By SUSAN JONES
If you drive down Fifth Avenue today past the Cathedral of Learning, you might never realize there was a pro-Palestinian protest and encampment on the lawn over the past two days.
But those inside and outside of the encampment managed to make a lot of noise during the 36 hours they held court on the corner near Bigelow Boulevard.
The Post-Gazette reported that the protest ended and the encampment dispersed peacefully around 2 a.m. Tuesday after representatives from the encampment met with Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey and his staff. Earlier in the day, people in the encampment refused to talk to media, saying they only wanted to talk to Gainey or Pitt Chancellor Joan Gabel.
Pittsburgh Deputy Mayor Jake Pawlak told the Tribune-Review that city officials were present for negotiations, but University officials were not.
The University issued a statement today: “Following two days of demonstrations, protestors voluntarily left the encampment Tuesday morning. The mayor’s office, in close coordination with University leadership and public safety teams from the University of Pittsburgh, City of Pittsburgh Police, Allegheny County Sheriff’s office, and Pennsylvania State Police led negotiations with protestors who were largely unaffiliated with the University. The Cathedral of Learning lawn is now cleared, and the rest of the campus is open and under normal operations.”
The protesters inside the encampment were demanding that Pitt divest from companies and institutions that “profit from Israeli apartheid, genocide and occupation of Palestine,” along with a long list of other demands, which can be found on the Pitt Divest from Apartheid Instagram page. They ultimately want a ceasefire by Israel against Gaza.
The group had not issued a statement about disbanding the camp by midday Tuesday.
In an email on Monday, Chancellor Gabel said, “The protesters originally claimed to be a group of autonomous students supported by Pitt Divest from Apartheid, which is not a registered student organization and is not affiliated with the University in any capacity.Now, a group of self-proclaimed leaders is emerging and insisting on meetings. None of these leaders are students, and their affiliations are with organizations that also have no connection to the University.”
She also said that the Cathedral of Learning had been defaced, “including the placing of materials in the revolving doorway nearest the encampment with what appeared to be the intent to ignite those materials. The exterior of the Frick Fine Arts Building was also defaced with antisemitic graffiti, and a weapon was thrown through a window.”
The protesters loudly disputed they had anything to do with the Frick Fine Arts Building graffiti and said students definitely were involved in the encampment.
Gabel also reiterated the University’s commitment to“free expression and critical inquiry as core to our mission and key to a vibrant university environment.” But she said on Monday, “we have no illusionsthat theeffortsof this grouplast nightare directed toward free expression. They are markedly different from the largely peaceful protest in Schenley Plaza in April. Rather, what we saw last night, and continue to see, are attempts to destroy property at the historical core of our campus, as well as accompanying action that inno way elevates open inquiry or allows for peaceful advocacy.”
How the protest started
Around 200 people converged on the Cathedral lawn on Sunday evening and barricades made from boards and wire fencing were quickly erected, along with tents. Forces from Pitt Police, the city of Pittsburgh, Allegheny County Police, Pennsylvania State Police, Carnegie Mellon University and Carlow University were called to the site, “due to the number of protesters present,” a Pitt spokesperson said.
Unlike the encampment on Schenley Plaza in April, police were not allowing the protesters to come and go from the site or for those outside the encampment to pass items like water to those inside. WTAE reported that the protest became more confrontational Sunday night as protesters outside the encampment ran past police, trying to bring water bottles in one by one, and police moved to stop them.
One person, Donald Johnson, 33, of Pittsburgh, was charged Sunday night with aggravated assault, resisting arrest and obstruction, according to Pitt Police. Johnson is not affiliated with Pitt, a University spokesperson said.
On Monday morning, Pitt Police set up their own barricades around 30 to 50 feet outside the encampment to keep those outside the barriers from approaching the protesters inside and providing supplies.
Throughout the day on Monday, protesters inside and outside the encampment chanted the now familiar slogan, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” along with taunts at police that they should quit their jobs and loud demands to speak to Gabel and Gainey.
In addition to wanting Pitt to divest from Israeli-related funds, the protesters list of demands included:
- Disclosing all University investments.
- Terminating Pitt’s chapter of Hillel and the Student Coalition for Israel at Pitt.
- Refusing grants from U.S.-Israel Binational Science Foundation.
