Students call for peace at pro-Palestinian tent encampment at UNC

More than 100 people on Friday participated in what they called a "Gaza Solidarity Encampment" in the middle of UNC-Chapel Hill's campus.

The group of UNC students and community members gathered to call on the university to disclose any investments and stop funding any companies connected to Israel.

"We are protesting our own university's financial investment in an undisclosed number of firms for Israeli goods and services," described Sylvie, one of the participants.

Sylvie, a doctoral student pursing a degree in sociology, said she feels the university administration hasn't adequately responded to demands.

The pro-Palestinian group began in more than two dozen tents at Polk Place around noon on Friday to call for an end to the violence in Gaza and make demands for the university.

The group took down their tents at 1:30 p.m. after conversations with UNC leaders, but protesters remained at the site after 4 p.m.

A small group of counter protesters engaged with the group around 2:30 p.m. but left after several minutes.

The group called 'UNC Students for Justice in Palestine' said they're behind the effort. They said they are joining the nationwide movement, protesting the war in Gaza.

"There are people teaching each other how to stay safe in situations like this, how to show up for a community," described Sylvie. "It's very inspiring. We as a community constructed this encampment as an autonomous Democratic rejection of the genocidal status quo."

Abi and Mel, who are graduate students at Duke University, joined the group at UNC.

The students said they have also protested on Duke's campus and want to show their strength in numbers at Chapel Hill. A similar event was held between 9:30 a.m. and 11 a.m. on Duke's campus Friday morning.

"We are demanding that our university divest fully from all of the Zionist project, all Israeli ties," Abi said. "We're demanding full transparency about those ties, and we're demanding the policing of pro-Palestinian actions on campus come to an end."

Students told WRAL News their demands to divest are specific to their universities, but the main message from them all is to stop violence in Gaza.

"This is about more than just our schools, more than just the Triangle," Mel said. "It's about the schools that we've lost in Gaza ... the students, the scholars, the mothers, children, fathers, families that we've lost. So by banding together we're hoping that our voice can be amplified."

Similar encampments have popped up at colleges and universities across the country.

UNC police officers were stationed around the area during the protests, monitoring the situation.

"We are here in a moment where there is no liberation, there is no freedom, there is no safety for people of Gaza," Kasey Kinsella, Jewish Voice for Peace Triangle NC Chapter (pro-Palestinian).

Kinsella -joined alongside hundreds of demonstrators for a Shabbat Service. It takes place in the middle of Passover-a major holiday for people of the Jewish faith. 

"WE ARE PRO PALESTINIAN WE ARE PRO JEWISH PEOPLE. AND FOR US OUR JEWISH FAITH HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE ETHNO-STATE OF ISRAEL," Kinsella said.

People inside the circle were playing music and doing work on laptops around noon. Students made signs that read "What have you done to stop the genocide?" and "Gaza solidarity encampment."