University of Oregon Students Join Nationwide Protests for Palestine, Set Up ‘Liberated Zone’
Today, April 29, students at the University of Oregon joined the rising tide of campus protests happening across the United States calling for divestment from Israel and companies that do business with the country that is nearly seven months into carrying out the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza.
Beginning at 7 a.m., students—led by Students for Justice in Palestine, Jewish Voices for Peace, Working Committee of Grads for Palestine, and the Young Democratic Socialists of America—set up their Liberated Zone on the Knight Library lawn.
They plan to stay indefinitely until their demands are met.
In a press release, the student activists stated that they demand that UO “ boycott and divest from the State of Israel, Israeli companies, and any weapons or surveillance manufacturing.”
Further, they demand that the university “put out statements and protections affirming the safety of Palestinian, Jewish, Muslim, and Arab students on campus.
A few hours later, at 10 a.m., a rally was held at Washburne Park where about 50 people gathered before marching a little over a mile to the Liberated Zone on campus.
The approximately 30 minute march—with chants of “free, free Palestine, long live Palestine” and “intifada, intifada, long live the intifada”—completely took over Agate Street before entering the university and joining those at the encampment.
