GOODBYE!: Police round up University of Chicago pro-Hamas goons
Police at the University of Chicago have begun to clear the anti-Israel campus occupation on early Tuesday morning.
Police at the University of Chicago have begun to clear the anti-Israel campus occupation on early Tuesday morning.
According to the Chicago Maroon, police told anti-Israel protesters to leave the encampment or face arrest at 4:25 a.m.
By 4:45 a.m., police entered the encampment and began clearing out tents.
BREAKING: Police have raided the encampment at the University of Chicago:
🧵 pic.twitter.com/YczszNh98B— Steve McGuire (@sfmcguire79) May 7, 2024
University of Chicago President Paul Alivisatos wrote in an email to the campus community that administrators “could not come to a resolution” with protesters during negotiations, stating “ultimately a number of the intractable and inflexible aspects of their demands were fundamentally incompatible with the University’s principled dedication to institutional neutrality.”
[RELATED: Deported terrorist speaks to University of Chicago Hamas-endorsed encampment]
Alivisatos said that “where appropriate disciplinary action will proceed.”
A notice given to individuals inside the encampment states that students who don’t leave will be placed on an “emergency interim leave of absence from the university.
The final notice that was given to protestors at the University of Chicago:
“If you fail to immediately leave, you will be arrested.” pic.twitter.com/kgHAkvRncW— Steve McGuire (@sfmcguire79) May 7, 2024
Alivisatos wrote that while “Protest is a strongly protected form of speech in the UChicago culture... many aspects of the protests also interfered with the free expression, learning, and work of others.”
”Safety concerns have mounted over the last few days, and the risks were increasing too rapidly for the status quo to hold. This morning, the University intervened to end the encampment,” he wrote.
The University of Chicago, unlike other elite colleges, let its encampment stand after it was established early last week, only becoming more hostile to the campus occupation as time went on.
Notably, a deported terrorist spoke to the encampment via Zoom last week.
UChicago United for Palestine, which describes itself as a coalition of student organizations and organized the University of Chicago encampment, said on Instagram that it hosted Sami Al-Arian over Zoom on Wednesday.
Al-Arian was arrested in 2003, but a grand jury deadlocked on three out of the four most serious charges against him, according to the DOJ, which noted that he ultimately pleaded guilty to a charge of conspiring to provide services to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. He was previously a professor at the University of South Florida.
