The Daily Emerald is providing live coverage of the University of Oregon’s pro-Palestine encampment, which began on April 29 at 7 a.m. All of our coverage on the encampment can be found here.
Below is the Emerald’s coverage of May 8, the tenth day of the encampment.
The tenth day of UO’s pro-Palestine encampment saw several major developments as protests continued amid improved weather and the start of the ASUO Street Faire.
The ASUO Senate passed a BDS resolution at around 11 p.m., after nearly four hours of discussion from community members and various senators during its weekly meeting. Dozens of pro-Palestine and pro-Israel protesters packed the meeting, in-person and over Zoom, to share their thoughts on the resolution, which was hastily added to the senate’s agenda at 4 p.m., just hours before the meeting.
ASUO President Chloé Webster said she wished students had more time to consider the resolution, but understood it was an “urgent matter” amid the ongoing encampment and the recent Israeli strikes on Rafah.
“I personally wish that we had been able to give students more time to read and understand the resolution and see a copy before it was voted on,” Webster said. “I do feel like this is a time of urgency in the world right now.”
Webster said she will meet with President John Karl Scholz and ASUO president-elect Mariam Hassan tomorrow to discuss the protesters’ demands, including UO’s divestment from various companies, and “give some feedback” to Scholz’s statements on the demonstrations based on her conversations with students.
ASUO’s resolution has eight provisions, including calls for the UO Board of Trustees to divest from Jasper Ridge Partners and other companies like Sabra and HP. The resolution also condemns antisemitism, Islamophobia and anti-Arab hatred, and creates an ASUO commission “to address student demands at the University of Oregon regarding this conflict.” The resolution is the second passed by the student government in recent years. A 2018 resolution was passed in a 12-to-six vote before being struck down by the ASUO Constitution Court the following year.
15 of the 22 senators present at the meeting voted in support of the resolution. Six senators abstained, while one senator voted nay. The ASUO Senate also unanimously passed a resolution in support of students in the encampment last week, which Webster co-sponsored.
The ASUO Street Faire kicked off its first day, with some vendors being moved to an alternate layout in order to accommodate the continued encampment. The Daily Emerald talked to several vendors about the changes, none of whom expressed major concerns about the encampment’s presence.
Several pro-Palestine demonstrators sat in the middle of 13th Avenue during the fair, holding signs and chanting slogans including “free, free Palestine” and “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”
A joint statement on antisemitism was released by UO Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine, UO Jewish Voice for Peace and Jewish Voice for Peace Eugene. The statement “acknowledges that antisemitism has been an animating force throughout the history of the United States,” but rejects that any goals of the encampment are inherently antisemitic.
Read on for live updates as they happened.
Updated 11:08 p.m.
The ASUO Senate passed a BDS resolution on Wednesday night after nearly four hours of discussion from community members and various senators.
The resolution has eight provisions, including calls for the UO Board of Trustees to divest from Jasper Ridge Partners and other companies on the “boycott list” like Sabra and HP. The resolution also condemns antisemitism, Islamophobia and anti-Arab hatred, and creates an ASUO commission “to address student demands at the University of Oregon regarding this conflict.”
15 of the 22 senators present at the meeting voted in support of the resolution. One senator, Eric Nakamura, was absent.
Six senators — Trevor Adams, Cody Campbell, Maria Soto Cuesta, Sam Galyen, Victoria Piñeiro and Daniel Vo — abstained from the vote. Only one senator, Fisher Isenberg, voted against the resolution.
The resolution is the second passed by the student government in recent years. A 2018 resolution was passed in a 12-to-six vote before being struck down by the ASUO Constitution Court the following year.
Updated 10:44 p.m.
The ASUO Senate is discussing whether to vote on the proposed BDS resolution, which calls for the university to divest from Jasper Ridge Partners and any companies on the “boycott list.”
Seven of the 23 senators have either authored or co-sponsored the bill.
Several senators have criticized the lack of time given to consider the resolution. One senator, Fisher Isenberg, said that senators received the resolution at 7 p.m. last night and that it was not placed on the agenda until 4 p.m. this afternoon.
