Police detain dozens of ‘Gaza solidarity’ protesters at UNC tent encampment
CHARLOTTE, N.C.
Police at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill detained members of a pro-Palestinian “Gaza solidarity encampment” early Tuesday morning after a university warning to the group to remove its tents or face possible arrest, suspension or expulsion from the university.
UNC interim Chancellor Lee Roberts and Provost Chris Clemens announced in a statement at 5:37 a.m. that the protesters “must remove all tents, tables, and other items and depart from the area” of the encampment — Polk Place, the university’s main quad in the central part of campus.
“Failure to follow this order to disperse will result in consequences including possible arrest, suspension from campus and, ultimately, expulsion from the university, which may prevent students from graduating,” Roberts and Clemens stated.
In a news release, the university said campus police “calmly approached the group” at 6 a.m. and detained about 30 people who refused to leave.
“During that time, the protesters attempted to block the UNC Police vehicles by standing in front of them and throwing items at officers,” the UNC release stated. “Polk Place was cleared in approximately 45 minutes. Afterwards, UNC Facilities cleared the area of significant debris.
“After the area was cleared, the remaining protesters escalated their tactics, attempting to forcibly enter South Building by pushing officers and refusing to comply with requests from Facilities and UNC Police,” the release stated.
The UNC chapter of Students for Justice for Palestine, meanwhile, tweeted that people were “violently arrested.”
Orange County Sheriff’s Office deputies helped UNC police with safety, security and the transport of those arrested to the magistrate’s office in Hillsborough, according to spokeswoman Alicia Stemper.
The arrested “students and community members” were released, according to social media posts by Students for Justice for Palestine, which initially organized the encampment Friday.
Social media videos posted by Students for Justice for Palestine appeared to show police from other universities in the UNC System, including Appalachian State University.
A system spokesperson, Andy Wallace, confirmed to The News & Observer that officers from “a number of UNC System campuses” were involved Tuesday. System schools have a “longstanding protocol of providing mutual assistance when the need arises,” he said. Wallace did not answer a question from The N&O about which universities sent officers.
Chapel Hill city police were not involved, a municipal spokesperson said.
The videos showed police surrounding the protesters as they linked arms inside the encampment.
Outside Gerrard Hall, Ariana Vigil said she saw nothing that would have warranted police being called to campus. “It’s uncalled for,” she said.
The associate professor of women’s and gender studies had arrived around 8 a.m. but said she has supported the protesters all weekend and had even brought her 6-year-old daughter to see the encampment.
“At no point have I seen anything that was unsafe until police came here,” she said.
Orange-Chatham District Attorney Jeff Nieman was headed into the office on Tuesday morning and said he had not been consulted yet about the arrests.
“We’ll always take everything on a case-bycase basis, and we’ll do what we always do, which is evaluate whether or not we agree the law has been violated and it was properly enforced,” Nieman said. “If so, we will prosecute the cases.”
By 8:30 a.m., the university had put barriers up to keep people off the central part of the quad where the encampment had stood.
Signs that previously were staked in the encampment had been moved elsewhere on the quad Tuesday morning, with several lining the bushes in front of South Building, which houses the chancellor’s office.
Students, faculty and other community members gathered at the steps of Wilson Library at 11:30 a.m. for a silent vigil in support of Palestinians. After an organizer read off statistics about the number of people killed in the Gaza Strip during the IsraelHamas war, more than 100 attendees sat in silence around the library and on the quad.
At noon, the demonstrators began marching to South Building, on the other end of the quad. The group, hundreds strong, chanted “Free, free Palestine,” and “long live the intifada,” and voiced other slogans.
Student organizers continued to call on the university to disclose its investments and to divest from companies related to Israel.
Facing South Building, a protester used a megaphone to address those inside and demand divestment.