On Monday, April 29, under the banner of the group “UChicago United for Palestine,” a mix of University of Chicago students and assorted outsiders occupied roughly half of the UChicago Main Quad—perhaps the most iconic part of campus—and formed an encampment there. Later that day, UChicago President Paul Alivisatos recognized the encampment as “clearly” in violation of university policies, but permitted it to continue temporarily. His tenor changed on Friday morning when he stated that because overt “violations of policies have only increased,” it has become necessary for UChicago to intervene and put an end to the encampment. More than two days after Alivisatos released that statement, the encampment is still up:
Since UChicago would not promptly shut down the encampment and reinstall the American flag on the Quad’s central flagpole, we decided to do something about it. At 12:30 PM on Friday, we led dozens of students in a peaceful march to put “Old Glory” back in her proper place. The occupiers—especially the non-student outsiders—do not have a monopoly on the space for which we pay tuition.
When we arrived at the edge of the encampment, we were met with a mass of mask-wearing and keffiyeh-clad protestors forming a human barricade, many of whom were holding wooden pallets as shields, forming what resembled an ill-constructed phalanx.
Due to our staunch commitment to keeping our counter-demonstration peaceful, we neither pushed through them nor initiated any physical contact, but instead simply stood our ground, chanting “USA” with our fellow marchers and waving American flags.
Unfortunately, the occupiers did not reciprocate our commitment to peaceful protest. They shoved, punched, broke a speaker, and grabbed phones:
One protestor shoved me (Mitch) and hit my phone; another punched my friend John in the face. Yet another seized an American flag and attempted to rip it away from a fellow counter-protestor before being shooed away by me (Arthur).
While the encampment remains, and the flag is still notably missing from the flagpole, we are inspired by the positive momentum that this demonstration has generated:
At the end of the day, we (Arthur and Mitch) recognize that the Israel-Palestine conflict is a complicated one. We have very nuanced views about Israel and the way it should handle things moving forward. But this demonstration was about something more fundamental than geopolitics: We were sick and tired of our campus being occupied by shrill outsiders who implement Maoist fear and intimidation tactics to get their way. No one is saying that they cannot express all of the pro-Palestinian arguments that they want to express. Honestly, we would love them to! But it is easier for them to spurn polite debate and instead browbeat the UChicago community by illegally occupying its Quad. Most of their “demands” don’t even have to do with Palestine:
The people in the encampment, by and large, are not thoughtful, nuanced critics of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s handling of Israeli military policy post-October 7. They are radicals who do things like spray paint “Death to America” on UChicago property, chant “Globalize the Intifada,” and physically mob any non-radical who attempts to observe or document the encampment, as I (Mitch) found out early on:
These protestors do not cherish the values of free speech like we at the Thinker have since the inception of this publication. A necessary corollary to free speech is the freedom of others to respectfully and peacefully interrogate the speech. This free exchange of ideas is simply not possible if protestors menace those with whom they disagree.
We are grateful that so many in the UChicago community—especially those typically not politically engaged—have chosen to stand with us on the side of normalcy. We stand against the violent hordes who have spent the past week occupying our Quad, defecating in kitty litter, shoving flags in the faces of those attempting to observe, obstructing campus walkways, disrupting classes, and, as of Friday, assaulting peaceful demonstrators such as ourselves.
President Alivisatos, it is your turn. We’ve done our part. Now it is time for you to do yours. There is no longer any excuse for inaction. Shut down the encampment and return our beautiful stars and stripes to their rightful home: atop the Quad’s flagpole.
* The views expressed in this article solely represent the views of the authors, not the views of the Chicago Thinker.