CHICAGO (TND) — Police at the University of Chicago removed the school’s “Popular University of Gaza” encampment early Tuesday morning, leading some protesters to claim they were "ambushed."
UChicago students created the anti-Israel encampment in tandem with students at other universities across the country. These encampments have become hotbeds of anti-Israel and anti-American sentiment in recent weeks as protesters rally in support of Palestine.
Campus police, according to Instagram page UChicagoUnited, “attacked” students at 4:40 a.m. “as protesters slept.” The page notes students were issued a “final notice” to leave the encampment or face criminal penalties.
“At around 4:35AM on 5/7, 40-50 UCPD officers with riot gear raided the camp in a completely disorganized fashion while everyone was sleeping, yelling and throwing large objects like chairs and wooden planks around, endangering the safety of students,” the page wrote. “The university doesn’t understand that the Popular University for Gaza is not a physical place that can be constructed or destroyed.”
“We will be back,” the students vowed. “Uchicago, blood is on your hands.”UChicago President Paul Alivisatos, in an editorial for the Wall Street Journal Tuesday, explained his decision to remove the encampment stemmed from a “deep disagreement” between administrators and organizers of the encampment.
“Underpinning the demands was a call for the university to diminish ties with Israel and increase ties with the Palestinians in Gaza,” Alivsatos wrote. “In short, the protesters were determined that the university should take sides in the conflict in Israel and Gaza.”
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“Faculty members and students are more than free to engage in advocacy on one side or the other,” he continued. “But if the university did so as an institution, it would no longer be much of a university.”Other universities are also leaning on police intervention to shut down anti-Israel encampments on their campuses. Washington D.C. police on Wednesday broke up an encampment at George Washington University, arresting several individuals in the process.
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