After nearly two weeks, protestors at the University of Illinois have evacuated their encampment on the main quad just ahead of graduation weekend. The small tent city has left its mark on the otherwise well-kempt sod, but it isn’t clear if the sit-in style protest, which focused on the ongoing war efforts by Israel upon Gaza, has had the intended effect on University administration.
The protests and accompanying encampment first began about a block north around April 26th, near the UIUC Alma Mater statue south of Green Street and west of the Union Building. Police made efforts to disperse that encampment, but it was quickly rebuilt on the main quad around April 28th without any apparent resistance from police or University administration.
One notable action that the University may have taken in response to the encampment on the main quad was to disable the publicly accessible 24/7 stream of the quad camera. However, the Daily Illini quickly set up their own livestream of the encampment on their Instagram page, and kept it running around the clock for the nearly two weeks. This involved a constant cycling of Daily Illini volunteers to oversee the streaming equipment on site.
The evacuation of the main quad encampment, which began in the early AM hours on May 10th, is said to be only temporary by organizers of the protest.
In a statement released on their Instagram page, Students for Justice in Palestine wrote:
“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.”
Check CU provides a few video clips of the encampment below.