It is clear the encampment is now attracting outside threats to both those inside of it, and those around it."

The cost to repair the quad will be roughly $180,000, according to university officials, who said they have received over 1,000 registered complaints since the encampment began.

"As a university supposedly guided by Vincentian values of social justice, it is shameful that DePaul chose violence rather than allowing students the right to protest our tuition money funding a genocide that is directly killing and displacing our families. Now, DePaul’s reputation will forever be equated with genocide and police brutality," Henna Ayesh, a Palestinian student and member of the coalition said in a statement.

Last weekend, DePaul administrators and student protesters reached a ‘stalemate’ in negotiations over the encampment. 

The coalition asked the university to divest from institutions and businesses that support Israel and for amnesty for student protesters and supporting faculty.

"As stated in previous messages, I do believe students with the Divestment Coalition initiated the encampment with sincere intentions to peacefully protest. While their teach-ins, library, and prayer services on the quad have in themselves been peaceful, these good intentions have been unable to outweigh the draw that the encampment has to others with nefarious and harmful intent," Manuel said Tuesday.

Below is Manuel's full statement on the disassembling of the encampment: 

Dear Faculty, Staff and Students,

I write to you early on this Thursday morning to inform you that despite our good faith efforts to come to a shared resolution with the DePaul Divestment Coalition, we were unsuccessful.

I and the members of our engagement team have worked over the past 17 days to create a path forward that was guided by the desire to see DePaul come to a resolution with the coalition. Through those conversations, I became convinced representatives of the coalition could not speak for all members of the group supporting the encampment. The student leaders made this clear when they rejected a portion of the amnesty clause of the agreement, saying they could not represent the actions of all the student groups supporting the encampment.  

Since the encampment began on April 30, the situation has steadily escalated with physical altercations, credible threats of violence from people not associated with our community, an inability for the other members of our community to take part in the core academic experiences on our campus, and an ever-growing series of threats to the people involved in the encampment and our community members. From the beginning of the encampment, I have said that we would protect free speech and the ability to dissent until it either prevented us from carrying out the operations of our university or threatened the safety of the members of our community. I am deeply saddened to say the encampment has crossed that line.

Our Office of Public Safety and Chicago Police are now disassembling the encampment. Every person currently in the encampment will be given the opportunity to leave peacefully and without being arrested. I urge all there to leave peacefully and return home.

Since the encampment began, DePaul has taken great care to provide the greatest leeway possible for free expression. However, the expression of some has now led to the disruption of university operations, interference with student learning, and safety threats to individuals and the public. For example, we are aware of a death threat against a student and reports of individuals threatening to slit the throats of people they perceive to be Jewish or in support of the Israeli State. We are also aware that there was a bounty put out to identify certain members of the encampment. It is clear the encampment is now attracting outside threats to both those inside of it, and those around it…" 

Manuel’s follow-up statement Thursday can be found HERE.  

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