[Correction: an earlier version of this update said that senators were currently voting. The ASUO Senate is still discussing whether to vote on the resolution as of this writing.]
Updated 10:05 p.m.
Nearly 70 students are still present at the ASUO Senate meeting. Public comment has concluded on the student government’s BDS resolution, after lasting for nearly three hours. The senate will now move to discussion of the resolution before an expected vote.
ASUO President Chloé Webster said she wished students had more time to consider the resolution, but understood it was an “urgent matter” amid the ongoing pro-Palestine encampment on campus and the recent Israeli strikes on Rafah.
“I personally wish that we had been able to give students more time to read and understand the resolution and see a copy before it was voted on,” Webster said. “I do feel like this is a time of urgency in the world right now.”
Webster told the Emerald she met with Dean of Students Marcus Langford earlier today regarding the encampment, prior to the BDS resolution being drafted. She said she feels it’s been difficult for Langford to consider divestment when in negotiations with coalition representatives.
“When I spoke with him [Langford], he expressed to me how he has met multiple times with encampment leaders and had multiple conversations and he kind of just expressed this sentiment [that] he doesn’t know, he doesn’t fully understand the processes of investments and divestments,” Webster said. “It’s hard for him to even think that’s an option because he doesn’t even know how that would work.”
Webster said she is scheduled to have a meeting with UO President John Karl Scholz and ASUO president-elect Mariam Hassan tomorrow discussing divestment at UO.
“I think my hope for tomorrow is that one, I can kind of give some feedback to that statement that went out to provide some context [from] this evening with what I’ve heard from students,” Webster said.
Numerous students remain at the encampment, which has been relatively quiet since protesters marched to the EMU at 6:30 p.m.
Updated 9:25 p.m.
ASUO’s weekly Senate meeting began at 7:00 p.m. in the EMU Miller Room and looks to stretch for hours longer, as a proposed Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions resolution is currently being discussed. Dozens of pro-Palestine and pro-Israel protesters have asked to speak at the Senate’s public forum, with 21 having spoken as of this writing.
Among other things, the proposed resolution demands that UO and the Board of Trustees cease purchasing brands that have been on the BDS list such as Sabra, as well as to divest the UO Foundation’s $2.8 billion investment in Jasper Ridge Partners, with ties to “military-industrial companies” like Elbit Industries and Boeing.
It also would create an ASUO commission for “to address student demands at the University of Oregon regarding this conflict,” with representatives from “UO Students for Justice in Palestine, Jewish Voices for Peace, UO Chabad, UO Hillel, student workers, graduate employees, ASUO representatives, classified staff, and administrators.”
The resolution condemns antisemitism, Islamophobia and anti-Arab sentiment, and “condemns all acts of intimidation and hate speech towards both Jewish and Muslim students.”
The resolution is authored by ASUO Senators Taliek Lopez-DuBoff, Estelle Tedrick and Frankie Bodine, as well as senator-elect Andrew Ducharme and Mae Bracelin, an organizer with the UO Student Workers union. Lopez-DuBoff and Ducharme previously authored the Senate’s May 1 resolution in support of the encampment, which passed unanimously.
As of this writing, four other senators — Paris Woodward-Ganz, Charlee Evans, Ravi Cullop and Kikachi Akpakwu, who is also the ASUO vice president-elect — had co-sponsored the resolution, as well as UO Young Democratic Socialists of America.
Members of the UO Coalition for Palestine held an emergency rally at 6:30 p.m. Participants walked from the encampment on the Memorial Quad to the EMU, where around 50 pro-Palestine protesters attempted to pack the senate meeting to demand the ASUO pass the BDS resolution. Approximately 30 protesters were allowed into the meeting, while the rest were turned away due to limited room capacity.
There were also numerous pro-Israel protesters from various organizations who arrived at the senate meeting, including Ducks for Israel, Oregon Hillel and Chabad of Eugene. All interactions at the meeting thus far have been peaceful.
