Protesters gathered on May 20, 2024, for a “100 Hours in Chains” rally in front of Johnson Hall—now “renamed” by protesters to “Alareer Hall,” after writer and poet Refaat Alareer, who was killed in Gaza—with students who had chained themselves to the building removing their chains before marching through other buildings on campus; the rally is the most recent in a series of pro-Palestine demonstrations on the UO campus. (Colleen Bogdan/Emerald)
The University of Oregon Coalition for Palestine held a “100 Hours in Chains” rally to show support for the five students who previously chained themselves to Johnson Hall’s pillars for 100 hours.
In order to “move forward,” the five unchained from the building.
“Any faith we had in the administration to listen to us in response to our actions has been misplaced,” one protestor said. “We must unchain ourselves to move forward, to reset, to re-energize.”
The protestor said that unchaining was not a “step back,” but a “recognition of the care and support we must have for each other that we must build our movement upon.”
The five individuals, while unchained from the buildings, remained chained to each other for the duration of the rally.
Salem Khoury, a co-leader for Students for Justice in Palestine, called for the resignation of every member of the UO administration, as well as the impeachment of UO President John Karl Scholz.
“Here at the popular university for Gaza, the fight never ends,” Khoury said.
Encampment members also renamed Johnson Hall to “Alareer Hall,” in honor of Refaat Alareer, a Palestinian poet who was killed in an Israeli air strike in December 2023.
A University of Oregon Police Department vehicle was seen parked near the rally on East 13th Avenue at 3:40 p.m., with the vehicle leaving around 20 minutes later. There was no other police presence at the event.
Numerous members of UO administration were present at the rally, including Dean of Students Marcus Langford, Senior Director of Operations for Safety and Risk Services Krista Dillon and UO spokesperson Eric Howald.
Howald declined to comment on the rally at the scene.
Throughout the rally, a counter-protester yelled various messages in support of Israel, but was largely ignored for most of the rally. Later, encampment leaders held a moment of silence on the stairs of Johnson, when a counter-protester yelled, “134 hostages, free them now.”
A protester from the encampment approached the counter-protester, yelling that the Israeli response to the October 7 attacks on Israel are “10 times worse” than the Israeli death toll from October 7.
The counter-protester responded, “remember, you started this war.” The standoff ended when the encampment leader yelled “free Palestine” and the rally proceeded to leave for Tykeson Hall.
The rally then entered Tykeson Hall, named after UO alumni Willie and Donald Tykeson, who donated $10 million to the construction of the hall. Amy Tykeson, their daughter, sits on the UO Board of Trustees.
Approximately 200 protesters walked through Tykeson before heading east to the Erb Memorial Union, entering and circling the building two times.
As protesters were exiting the EMU for the second time, they chanted phrases including “UOPD, KKK, IDF — they’re all the same,” in apparent reference to the University of Oregon Police Department, the Israeli Defense Forces and the Ku Klux Klan. The Klan is a white supremacist hate group and terrorist organization.
When asked to elaborate on the meaning of the chant, Salem Younes, an encampment co-leader, said that the UOPD, KKK and IDF “are all wings to imperialism.”
Protestors then entered the Lillis Business Complex and stayed for around 10 minutes. Individual protestors went to the second and third floors to hold banners reading, “divest + disclose” and “no money for genocide — end occupation.”
The protest drew to a close on the steps of Johnson at 4:47 p.m. Organizers encouraged protesters to sign up for the “UO Investiture” celebration for UO President John Karl Scholz on May 30.
Younes said the goal of this was to book all the student tickets and then not appear at the event, thus ensuring a low turnout for the event.
A protester writes "100 Hours" on a whiteboard, signifying the amount of time five demonstrators spent chained to Johnson Hall. Protesters gathered on May 20, 2024, for a "100 Hours in Chains" rally in front of Johnson Hall—now "renamed" by protesters to "Alareer Hall," after writer and poet Refaat Alareer, who was killed in Gaza—with students who had chained themselves to the building removing their chains before marching through other buildings on campus; the rally is the most recent in a series of pro-Palestine demonstrations on the UO campus. (Colleen Bogdan/Emerald)
