Student protesters’ pro-Palestinian encampment includes numerous tents on the University of Chicago’s Main Quadrangle, pictured Wednesday.
Pro-Palestinian encampments on the campuses of Chicago universities haven’t faced the same levels of violence and police response as others across the country — and students fearing escalation are hoping it stays that way.
Tensions were higher Tuesday after Columbia University ordered its campus to lock down and directed hundreds of New York police officers to raid a university building that student protesters had occupied. NYPD also showed a large late-night presence at the City College of New York. Officials said about 300 people were arrested between the two campuses.
And overnight, reports emerged of pro-Israel counterprotesters attacking a UCLA student encampment for hours, at times shooting fireworks into the camp and setting off confrontations between the groups. UCLA canceled classes Wednesday.
The camps in Chicago have not been targeted by heavy counterprotests or been subject to large police activity.
The protests at Northwestern University have de-escalated after an agreement between student organizers and the university administration to take down all but one aid tent while allowing demonstrations to continue until June 1, the last day of classes. The university initially sent in police to break up the encampment, and officers were seen pushing through lines of faculty and students to take down tents. But no arrests, citations or suspensions were made.
Students supporting a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war stand together at Northwestern University’s Deering Meadow.
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Pat Nabong/Sun-Times
Students set up a tent encampment in Deering Meadow. On Thursday, the university amended the student code of conduct to prohibit tents.
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Pat Nabong/Sun-Times
A bicyclist carries a Palestinian flag.
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Pat Nabong/Sun-Times
“Divest from death, invest in life” and “NU = hedge fund,” were among the chants heard Thursday.
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Pat Nabong/Sun-Times
“Northwestern is committed to the principles of freedom of expression and peaceful assembly — and to protecting the safety of all members of our community, as well as limiting disruptions to university operations,” the university said in a statement Thursday morning.
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Pat Nabong/Sun-Times
Bystanders observe protesters.
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Pat Nabong/Sun-Times
A sign reading “Free Gaza liberated zone” hangs on a fence at Deering Meadow.
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Pat Nabong/Sun-Times
Nearly 200 people were participating in the protest in Deering Meadow by Thursday evening.
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Pat Nabong/Sun-Times
A protester with a sign. “Once we heard that they were going to be doing this encampment, we wanted to be here as a presence to help protect them and support them,” said Steven Thrasher, an assistant professor at Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism.
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Pat Nabong/Sun-Times
A protester holds a sign that reads “Jews call 4 divestment.” A leader of campus Hillel said some of the rhetoric used at the protest was antisemitic.
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Pat Nabong/Sun-Times
Protests continued at Emerson College in Boston, USC in Los Angeles and Columbia in New York. Some protests grew violent, with police beating and arresting demonstrators.
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Pat Nabong/Sun-Times
The University of Southern California canceled its main stage graduation ceremony under new safety measures being taken as the campus is roiled by protests stemming from the Israel-Hamas war.
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Pat Nabong/Sun-Times
A cordon of students confronts school personnel at Northwestern.
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Pat Nabong/Sun-Times
Matthew Weiss, a senior at Northwestern, said he and the other counter-protesters showed up because of the “egregious” demonstration, adding that he was harassed on his way to the protest while carrying an Israeli flag and wearing a kippah.
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Pat Nabong/Sun-Times
Protesters demanded that Northwestern “protect student civil liberties and safety, end partnerships that legitimize genocide and occupation, and disclose and divest from war and apartheid,” according to a press release by Northwestern University Educators for Justice in Palestine, Jewish Voice for Peace and Student Liberation Union.
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Pat Nabong/Sun-Times
A woman speaks to protesters as a police officer stands by.
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Pat Nabong/Sun-Times
Protesters demand a cease-fire in the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.
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Pat Nabong/Sun-Times
Demonstrations at Northwestern were mostly peaceful.
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Pat Nabong/Sun-Times
A protester bikes with a Palestinian flag.
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Pat Nabong/Sun-Times
Students stand together to call for a cease-fire and divestment.
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Pat Nabong/Sun-Times
University police officers monitor protesters.
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Pat Nabong/Sun-Times
Students place photos of people killed in Gaza along a fence.
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Pat Nabong/Sun-Times
Steven Thrasher, an assistant professor of journalism at Northwestern University, joined the protest.
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Pat Nabong/Sun-Times
Protesters cluster on Deering Meadow.
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Pat Nabong/Sun-Times
A protester holds a Palestinian flag.
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Pat Nabong/Sun-Times
Protesters dance at Northwestern University.
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Pat Nabong/Sun-Times
A Palestinian flag flies outside a tent encampment at Deering Meadow.
Protesters dance.
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Pat Nabong/Sun-Times
Protesters Sully S. (left) and Eden M. speak to reporters at Northwestern University’s Deering Meadow.
