At least 200 students and staff members took part in a pro-Palestinian walkout on Thursday, organized by the UNC chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP).
The event, called the “Walk Out for the West Bank,” started at 12:40 p.m., with demonstrators moving in and out of several UNC buildings by 12:52 p.m. Protesters left flyers outlining their demands throughout campus, while some spray-painted messages such as “Free Gaza,” “[Explicit] UNC,” and “Israel is a terror state” on the walls of Carroll Hall and other locations.
Participants delivered speeches, calling on the University to reject its ties with Israel and denouncing the treatment of Palestinian students. As they moved through buildings like Gardner, Murphey, Carolina, Hanes, Carroll, Chapman, Phillips, Peabody, and Sitterson Halls, protesters chanted, “disclose, divest, we will not stop, we will not rest.”
Protesters also targeted the UNC Naval ROTC Armory, defacing the building’s exterior with spray paint and hanging a Palestinian flag from a gun turret. Around 1:48 p.m., demonstrators took down the American flag that normally flies outside the Armory.
UNC Police arrived at Carroll Hall at approximately 1:30 p.m., and by 2:24 p.m., the American flag was restored to its original position. The police were already present on campus due to a separate emergency preparedness event happening that day. According to UNC Media Relations, no arrests or detentions were reported. In a campus-wide email sent by Alert Carolina at 4:01 p.m., students, faculty, and staff were encouraged to contact UNC police if they had any information about the protests.
Chancellor Lee Roberts released a statement addressing the protest, saying, “I expect everyone who comes to campus to show respect and care for this historic place.”
“Free expression and peaceful protest are, of course, in line with Carolina’s best traditions. We cannot tolerate, however, vandalism of public property or disruption of classes. We’ll pursue every avenue possible to hold people accountable,” Roberts stated.
There were also reports of physical altercations between SJP members and counter-protesters. One SJP participant claimed that their phone was taken by a counter-protester and thrown into the street.
“We demand Chapel Hill, and all universities across the U.S., to cut any and all ties with Israel,” a student declared during a speech before the crowd disbanded around 1:57 p.m.
An SJP member explained that while the plan had been to disrupt campus activity and make noise, the spray-painting of campus buildings had not been part of the original strategy.
“Discussions are currently taking place to debrief the unexpected autonomous actions that took place today,” the SJP member shared in a follow-up statement to The Daily Tar Heel.
SJP’s list of demands includes a boycott of corporations and programs that support Israel, including study abroad programs, and for UNC to disclose and divest from any related investments.
