Pro-Palestine protesters return to UNC campus with peaceful actions and fiery words

Five days after university police removed a protest encampment at UNC-Chapel Hill, sparking confrontations and arrests, hundreds of pro-Palestinian supporters marched down Franklin Street on Sunday, vehemently denouncing the actions of the school administration, U.S. politicians, and the Israeli government.

Many of the protesters’ calls and responses were widely familiar seven months into the current Israel-Gaza war; chants of “Disclose, divest, we will not stop, we will not rest” and “Resistance is justified when people are occupied” rang throughout the afternoon. But recent campus turmoil fueled new frustrations among the crowd, which appeared to number in the high hundreds. Every mention of UNC interim Chancellor Lee Roberts over rally speakers was meet with volleys of boos and calls of “shame.”

There were also calls for UNC students who were suspended and arrested during the encampment clearing and subsequent clashes on April 30 to receive “amnesty” and for end-of-semester grades to be withheld until this demand is met. The UNC chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine later reiterated this ultimatum on X, formerly Twitter.

In a statement online after last week’s arrests, UNC said “Protesters were warned that they were violating University policies and the law and were asked to comply on multiple occasions before any detainments and arrests took place on April 30.”

The protest Sunday began in front of the U.S. Post Office & District Court on Franklin Street before moving onto the main Chapel Hill thoroughfare and then through campus. One of the main organizing groups was called the Party for Socialism and Liberation Carolinas, and several speakers made broader indictments against capitalism and colonialism amid more frequent accusations of genocide being perpetrated by Israel’s government in Gaza.

The war in Gaza began on Oct. 7 when Hamas launched an attack into Israel, killing around 1,200 people and taking 240 hostages. Since then, at least 34,700 people have been killed in Gaza, according to the latest figures from the local health ministry.

In Chapel Hill on Sunday, police remained in the background to redirect cars while protesters blocked off roads. This was in contrast to Tuesday when university police arrested 36 people, including 13 students, after clearing an encampment that had been erected by the local Students for Justice in Palestine chapter on the grounds of Polk Place, a university quad on north campus.

A handful of counter-protesters followed along during Sunday’s march. There was a smattering of heated exchanges when marchers passed UNC fraternity houses and began to wrap around Polk Place, though these arguments remained on the periphery.

“I’m here to show there are two sides to this, and these people don’t represent all UNC students,” said a counter-protester who held up an Israel flag. He declined to give his name but said his family is from Israel and that he is a student at the university.

As the rally stopped at Polk Place for final remarks, no one was seen going near the flagpole, which on Tuesday was the scene of escalated conflict when protesters took down an American flag and mounted a Palestinian flag in its place. Tall black fences now ring around the American flag.