Pro-Palestinian Protestors Reach Deal With Northwestern Administration Over Encampment

EVANSTON, IL — Five days after pro-Palestinian students and staff of Northwestern University who pitched tents on campus were confronted by university security forces, school officials announced they had cut a deal with protest organizers.

Under the agreement, encampment established on Deering Meadow in solidarity with the people of the Gaza Strip can remain, but all but one tent must be removed and no unauthorized outsiders or amplified sound will be permitted.

Pro-Palestinian protestors will be permitted to continue to peacefully demonstrate at the meadow until spring classes end on June 1.

"For any demonstrators refusing to comply with the agreed-upon path forward, the University will take action to protect the safety of the community and enforce University rules and policies," according to a joint statement from the University President Michael Schill, Provost Kathleen Hagerty and Vice President of Student Affairs Susan Davis. "These steps will include the suspension of non-compliant students and a requirement that non-affiliated individuals leave campus."

The two-page agreement also includes a pledge to hire two visiting Palestinian faculty members per year for the next two years and provide free tuition to five Palestinian students to attend Northwestern for undergraduate studies.

---

University officials also pledged to immediately provide a temporary space for Middle Eastern, North African and Muslim students and to build a new house for Muslim students by around 2026.

"This agreement was forged by the hard work of students and faculty working closely with members of the administration to help ensure that the violence and escalation we have seen elsewhere does not happen here at Northwestern," administrators said in the joint statement.

After fending off efforts from school authorities to clear the Gaza solidarity encampment Thursday, about 100 pro-Israel counter-protestors showed up on Sunday.

Demonstrators on both sides waved flags and chanted, at times separated by school security officers, according to video from the confrontation.

Pro-Palestinian protestors said they were shoved, spit upon and called slurs by some of the counter-protestors.

The "aggression included Zionists putting hands on students, shouting racial slurs, laughing about genocide and other forms of provocations and acts of intimidation," according to a statement from a demonstrator shared by organizers, which suggested the counter-protest had been coordinated by the Anti-Defamation League, or ADL.

"Reported antisemitic and anti-Muslim/Palestinian incidents over the weekend — in most cases, fueled by demonstrators who are not affiliated with Northwestern — are unacceptable and cannot continue, and this agreement will help to ensure that," university officials said in the statement announcing the agreement. "Acts of antisemitism, anti-Muslim/Arab racism, and hate will not be tolerated, and community members who can be identified participating in such acts will face disciplinary action."

Some Jewish students have condemned the rhetoric and signage of the protest as antisemitic, while some of the occupants of the encampment, which is being organized in part by Jewish Voice for Peace, described antisemitism directed at them by the counter-protestors.

David Goldenberg, Midwest regional director of the ADL, was among those outside Deering Library calling for an end to the encampment on Sunday.

"The encampment's been around for the last three days against university policies and codes of conduct," Goldenberg said in a video. "We've heard from many Jewish students who feel uncomfortable or unsafe on campus."

The ADL this year revised its definition of antisemitism to include rallies that include "anti-Zionist chants and slogans," leading to a sharp increase in its tally of antisemitic incidents.

Rabbi Dov Klein told WLS that the counter-protest was organized a day earlier by Jewish students, rather than by the ADL as the pro-Palestinian protestors suggested.

In a positive development, Klein said some people from both sides stepped away from a standoff in order to talk with one another.

"There was a lot of shouting going on, but then there was also some dialogue that was going on, which I think was very important," said Klein, the executive director of Chabad of Evanston, the local branch of the Hasidic movement.

In addition to protests, the Gaza solidarity encampment has included cultural activities, educational workshops, artistic efforts, communal meals and preparations for arrests, according to Daily

Organizers of the encampment — NU Educators for Justice in Palestine, NU Students for Justice in Palestine and NU Jewish Voice for Peace — have issued a series of demands to university leaders, including divesting Northwestern's $14.1 billion endowment from Israel and ending an academic partnership with Israel.

"Given the International Court of Justice’s preliminary ruling on the matter of genocide in Gaza, Northwestern University could be found guilty by association as a public relations partner of the settler colony of Israel," according to the resolution laying out the demonstrators demands, which had collected more than 2,700 signatures by Monday afternoon.

It also calls on Schill to "condemn the targeted harassment of students and the disproportionate censorship of pro-Palestine speech."

Shortly after the pro-Palestinian protestors began erecting their encampment on Thursday, Schill issued new rules restricting the types demonstrations permitted on campus.

Schill issued a statement that morning claiming the encampment had been cleared, but before most people had gotten a chance to read it, the tents were back up.

Earlier: Northwestern's Private Security Force Fails To Clear Gaza Solidary Camp

---

It was the latest example of botched crisis communication from the university president, who has faced criticism over his handling of a hazing scandal in the athletic department — first giving Pat Fitzgerald a slap on the wrist before reversing course and firing him — and over the Israel-Hamas conflict, where he first declined to officially condemn the Oct. 7 attacks and caught heat from both sides.

Speaking on the condition of anonymity in December, one Northwestern trustee and "another person close to the board" both told Crain's Chicago Business that they doubted that Schill, who has only been on the job for 18 months, would be able to remain in office following further flubs when it comes to crisis communication.

The Northwestern encampment, which followed similar efforts at college campuses across the country, was established 200 days after the latest round of violence between Arabs and Israelis, which began with the deadliest attack on Israel in its 75-year history.

Since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks, which led to the deaths of nearly 800 civilians and the capture of about 250 hostages, the Israeli military has killed more than 34,000 people in Gaza, where health officials do not differentiate between civilian and military fatalities.

While some local activists have pushed for the city of Evanston to weigh in on the Israel-Hamas conflict, no north suburban town has done so. The debate last year over whether the city's Equity and Empowerment Commission should consider a ceasefire resolution led to the firing of the city's chief equity staffer, according to a lawsuit he filed.

Betsy Wilson, a leader with the pro-resolution group Ceasefire Evanston, juxtaposed the actions of protesting private school students with local elected officials.

“The Evanston government has been shirking their responsibility to address the war in Gaza. The Evanston clergy have already declared that this is an issue that deeply affects Evanston," Wilson told Patch. "Now Northwestern students are vividly showing us that effect! Why are the students braver than our mayor and city council members!?"

UPDATE: Northwestern Pro-Palestinian Protestors Claim 'Historic' Victory