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Pat Nabong/Sun-Times
At the University of Chicago, Rayna A., a senior who helped organize the encampment there, said UChicago police have always maintained a heavy presence on campus, so students know they have to protect themselves.
“As organizers, we have learned the skills that are necessary in order to keep our community safe from the police, and that we’ll have numbers in people and we have a strong community support,” said Rayna, who asked for her last name not to be published out of fear of harassment.
“We’re very interconnected with orgs across the city,” she said. “We’re hoping to just grow and expand and create … a space that is as safe as it can be. Because safety is never guaranteed.”
Sammy, an undergraduate UChicago student who also helped organize the protest, said there haven’t been threats against their camp, but “it’s hard not to feel this larger looming presence, this sort of constant background threat.
“Especially when things are happening like what happened yesterday at Columbia, which was horrific, and UCLA,” said Sammy, who also didn’t want to be fully identified for fear of harassment.
Organizers developed a safety plan, including deploying marshals who have de-escalation training and barriers to shield praying students from photos. Officers have been at the encampment all three days but haven’t interfered, students said.
“We are all here with the knowledge that whatever repression we face, it is absolutely nothing compared to what Palestinians have faced for the past 75 years and counting,” Sammy said. “Especially Palestinians at universities. Every single university in Gaza has been leveled at this point.”
Student protesters set up a pro-Palestine protest camp on the University of Chicago Main Quadrangle on Monday.
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Jim Vondruska/For the Sun-Times
Student protesters set up a pro-Palestine protest camp on the University of Chicago Main Quadrangle on Monday.
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Jim Vondruska/For the Sun-Times
Student protesters set up a pro-Palestinian protest camp on the University of Chicago Main Quadrangle on Monday.
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Jim Vondruska/For the Sun-Times
Student protesters set up a pro-Palestinian camp on the University of Chicago Main Quadrangle on Monday.
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Jim Vondruska/For the Sun-Times
Student protesters set up a pro-Palestinian protest camp on the University of Chicago Main Quadrangle on Monday.
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Jim Vondruska/For the Sun-Times
Student protesters set up a pro-Palestinian camp on the University of Chicago Main Quadrangle on Monday.
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Jim Vondruska/For the Sun-Times
Student protesters set up a pro-Palestinian camp on the University of Chicago Main Quadrangle on Monday.
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Jim Vondruska/For the Sun-Times
Student protesters set up a pro-Palestinian camp on the University of Chicago Main Quadrangle on Monday.
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Jim Vondruska/For the Sun-Times
Student protesters set up a pro-Palestinian camp on the University of Chicago Main Quadrangle on Monday.
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Jim Vondruska/For the Sun-Times
Student protesters set up a pro-Palestinian protest camp on the University of Chicago Main Quadrangle on Monday.
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Jim Vondruska/For the Sun-Times
Student protesters set up a pro-Palestinian camp on the University of Chicago Main Quadrangle on Monday.
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Jim Vondruska/For the Sun-Times
Student protesters set up a pro-Palestinian protest camp on the University of Chicago Main Quadrangle on Monday.
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Jim Vondruska/For the Sun-Times
Student protesters set up pro-Palestinian camp on the University of Chicago Main Quadrangle on Monday.
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Jim Vondruska/For the Sun-Times
Student protesters set up a pro-Palestinian protest camp on the University of Chicago Main Quadrangle on Monday.
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Jim Vondruska/For the Sun-Times
Student protesters set up a pro-Palestinian camp on the University of Chicago Main Quadrangle on Monday.
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Jim Vondruska/For the Sun-Times
Chicago Police Supt. Larry Snelling said this week that he was not interested in breaking up the encampments.
“We’re out there to make sure that people who want to protest can do it and exercise their First Amendment,” Snelling said at a public meeting on the Northwest Side, according to Fox 32.
“If you notice with our universities here, people are protesting peacefully. … We’re not engaging them in a way that’s going to inflame what it is they’re trying to do,” he said.
DePaul University student Shoshana Rubin, 21, said she was worried and hesitant to stay overnight at the encampment after seeing reports of police at other campuses but has felt safe for the most part.
“Administration has mostly been OK with us staying out here, and I do worry that their position on that will change, but so far it’s been pretty peaceful,” Rubin said. “We’re learning a lot by being here. It’s been fun, and we feel like a community.”
Another DePaul student, 21-year-old Macey Caron, said her “biggest worry is police or counterprotesters showing up.
“But everything has been pretty calm,” Caron said. “And I hope it stays that way.”
Students chant and rally in support of Palestinians as they set up an encampment Tuesday in The Quad at DePaul University on the North Side, joining campuses across the country expressing support for the people of Gaza and demanding their schools cut financial ties with Israel.