Rivky Gurevitch, co-director of Chabad of Eugene, told the Emerald that the past few months have been difficult for Jewish students on campus, and that the sudden introduction of the BDS resolution in the Senate “hurts us in many ways.”
“We don’t think that passing the BDS resolution is even helpful to the Palestinian cause, although we do care deeply about their cause,” Gurevitch, who is not a UO student, said. “But it hurts the Jewish community more than it helps anyone else.”
Gurevitch said that “most Jewish students do consider themselves Zionist” and that “for someone to deny that right [to Israel] is an attack on our people.” She said Chabad was notified of the BDS resolution hearing yesterday evening, which they said was not enough time to prepare, calling it a “sneaky” way of holding the session.
“We want to be here and we don’t know what the result is going to be,” Gurevitch said. “But we want to stand our ground and say, this is not okay. We don’t want this on our campus and we’re here to support the students as much as they can.”
Over 80 spectators joined the meeting via Zoom, in addition to around 25 people standing outside the Miller Room.
“I refuse to be complicit in my generational trauma and experiences being used to commit this genocide. I refuse my tuition being used to continue this genocide,” UO Jewish Voice for Peace organizer Gabriela Moreno said to the senate. “We are here showing our support for the BDS resolution and Palestine. We are here for Palestine. We are here for the 40,000 people who have been killed in 7 months.”
EMU Interim Building Manager William Bucher said that he was working to relocate participants who were allegedly blocking the two fire exits and emergency exit staircase out of the Miller room. Bucher said participants were being “cordial” and that everything had remained peaceful.
A UOPD Community Service Officer was seen on the bottom floor of the EMU around 7:30 p.m.
According to Bucher, the CSO was present “in case something goes wrong,” not to help “mitigate” the event.
The resolution is not the first of its kind from the student government. In 2018, the ASUO Senate passed a BDS resolution in a 12-to-six vote before it was struck down by ASUO’s Constitutional Court the following year.
Updated 6:05 p.m.
An “emergency rally” has been scheduled by organizers of the encampment for 6:30 p.m. Members of the encampment will march to the Erb Memorial Union and into the ASUO Senate meeting to “make sure a BDS vote is not blocked.” The ASUO Senate has said a public forum will be held towards the start of its 7 p.m. weekly meeting.
Earlier today, a joint statement on antisemitism was released by UO Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine, UO Jewish Voice for Peace and Jewish Voice for Peace Eugene. The statement “acknowledges that antisemitism has been an animating force throughout the history of the United States,” but rejects that any goals of the encampment are inherently antisemitic.
The groups said they are adopting the Jewish Voice for Peace’s definition of antisemitism, which in part states that “antisemitism is discrimination, targeting, violence and dehumanizing stereotypes” directed at Jewish people.
In addition, the groups said they reject the university’s use of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism, because “numerous scholars, human rights experts and Israeli and International civil society groups” have warned that the IHRA’s definition protects Israel from “legitimate criticism.”
Updated 4:07 p.m.
The Native American Student Union performed its round dance at the encampment at roughly 3:38 p.m. Roughly 50 people were in attendance, including those from the encampment.
The round dance began from the northernmost point of the encampment, across from the Lillis Business Complex, and danced into the camp, with members from NASU wearing Native American regalia.
The dance lasted nearly 40 minutes, and concluded with pizza and chants to “Free Palestine.”
NASU members declined to speak with the Daily Emerald on how the round dance went and its decision to partner with the UO Coalition for Palestine.
Updated 1:19 p.m.
Seven pro-Palestine demonstrators are sitting in the middle of East 13th Avenue, holding signs and chanting slogans like “Free, free Palestine,” “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” and “disclose, divest, we will not stop, we will not rest.”
Chalk messages were drawn on the street before the faire last night, including “divest from genocide” and “all eyes on Rafah.”
Organizers of the encampment announced that UO’s Native American Student Union would perform a round dance at the encampment today at 3:30 p.m. NASU’s 56th annual Mother’s Day Powwow will be taking place on May 10 and 11 at MacArthur Court.
Updated 12:12 p.m.
An email statement from UO spokesperson Angela Seydel clarified some of the provisions of President John Karl Scholz’s statement yesterday.