- A cultural and academic boycott of Israeli universities and institutions.
- A statement from Pitt standing in solidarity with the Palestinian people and condemning Israeli destruction if Palestinian universities.
- A formal apology from Chancellor Gabel.
- Demilitarize the campus police by removing all armed officers and sever ties with Pittsburgh Polices for all on-campus events.
- Dropping of charges against students arrested during the protest.
By late Monday morning, only around 10 tents were visible inside the encampment, and there appeared to be fewer than 50 people, most wearing masks, still inside the barricades. Police officers circled the encampment, and the sidewalk was closed along Fifth Avenue from Bigelow Boulevard to the side entrance of the Cathedral. Only those with Pitt ID could enter the Cathedral, which was largely deserted.
People outside the barricade tried to get water into the encampment by lobbing water bottles, which had varying degrees of success.
Several news sources reported that tempers flared again and there were some physical confrontations between police and protesters late Monday as people outside the encampment tried to bring supplies in.
After discussions with Gainey, the crowd dispersed peacefully and crews from Facilities Management had the area cleared by this morning.
In a statement today, Maria Montano, communications director for Mayor Gainey, said: “Our number one priority last night was to find a path towards a peaceful resolution so that everyone could go home safely. I want to be clear: while demonstrators reiterated some of their demands as part of the discussion, the primary focus of this meeting was not about their demands, but about how we could find a way to resolve the conflict on Pitt’s campus peacefully. Our decision to meet with them was in no way an endorsem*nt of those demands.”
She said they also clarified the mayor’s and county executive’s roles as non-voting members of the University’s Board of Trustees, and made clear that the mayor and city could not and would not negotiate on behalf of the University. The mayor also “provided our assessment of what was likely to happen in the wake of violence at the encampment, to enable protesters to make informed decisions.”
Gabel said in her message yesterday that “Our senior leadership team remains committed to meeting with students, faculty and staff to hear concerns.”
Community reaction
Representatives from several community groups gathered outside the encampment on Monday to voice support for those inside, while others commented online that some of the protesters’ demands, particularly the call to disband Hillel, were antisemitic.
Tanisha Long of the Abolitionists Law Center was the first of several people to speak to the media at a news conference near the barricades. She said the protesters “deserve to know how the University is spending their money. They deserve to have their calls for divestment answered. They deserve for the chancellor to come and speak with them.”
One masked speaker, who did not give her name, said she was with the Jewish Voice for Peace, and “We're showing up lovingly Jewish and unequivocally anti Zionist. We call for a permanent ceasefire.”
Mizanoor Biswas is past president of the Islamic Center of Pittsburgh, but said he was representing his son who just graduated from Pitt Pharmacy. He said he’s ashamed that he spent $39,000 a year to send his son to Pitt and now the chancellor won’t come talk to these students. “This is what we get as a consumer of this university? That's pathetic. I don't care what side of the aisle you are in, but you should come and show your students respect.”
The next speaker, Chad Collins, pastor of Valleyview Presbyterian Church in Garfield and an organizer for Friends of Sabeel North America, said that his wife and daughter were in the encampment — neither is currently a Pitt student. Collins said he and his wife are alumni. He called on Mayor Gainey to come talk to the protesters. He also said the Presbyterian Church is a good model for how to invest morally.
Ilyas Khan, a student at Carnegie Mellon University and organizer for the environment-oriented group Sunrise Movement Pittsburgh, said, “We cannot have environmental justice anywhere without decolonization everywhere.”
Other groups represented included Tri-state Abortion Action; the Palestinian-led group Boycott, Divest, Sanctions; and Pittsburgh Green New Deal.
The final speaker was Karim Alshurafa, a Gazan Palestinian who has been in Pittsburgh for 13 years. He said he is a spokesperson for the Palestinian community in Pittsburgh, which numbers around 400, and a member of the Palestinian Solidarity Committee. Alshurafa said he still has many family members in Gaza and “a lot of people don't know that they have nowhere to go and they're literally locked into a place where they're getting rained on with bombs and have to forcibly displace from one place to another. The whole idea is to get them out of Gaza.”
He said the Palestinian community supports this encampment and others “to get the attention of those institutions that are currently supporting a genocidal regime.”
Susan Jones is editor of the University Times. Reach her at suejones@pitt.edu or 724-244-4042.
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