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Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times
“DePaul Disclose Divest” is written in sidewalk chalk as students set up an encampment Tuesday in The Quad at DePaul University on the North Side, joining campuses across the country expressing support for the people of Gaza and demanding their schools cut financial ties with Israel.
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Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times
Students set up an encampment Tuesday in The Quad at DePaul University on the North Side, joining campuses across the country expressing support for the people of Gaza and demanding their schools cut financial ties with Israel.
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Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times
Students chant and rally in support of Palestinians as they set up an encampment Tuesday in The Quad at DePaul University on the North Side, joining campuses across the country expressing support for the people of Gaza and demanding their schools cut financial ties with Israel.
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Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times
Students set up an encampment Tuesday in The Quad at DePaul University on the North Side, joining campuses across the country expressing support for the people of Gaza and demanding their schools cut financial ties with Israel.
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Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times
Students set up an encampment Tuesday in The Quad at DePaul University on the North Side, joining campuses across the country expressing support for the people of Gaza and demanding their schools cut financial ties with Israel.
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Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times
(From left) Sophomore Henna Ayesh and alumni Nour Odeh chat with a reporter as students set up an encampment Tuesday in The Quad at DePaul University on the North Side, joining campuses across the country expressing support for the people of Gaza and demanding their schools cut financial ties with Israel.
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Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times
Students set up an encampment Tuesday in The Quad at DePaul University on the North Side, joining campuses across the country expressing support for the people of Gaza and demanding their schools cut financial ties with Israel.
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Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times
“Viva Palestina” is written in sidewalk chalk as students set up an encampment Tuesday in The Quad at DePaul University on the North Side, joining campuses across the country expressing support for the people of Gaza and demanding their schools cut financial ties with Israel.
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Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times
Students carry in donated food and water as they set up an encampment Tuesday in The Quad at DePaul University on the North Side, joining campuses across the country expressing support for the people of Gaza and demanding their schools cut financial ties with Israel.
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Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times
Students set up an encampment Tuesday in The Quad at DePaul University on the North Side, joining campuses across the country expressing support for the people of Gaza and demanding their schools cut financial ties with Israel.
|
Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times
Students set up an encampment Tuesday in The Quad at DePaul University on the North Side, joining campuses across the country expressing support for the people of Gaza and demanding their schools cut financial ties with Israel.
|
Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times
Students set up an encampment Tuesday in The Quad at DePaul University on the North Side, joining campuses across the country expressing support for the people of Gaza and demanding their schools cut financial ties with Israel.
|
Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times
Students play volleyball as they set up an encampment Tuesday in The Quad at DePaul University on the North Side, joining campuses across the country expressing support for the people of Gaza and demanding their schools cut financial ties with Israel.
|
Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times
Students set up an encampment Tuesday in The Quad at DePaul University on the North Side, joining campuses across the country expressing support for the people of Gaza and demanding their schools cut financial ties with Israel.
|
Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times
Students set up an encampment Tuesday in The Quad at DePaul University on the North Side, joining campuses across the country expressing support for the people of Gaza and demanding their schools cut financial ties with Israel.
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Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times
Tensions were higher Tuesday when hundreds of New York police officers raided Columbia University and City College of New York while a group of counterprotesters attacked a student encampment at UCLA.
The backlash comes days after the university made an agreement with encampment organizers to take steps toward divesting from Israel.
By Sophie Sherry
[month] [day], [year], [hour]:[minute][ampm] [timezone]
“I remember coming out of my apartment one day and spotting Chicago cops dragging young protesters out of one section of Lincoln Park and shoving them into trucks, while nearby poet Allen Ginsberg was chanting in a circle of peaceful protesters not far away from the radical Abby Hoffman,” remembers Dan Webb, who later became a U.S. attorney.
By Michael Sneed
[month] [day], [year], [hour]:[minute][ampm] [timezone]
El campus se une a las protestas en todo el país para pedir a las universidades que dejen de invertir en empresas que apoyan a Israel.
By Sophie Sherry
[month] [day], [year], [hour]:[minute][ampm] [timezone]
Protesters’ demands have focused on divestment — demanding universities cut ties with Israel and businesses supporting the war in Gaza.
By Ellery Jones
[month] [day], [year], [hour]:[minute][ampm] [timezone]
Anti-war protests have swept college campuses in recent weeks as students support Palestinians in Israel’s attacks on Gaza, decry what they call censorship from their universities and call on institutions to divest from weapons manufacturers and companies supporting Israel.
By Nader Issa
[month] [day], [year], [hour]:[minute][ampm] [timezone]
They are willing to risk the completion of degrees or acquiring police records as allies of suffering civilians in Gaza, a reader from Hyde Park says.
The campus joins protests across the country calling on universities to divest from companies supporting Israel.
