Two protesters toss scraps of paper with phrases like “We charge UO w/ genocide!” and copies of UO’s response to their demands around Johnson Hall. On May 10, 2024, hundreds of protesters marched through campus after UO officials did not appear for negotiations. (Colleen Bogdan/Emerald)
At 10 a.m. on May 10, the UO Coalition for Palestine held an emergency rally that marched from its encampment on the Memorial Quad to Johnson Hall, the UO administration building. Demonstrators entered and rallied inside Johnson Hall, leaving behind thousands of paper strips with slogans including “We charge UO w/ genocide!”
Approximately 100 demonstrators gathered at the Memorial Quad, where the ongoing pro-Palestine encampment is being held. The demonstrators had set up two tables in the lawn of the encampment and hoped that administrators would join encampment members for a “public” negotiations session in front of the crowd.
As they waited for administration to come out, UO professor of law Michael Fakhri spoke on divestment.
Around 10 minutes in, it became evident that the administration would not be partaking in the public negotiation session. The rally then began to march towards Johnson Hall.
Upon arriving at Johnson Hall, around 200 demonstrators performed a “die-in,” lying across the stairs, lawn, and into the street where the ASUO Street Faire was happening simultaneously.
During the “die-in,” three representatives from the UO Coalition for Palestine, including Students for Justice in Palestine leaders Salem Khoury and Salem Younes, read the names of Palestinian children under a year old who have been killed in the Israel-Hamas war.
Organizers from the coalition led demonstrators into Johnson Hall while yelling pro-Palestine chants, including “free Palestine,” “from the river to the sea” and “boycott, divest, sanction —- end the occupation.”
They entered the board room on the first floor of the hall, throwing the paper slips throughout the room.
After marching through Johnson Hall, demonstrators gathered on the field directly behind the building, adjacent to Hendricks Hall. A UO Coalition for Palestine representative said that the reason for rallying adjacent to Hendricks Hall was due to UO administrators asking the demonstrators’ negotiation team to meet in the building earlier in the day.
“We marched over here because the admin suggested that the negotiators meet at Hendricks [room] 100 today at 10 a.m., and we said, ‘enough,’” the representative said.
They rallied for approximately five minutes on the field before approximately six demonstrators went back into the second floor of Johnson, with paper bags full of signed “student pledges” vowing to “resist genocide and occupation.”
The students taped a printed copy of the university’s response from yesterday, which declined to divest, to the Office of the Provost with red ink across it reading, “I am not reading all that… Free Palestine.”
As the six students threw paper around the second floor, the rest of the demonstrators left the field and returned to Johnson — despite warnings from a fire marshal that the crowding presented a danger to public safety.
Demonstrators gathered in Johnson Hall for approximately 10 minutes where they rallied and chanted as organizers stood on a table. The chants included phrases like “the people united will never be divided.”
At approximately 11:22 a.m., demonstrators exited Johnson Hall again and continued to protest on the steps. During that time, building administrators attempted to close and lock the doors to the building.
Numerous protests immediately pulled the doors back open, leading to a brief, tense encounter between administrators and protestors as the door opened and closed.
The encounter ended when SJP co-leader Salem Khoury came to the stop of the stairs and told protestors to let the administrators close the building.
At approximately 11:39 a.m., demonstrators left the steps of Johnson and marched toward the Erb Memorial Union, circling the building to again march through the street faire to return to the encampment.
Demonstrators informed faire-goers that the march would be passing through as they approached.
Protesters tape a copy of the university's response to student demonstrators' demands on the door of the Office of the Provost. Written on the paper are the phrases, "I am not reading all that" and "Free Palestine". On May 10, 2024, hundreds of protesters marched through campus after UO officials did not appear for negotiations. (Colleen Bogdan/Emerald)
