We Violate University Policy You Violate International Law
UO Students for Justice in Palestine #35.4
Beginning 7 AM on Monday April 29, students are occupying the Knight Library Lawn at the University of Oregon campus to demand the university to do its part in ending the ongoing genocide of Palestinians.
Throughout the last century, Israel has solidified its colonial settler state through ethnic cleansing, mass displacement, and apartheid. Today, many Palestinians occupy the Gaza Strip, one of the most densely inhabited areas on earth, where the Israeli government has killed over 34,000 people in the past seven months. Israel’s targeted attacks on homes, hospitals, and key infrastructure are acts of genocide and must end.
University of Oregon students have set up a liberated zone on the UO campus as students at universities across the nation emerge as leaders in the fight for Palestinian liberation. We demand that our institutions boycott and divest from the state of Israel, Israeli companies, and any weapons or surveillance manufacturing. In addition, UO students demand the university put out statements and protections affirming the safety of Palestinian, Jewish, Muslim,
and Arab students on campus.
The UO Gaza Solidarity Encampment is part of one of the biggest student movements of the decade. Seeing these tents accumulate disrupts the aesthetic that universities attempt to display, especially during the touring season, insisting that attention is drawn to their sly complacency in the genocide.
“We violate university policy, you violate international law,” says Khoury at May 7th’s Defend Gaza Defend Each Other rally, a response to the university’s continued disregard and hostility towards the encampment and its very reasonable demands.
Since its start, the encampment has exponentially grown in size and support, as well as influenced the formation of the University of Oregon Faculty & Staff for Justice in Palestine group.
The marginal “debeautification” of UO’s campus hardly compares to the destruction caused by the genocide happening in Gaza, and by locating in one of the most picturesque parts of campus, UO administration cannot avert their eyes and will be forced to engage and listen to the demands of SJP, JVP, and other supporting groups.
Additionally, those who are protesting are standing in solidarity with the over a million displaced Palestinians. Ignoring or pettily complaining about the encampment only exposes your immense privilege where the largest inconvenience in your life is shutting off your phone to ignore the problems of the world.
Student leaders will be available for comment on-site, identifiable by red baseball caps.
The liberated zone is currently located on the Knight Library Lawn. It began at 7 AM on Monday, April 29, and will continue until demands are met by the university. Students call on students, faculty, and community members to stand with us.