By Sophie Sherry
[month] [day], [year], [hour]:[minute][ampm] [timezone]
The two-part, four-hour film on WTTW comes just in time for the 750th anniversary of a key event in Dante’s life.
By Neil Steinberg
[month] [day], [year], [hour]:[minute][ampm] [timezone]
Déjà vu is a heck of a thing. Whether it’s 1970 or 2024, war weighs heavily on campuses — and on athletes.
By Rick Telander
[month] [day], [year], [hour]:[minute][ampm] [timezone]
Hundreds of University of Chicago students set up an encampment in the Main Quadrangle on Monday, joining groups on over 100 university campuses nationwide in support of Palestinians.
“Bad actors are using the cover of free speech in this moment of tension to normalize dangerous ideas that cause real harm to Jewish students and communities,” the museum said. But a member of Chicago’s Jewish Voice for Peace said the protesters are saying what Jewish institutions are “afraid to say.”
As the death toll mounts in the war in Gaza and the humanitarian crisis worsens, protesters at universities all over the U.S. are demanding that schools cut financial ties to Israel and divest from companies they say are enabling the conflict.
Hundreds of protesters from the University of Chicago, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Columbia College Chicago and Roosevelt University rallied in support of people living in Gaza.
Students linked arms and formed a line against police after Northwestern leaders said the tent encampment violated university policy. By 9 p.m. protest leaders were told by university officials that arrests could begin later in the evening.
By Isabel Funk
[month] [day], [year], [hour]:[minute][ampm] [timezone]
The joint statement is the latest attempt at public pressure to advance negotiations over a potential cease-fire with Israel.
The video is the first proof of life of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, who was captured Oct. 7 in southern Israel. His parents have Chicago ties. Last week, his mother was named one of Time magazine’s most influential people of 2024.
A window of the Andersonville feminist bookstore displaying a Palestine flag and a sign calling for a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war was shattered early Wednesday. Police are investigating.
By Kade Heather
[month] [day], [year], [hour]:[minute][ampm] [timezone]
The Democratic president Wednesday reached the end of a long, painful battle with Republicans to secure urgently needed replenishment of aid for Ukraine.
The continuing bloody war in Gaza — the 33,000 Palestinians killed and the unknown fate of Israeli hostages — casts a pall over Passover celebrations.
By Neil Steinberg
[month] [day], [year], [hour]:[minute][ampm] [timezone]
Chicago Reps. Delia Ramirez, Jesus ‘Chuy’ Garcia and Jonathan Jackson, all Democrats and the most pro-Palestinian members of the Illinois delegation, voted no on aid to Israel. GOP Rep. Darin LaHood split from his party to support aid to Ukraine.
By Lynn Sweet
[month] [day], [year], [hour]:[minute][ampm] [timezone]
“There’s all kinds of dangers that can happen,” said Itai Segre, a teacher who lives in Roscoe Village with family in Jerusalem.
By Mary Norkol
[month] [day], [year], [hour]:[minute][ampm] [timezone]
The strike came just days after Tehran’s unprecedented drone-and-missile assault on Israel.
Democrats are deeply focused on Wisconsin and Michigan to help bolster President Joe Biden’s re-election chances — and officials, in town for meetings hosted by the Democratic National Convention Committee, say they plan on showing voters a deep party contrast.
By Tina Sfondeles
[month] [day], [year], [hour]:[minute][ampm] [timezone]
Rachel Goldberg was named for her extensive campaign calling for the release of her son and the other hostages taken by Hamas on Oct. 7. She grew up in Streeterville.
The Rev. Frederick Haynes III, pastor of Friendship-West Baptist Church in Dallas, took over as president and CEO of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition in February and had planned to run the organization from Texas.
“In the 45 years since ADL began tracking antisemitic incidents in 1979, it has never been this bad,” said ADL Midwest regional director David Goldenberg. According to a new report, Illinois saw a 74% increase in antisemitic incidents in 2023.
By David Struett
[month] [day], [year], [hour]:[minute][ampm] [timezone]
About 20 elected officials and community organizers discussed ways the city can combat antisemitism, though attendees said it was just the start of the conversation. Ald. Debra Silverstein (50th) said the gesture was ‘hollow.’
By Violet Miller
[month] [day], [year], [hour]:[minute][ampm] [timezone]
The demonstration was part of a global “economic blockade to free Palestine,” according to organizers. Protesters also took to the streets in the San Francisco Bay Area, on the Brooklyn Bridge and Interstate 5 in Eugene, Oregon.
Speakers at a River North protest say the AMA exhibits a ‘double standard’ in calling for a cease-fire in Ukraine but not for one in Gaza. They also question $100,000 in aid sent to Ukraine.
By Violet Miller
[month] [day], [year], [hour]:[minute][ampm] [timezone]
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