When asked about the encampment’s “drain on scarce resources,” as Scholz said, Seydel said that “when unexpected events occur, the staff members who meet our day-to-day campus support operations put aside other priorities to dedicate additional time to addressing evolving concerns,” including the “safety, security and operational continuity of the university.”
Seydel said that the university has received reports from Jewish students and organizations that allege“verbal harassment by those associated with the encampment, causing them to hide their identities while on campus.” Seydel also cited “materials posted, shared and spoken” that have “included language the Jewish students consider to be threatening or harassing.”
A May 6 statement on the encampment from campus group Ducks for Israel and several Oregon Jewish organizations described “threats of violence that cross the free speech line,” including “calls for intifada, from the river to the sea, and advocating for violent uprisings.”
Students in the encampment have denied claims of antisemitism. One student, going by LJ Smith, said yesterday that the encampment has a “strict code of conduct” regarding antisemitism, “especially because some of our main organizers are Jewish students,” referencing demonstrators with the UO chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace.
Lastly, Seydel was asked if there had been discussions or plans to forcibly remove the encampment or whether there would be UOPD involvement in removing demonstrators.
“The UO Police Department is responsible for the security of campus and is continuously monitoring and assessing the effect of the encampment,” Seydel said. “Unfortunately, the university cannot ensure safety for students camping overnight, which is why camping is specifically prohibited on campus. University officials have shared these concerns with involved students. UOPD is responsible for responding to any threats that may arise, include [sic] those involving unsanctioned events.”
Updated 11:50 a.m.
During the ASUO Street Faire kick-off, the Daily Emerald asked various vendors their opinions on the pro-Palestine encampment.
Owner of Crepe Oh! Holics Jessie Gonzalez said that he hopes for the encampment participants and the street faire to “work together,” so he could bring back funds to support his family.
“I just want us to just work together and if I can make $1, I can make $1. And bring it back to my family and support causes,” Gonzalez said.
Gonzalez also said that he is in favor of having the street faire at the same time as the ongoing pro-Palestine encampment, and doesn’t want either event impacted by the other.
“I don’t think it’ll affect the people coming. I think people are still going to come. I think a lot of people are aware of this situation [the encampment],” Gonzalez said. “I don’t want the street faire to take away the tragedy that’s going on in Palestine and at the same time, I don’t want the street faire to be affected by, maybe, the Palestine demonstration either.”
Jessica Neely, owner of Barre3 Eugene, said that it’s “fine” to have the street faire as the encampment is ongoing.
“I think as long as the encampment stays contained where it should be, fine,” Neely said.
Neely also said that she hopes the overlap between events does not create a “problem with turnout,” considering that vendors invest money to participate at the street faire.
“We do pay for all of our spots and we pay for the staff to be out here that participates,” Neely said. “I certainly hope it’s not a problem with turnout, but I really don’t know, we’re kind of gambling. It’s not ideal.”
Erick Wonderly Varela, owner of independent art company Erick Ink, said that they are in “full support” of the encampment.
“It really makes me feel proud to be a former UO student,” Varela said. “I support what they’re doing fully.”
Varela said they graduated in 2020 with degrees in anthropology and art.
A group of students could be seen sitting in the center of the street fair with signs from the encampment.
Updated 8:38 a.m.
The UO Coalition for Palestine’s encampment continues for a tenth day this morning, despite the university’s warnings against overnight camping as violations of the student conduct code.
Organizers of the encampment have announced their schedule for the day, including “open tabling” at 10 a.m., a voter registration drive at 12 p.m., and a “mass action teach-in” at 4:30 p.m. The “teach-in” will center around a famous speech given in 1970 during anti-war Vietnam protests by politician Peter Camejo entitled “Liberalism, Ultra-Leftism, or Mass Action.”
The ASUO Street Faire kicks off today and, as always, is expected to draw large crowds. Organizers of the event have said they are working closely with leaders of the encampment to ensure both events can continue simultaneously.
Daily Emerald reporters are on scene and will continue to have live updates throughout the day.
