UT demonstrators vow to push limits on protesting
No arrests as Friday’s session passes deadline
Pro-Palestinian demonstrators on Friday marshaled one of their biggest turnouts since they began gathering May 1 on the University of Tennessee at Knoxville campus to demand UT take action to divorce itself from any relationships that support Israeli treatment of Palestinians.
About 135 people joined the demonstrations on the lawn and sidewalk outside the UT Student Union, and the group crafted and issued a mission statement that honed their demands, calling more broadly for the university’s “divestment from weapons manufacturers and the corporations complicit in the continuous horrific Palestinian genocide.”
Frustrated about UT’s time, place and manner restrictions – rules that put limits on when, where and how demonstrations can occur – about 35 demonstrators broke the rules Friday, staying three hours past the mandated end time of 10 p.m. Time, place and manner restrictions routinely pass constitutional muster, and the university has created broad rules that reserve the favored space of the demonstrators outside the Student Union and stretch from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. every day.
There have been no arrests during the peaceful demonstrations since May 2, when nine people – seven students and two community members – were arrested. The students were referred for student conduct investigations and the others were cited for criminal trespass.
How the university and police respond to the demonstrators, especially if they violate the 10 p.m. deadline, is tricky and a source of constant discussion among the group. A state law passed following the George Floyd police accountability demonstrations in 2020 strengthened a “camping” law intended to prevent sustained protests, in part by elevating the penalty to a felony.
UT’s time, place and manner rules follow the camping law restriction of banning demonstrations from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. The pro-Palestinian demonstrators have been acutely conscious of how the state law defines camping, such as “laying down a sleeping bag, blanket or other material used for bedding” at any time during the day, and have been careful to avoid doing anything described in the law. Still, they are subject to the university’s rules after 10 p.m. even if they are not triggering the more severe consequences of the camping law.
When the deadline approached Friday, the 35 or so demonstrators who committed to facing arrest remained on
the lawn at the Student Union, while about 100 others moved to the public sidewalk fronting Cumberland Avenue.
Their location on the sidewalk on the Strip led to a few tense moments when it brought together people leaving the nearby Zach Bryan concert at Thompson-Boling Arena at Food City Center and the normal bar crowd. Some people taunted the demonstrators, including one shirtless man who shook an American flag at them as a woman trailing him displayed obscene gestures. The scene remained peaceful as the demonstrators celebrated at the end of the night their efforts to engage even hostile passers-by in productive conversations.
Six people at the site wore green hats labeled “National Lawyers Guild Legal Observers,” and told Knox News they were there to take notes and recordings of what happened and that their observations would be protected under attorney-client privilege.
The demonstrators discussed the consequences of breaking the rules and the law. Maha Ayesh, a UT alumna and local lawyer asked the group, “Do you think that when they walked across the bridge in Selma, they weren’t shutting down the road? Do you think that protests are ever designed to not be disruptive? The purpose of protest and the purpose of civil disobedience is to be disruptive in a nonviolent way.”
As the clock neared 1 a.m., three hours after the deadline to clear the space outside the Student Union, the demonstrators all gathered on the grassy hill, satisfied they were leaving on their own terms. Saying that free speech and human rights “have no bedtime,” the group completed a “one-minute march” along Cumberland Avenue toward downtown, culminating in a brief session of chanting “free Palestine!” and dancing before they broke up for the night.
UT administration officials have tried to engage with demonstrators in several ways, including sending people to the demonstration in the early days to explain the university’s rules for ongoing protests. They also provided May 7 an explanation of their investments, sending a letter to Students for Justice in Palestine that it has no direct investment in
Pro-Palestinian students and community members go on a short march at approximately 1 a.m. Saturday in front of the University of Tennessee’s Student Union.
companies in Israel, and that money for investments comes from donations, not
tuition. UT said investments are made globally through third-party funds and it estimates 0.2% of the portfolio is invested in Israel-based companies.
Additionally, the university said it does not have any faculty-led study abroad programs to Israel, and its affiliate provider, the University Studies Abroad Consortium, has no plans to lead a program there next year.
The university affirmed it recognizes the right to assemble and would protect Students for Justice in Palestine members’ First Amendment rights, but that it also will continue to enforce state law and university policy.
The conversations between the university and demonstrators is complicated because there are no leaders of the demonstrations, and there are different groups represented, including the People’s School of Gaza, which has played the most prominent role in the activism.
That sets up a potential showdown at any point if the demonstrators continue to press through the 10 p.m. deadline, as they did May 10.
Knox News reporters Areena Arora, Daniel Dassow, Angela Dennis, Hayden Dunbar, Silas Sloan and Devarrick Turner contributed to this report.