SEATTLE — The deadline for pro-Palestinian protesters to clear the lawn at the University of Washington was 3 p.m. Monday and the vast majority of the people appear to have obliged.
As the tents come down, the protesters remain hopeful their message was heard.
“Despite the liberated zone disbanding, we’re not done. We’ll never be done until Palestine is free,” said UW graduate student Juliette Majid.
UW’s encampment started at the end of April and mirrored similar scenes on college campuses across the country. Protesters are calling for an end to hostilities between Israel and Hamas – a conflict that’s claimed tens of thousands of civilians, mostly in Gaza.
“What we should be remembering in the future isn’t the student movement, it isn’t the liberated zones. It was the destruction, the apartheid, and the genocide of the Palestinian people and their steadfastness in their fight for survival and their fight for freedom,” Majid said.
Tensions came to a head in mid-March – as counter-protesters in support of Israel faced off against masked protesters behind a makeshift barricade. Over the course of the encampment, several buildings were vandalized, and just last week, the Anti-Defamation League claimed 30 buildings were vandalized with “antisemitic rhetoric.”
The university and the United Front for Palestinian Liberation reached a deal Friday. It agreed to fund efforts to support Palestinian students and studies in addition to increasing transparency about investments.
As part of the deal, the university agreed to some of the protesters’ demands, including the following:
- If the criteria are met to establish an Advisory Committee on Socially Responsible Investing, two representatives recommended by the United Front for Palestinian Liberation will be advanced to the committee
- Waive tuition for at least 20 Palestinian students from Gaza
- Establish a faculty committee to recommend changes to study-abroad programs
- Help faculty pursue academic connections with Palestinian universities
- UW will be transparent about investment holdings and fund managers and have no direct investments in Boeing, major weapons manufacturers, or companies domiciled in Israel
Read the full agreement here.
Protesters say this is not a win – though they are conceding agreeing to clear the campus for now.
As part of the agreement the university has agreed to forgo referrals for citations or conduct violations for camping provided they cleared the area before that 3 p.m. deadline.