Nearly 70 pro-Palestinian protesters were arrested outside the Art Institute of Chicago on Saturday as anti-Israel protests continue to expand in the nation’s big cities.
The Chicago Police said some of those responsible for trying to set up the encampment were students at the School of the Art Institute along with members of Columbia College Chicago. The CPD moved in and tore down the tents after 4:30 p.m.
According to Art Institute administrators, officials tried to work with the protesting students to set up their tents in a location other than the north garden, but protest leaders, some of whom were not students at the school, refused to engage in discussions. Officials even noted that they offered dispensation for the protesters and would have shielded them from any disciplinary measures if they worked with school administrators to hold their protest in a more suitable place.
The Chicago Police Department also claimed to have tried talking with the protesters, but after two hours of failed negotiations, and three warnings, the police gave up and moved in to clear them.
The Art Institute said they respected the rights of the group to protest, but when they turned threatening and violent, their support came to an end.
The school issued a statement saying:
The Art Institute of Chicago respects a group’s right to peacefully protest without harming staff and visitors. Today, a group of individuals, including some SAIC students, began a protest in the museum’s North Garden, and as it progressed, protesters surrounded and shoved a security officer and stole their keys to the museum, blocked emergency exits, and barricaded gates. The protest also began to escalate on Michigan Avenue outside of the museum. Because our priority is the safety of our employees, our visitors, and our collection, protesters were offered an alternative location to continue their protest on campus that would be safer for all involved, and they did not accept that relocation offer. During multiple rounds of negotiations, SAIC student protesters were promised amnesty from academic sanction and trespassing charges if they agreed to relocate. The school also agreed to meet with a student group to discuss their demands. After approximately five hours, an agreement could not be reached. The Chicago Police Department ended the protest in the safest way possible, and we estimate that approximately 50 people were arrested.
The Art Institute has already had problems with antisemitism.
The Jewish student who filed the lawsuit claimed that Chun-Shan (Sandie) Yi, an assistant professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, assigned a project that characterized Israeli soldiers as being rapists and sexual abusers of Muslim children in Gaza.
The Art Institute is far from the only school in Chicago suffering “encampments” and protests by pro-Palestinian activists.
Last week, pro-Palestinian protesters erected an encampment at the University of Chicago and issued a wide list of demands, including reparations and calling for defunding the campus police.
The encampment was visited by hard-left Obama Education Secretary Arne Duncan and 25th Ward Alderman Byron Sigcho-Lopez.
Sigcho-Lopez kicked up a controversy in March when at an earlier protest he was seen speaking while standing behind a burned American flag. He later claimed he did not know the burned flag was there.
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