Students, Faculty for Justice in Palestine at U of I choosing to take down Main Quad encampment

URBANA, Ill. (WAND) — Faculty for Justice in Palestine and Students for Justice and Palestine at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign released a joint statement Friday regarding the status of the Popular University for Gaza.

On April 26, students at UIUC started an encampment near the Alma Mater statue to establish the Popular University for Gaza.

"After an unprecedented display of police brutality and bad faith negotiations, students eventually relocated to the Main Quad, where they have been for the past 12 days. During this time, student organizers and faculty representatives were engaged in a series of negotiation sessions with the UIUC administrators. SJP laid out the process of those negotiations in detail in a press release published on May 6," the statement said.

"For nearly two weeks, students, faculty, and community members have formed a vibrant and safe community on the Main Quad. The Popular University has been a space for people to learn about solidarity and put it into practice."

UIUC SJP and FJP said students have received donations, hot meals, snacks, and supplies from the community.

"Teach-ins connecting this struggle to previous ones from South African apartheid to the Vietnam War, craft sessions, instruction sessions, tutor-ins, film screenings, and more have been organized–all with the goal of enriching our community’s understanding of Palestine and related issues. This encampment has offered students, faculty, staff, and the community a chance to come together to learn about our different positionalities and experiences, achieving more in twelve days than most official Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion efforts sanctioned by the University. The Popular University for Gaza has done more to bring the walls down between the community and the University than the University has done in all of its initiatives and investments. Through all of this foundational work, a new coalition has emerged that is dedicated to the cause of Palestinian liberation and divestment on our campus and the movement for a free Palestine is the strongest it has ever been," the statement continued.

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On Friday, May 10, the Popular University moved off the Main Quad.

UIUC SJP and FJP said this marks the completion of the first step in their campaign to demand that UIUC divest from companies that "contribute to the genocide in Gaza and oppression of Palestinians more broadly."

"We have chosen to temporarily take down the encampment on our terms, knowing that our victory is in the movement we have built. As it continues to grow, so will our push for divestment as a stronger coalition," the group said.

'We are a part of the broader SJP movement and the historic mobilizations across the world. We have seen violent repression of peaceful student movements on a national scale, with officers brutalizing students in riot gear, tasing already detained protestors, and installing snipers on campus building rooftops. Here, in Illinois, State Attorney Julia Rietz has expressed her intention to crack down on protestors with the most extreme punishments as we saw on the first day of the encampment at Alma, making it clear how unsafe our actions were. The deployment of militarized police is a response to the power we have when we come together to challenge the University’s profit-centered ethos."

"The U of I System puts millions of dollars into the Israeli war machine, and refuses to acknowledge it," the group said. "The U of I System must be held accountable for its complicity in the ongoing genocide in Gaza and the occupation of Palestine. We will not stop until this University has severed ties from corporations that have contributed to the slaughter of over 40,000 innocent Palestinians, and most importantly, until Palestine is free."