The encampment for Palestine in front of Foellinger Auditorium on the UIUC quad. Photo by Paul Mueth
From Friday, April 26 through Friday, May 10, we established a branch of the Popular University for Gaza at UIUC, joining the national student movement for Palestine. This encampment was just one small piece in the long movement for Palestinian liberation, one part of the fight for liberation for all. This was not the first encampment against apartheid established at UIUC, nor will it be the last. Students across the nation, including here in Urbana-Champaign, have used their voices to stand up in support of human rights. Members of the community joined with students and faculty to demand that our institutions stop funding genocide.
The encampment began on Friday at the Alma Mater statue by the Illini Union. It brought together UIUC students, faculty, and staff, and Urbana-Champaign community members, to show solidarity for Gaza, demand freedom for all Palestine, and learn about the history of this movement and of anti-colonial struggles in general. Tents were erected as a symbol of our solidarity with refugees in Gaza, and to prepare for a long-term protest. The demands of the protest were:
- Divest: UIUC must divest from any organizations or corporations that profit from or support the occupation of Palestine.
- Disclose: UIUC must publicly disclose all financial assets, including investments, endowments, and other holdings, to ensure full transparency and accountability.
- Cease Collaborations: UIUC must cease collaborations with Israeli institutions as well as all corporations involved in the ongoing oppression of Palestinians, such as Caterpillar.
- Student Amnesty: UIUC must offer complete amnesty to all student protesters and halt any and all forms of repression against those advocating for justice.
Within an hour of the start of the encampment, the UIUC administration attempted to shut it down using police assistance. Rather than engage with student activists directly, the administration chose to resort to threats of violence and police intervention. On Friday evening, facing the imminent mass arrest of all protesters, organizers announced that that encampment would be temporarily disbanded. On Sunday, April 28, the encampment was reestablished on the UIUC Main Quad, in front of Foellinger Auditorium. It stood in that location for the next twelve days, maintained day and night, hosting teach-ins, rallies, press conferences, and negotiations, and providing space for community cohesion and support. In the early morning of Friday, May 10, the encampment was again temporarily disbanded, as numbers were diminishing due to students leaving for the summer.
A library was set up at the encampment
The encampment was a place to chant, a place to learn, a place to pray, a place to plan, and a place to come together. At rallies, we chanted alongside hundreds of fellow protesters to show solidarity with Gaza. We hung “Free Palestine” banners and made signs. Over the course of the encampment, student negotiators provided updates on their daily, hourslong discussions with university administration. The negotiators were some of the students who had been involved in pro-Palestine organizing on campus for the longest, including members of pro-Palestinian student groups and Palestinian-American students. While prospects looked promising at times, no meaningful steps through the university administration ultimately happened. But the encampment’s success is not controlled by the university administration. The encampment provided a community space that this campus deeply needed. It brought people who may have never met together. Whether stopping by for an hour or sleeping there at night, having a meal or dropping off a tray, reapplying sunscreen or grabbing a snack, the encampment brought people of all sorts of motivations and backgrounds to the movement. We were visited by two Illinois State Representatives, Abdulnasser Rashid and Carol Ammons, who came to meet us and voice their support for Gaza. Rep. Rashid is the first Palestinian-American to be elected to the Illinois State House, and Rep. Ammons is the representative for the Champaign-Urbana area. The encampment allowed our elected officials to come together with their constituents over our shared concerns.
Food being served at the encampment
As educators, we saw students from diverse backgrounds and disciplines, drawing from their individual perspectives, come together to try to solve real-world problems. We learned about the mechanics of organizing activist movements and the long history of suppression of the pro-Palestinian movement at UIUC, including the 2014 firing of a newly hired Palestinian- and Jordanian-American tenured faculty, Steven Salaita, for tweets made about the 2014 Israeli invasion of Gaza. We learned about disability justice and its connections to militarism: a large fraction of Palestinians are disabled or will be disabled by the occupation. One teach-in focused on food autonomy. We heard from students in disciplines ranging from urban planning and mechanical engineering to English and studio art discuss what they know and what they had learned from their favorite classes, and think critically about how to move forward. It is the most engaged we have ever seen our undergraduate students. This was the ethos going into teach-ins on a variety of topics around pressing issues our society faces.
Public I reader at the encampment. Photo by Janice Jayes]
As spiritual individuals, we witnessed a confluence of spiritual practices taking place together in harmony. For example, Jews for Ceasefire, a Jewish community organization, hosted Shabbat dinner at the encampment, bringing homemade food for everyone—bridging the divide between community and campus. Jews for Palestine, a Jewish student group, led us in Shabbat services, just before Muslims at the encampment observed Maghrib (sunset) prayers. It was a unique experience of interfaith solidarity. We learned about so many different faith-based and science-based grounding practices, as we reflected on our joint moral struggles in the face of our complicity to horrific genocide. Not only did the encampment bring together people across disciplines, religions, and communities, it also served as a multigenerational space. First-year students talked with emeritus professors, retirees, and parents about how we can strategize to stop genocide. The liberatory goals of the encampment brought people together. It was a space to build, together. The tents may be gone, but the community ties remain; the new relationships continue to thrive. We have experienced firsthand how much value there is in working together. The encampment has been taken down, but the fight for a free Palestine is far from over. The encampment will return in the fall. Over the summer, we continue to build power from the ground up. You can get involved—look at this calendar for upcoming pro-Palestine events: http://bit.ly/CU-Pali-Events. Consider joining the mailing list via the link at the top of the calendar page.
Due to community organizing, the Urbana City Council called for a cessation of violence, and we think the Champaign City Council can do even more. Echoing the demands of the students at the encampment, we in the community want to see our city divest from companies that are implicated in gross human rights violations. Most materially this would mean divesting from the Illinois Funds, a state-run fund in which 4 percent of the holdings are in companies that profit from genocide in Palestine, and from militarism around the world. Champaign has $4 million invested in the Illinois Funds right now. Consider emailing your city council members and showing up to city hall on the first and third Tuesday of each month at 7 pm. As a community, we see how the fight for the liberation of Palestine is deeply connected to our own lives. We want to see our governments and institutions divest from war and invest in our people. Join us as we continue to work in solidarity towards a better future.
Clara Belitz is a member of UC Jews for Ceasefire and a former Co-President of the Graduate Employees’ Organization at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
Sana Saboowala is a member of CU Muslim Action Committee and the Graduate Employees’ Organization at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
Izzy Grosof is a member of UC Jews for Ceasefire and a postdoc at UIUC.
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