On May 4, students and organizers set up tents outside of the Art Institute of Chicago and hung a sign that read, “Free Palestine.” Following protests on college campuses across the country, the Gaza solidarity encampment formed to demand the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) divest from the Israeli government amid its ongoing assault on Gaza.
Within 30 minutes, officers issued an arrest warning and began blocking demonstrators from leaving, according to a statement later released by the People’s Art Institute, the collective responsible for the encampment. Protesters locked arms to defend the encampment and each other, standing in confrontation with officers for hours.
Throughout the day, hundreds of people joined the demonstration in the North Garden of the private museum in downtown Chicago. The Chicago Police Department (CPD) set up barricades to contain the protest.
Officers eventually broke through the human chain and pulled students from the encampment, pushing them to the ground and arresting them while their belongings remained scattered around the garden. Students were “slammed into the ground, hit, kneeled and stepped on, and dragged,” the People’s Art Institute said in its statement. Two people had to be taken to the hospital.