UNC-Chapel Hill student encampment continues Monday, despite university warnings
By Liz Schlemmer
On April 29, 2024
Protesters call for an end to the war in Gaza, and demand UNC-Chapel Hill divest from companies that support Israel.
Protests continued Monday at an encampment at UNC Chapel Hill, as students called for the university to divest from investments that support Israel. Protesters also called for an end to the war in Gaza.
University administrators told protesters Sunday that they would need to take down their tents, but the encampment has stayed put.
At various times throughout Monday, students chanted, “We will not stop. We will not rest. Disclose. Divest.”
The group UNC Students for Justice in Palestine say UNC officials have not disclosed investments the university’s endowment has made in Israel or companies supporting Israel. The group wants the university to completely divest from any financial support of Israel, a similar demand of protests at college campuses around the country this week.
Protesters called for UNC-Chapel Hill to divest from companies that support Israel.
“This genocide cannot persist without U.S. support in the forms of funding, arms material (and) diplomatic cover,” said an organizer with UNC Students for Justice in Palestine who identified only as Sofie.
University administrators say the tents on Polk Place outside the Wilson Library violate a university policy that prohibits temporary structures on lawns beneath trees. Students for Justice in Palestine say the policy originated in the 1980s as a means to stem student protests against South African apartheid.
Organizers said they are preparing for possible arrest. Student organizers openly called on bullhorns for students at the protest to identify if they would be willing to be arrested or provide support to anyone arrested.
Last week, when students had first protested on campus, a spokesperson for UNC Chapel Hill said the protestors and the administration had come to a peaceful agreement to remove the tents.
On Oct. 7, Hamas-led militants killed 1,200 Israelis and took roughly 240 others hostage, according to Israeli authorities. Israel then launched a war against Hamas inside Gaza. According Gaza’s health ministry, Israel’s military response has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians, a majority of them women and children.
This piece was republished from WUNC.