CLEVELAND — An encampment remains at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland on Wednesday as protests continue on college campuses nationwide concerning the war between Israel and Hamas.
The group tells 3News students will be occupying KSL Oval at CWRU until the administration “meets their demands to divest from the state of Israel.” On Wednesday afternoon, the student demands were revealed in an email from Palestine Task Force Cle:
- Amnesty for all students and faculty disciplined for advocating for Palestinian liberation.
- Divest all of CWRU's finances from the companies that profit from Israeli apartheid, genocide, and occupation in Palestine including implementing Resolution 31-15.
- Disclose CWRU's investments.
- Retract remarks made against Resolution 31-15, statements in support of the Israeli government, and accusations of antisemitism towards the student body.
- Call for a permanent ceasefire and an end of the occupation of Palestine.
- Academic Boycott - cut ties with all Israeli academic institutions which includes the cancelation of all contractual agreements and projects involving Israeli academic institutions, including but not limited to study-abroad partnerships with Israeli universities.
"The interfaith, intersectional group of CWRU students are determined to hold their ground, like the over 100 student groups across the globe, until CWRU administration listens to diverse voices instead of privileging voices aligned with Zionist politics," Palestine Task Force Cle added in the email.
The protest at Case Western Reserve University started Monday. A spokesperson for Case tells 3News that about 20 protestors were detained and released, but no arrests had been made.
“As anti-war protests occur across university campuses in the U.S. with increasing hostility from university administration, CWRU students feel it is imperative to take a stand, as students have always led the way in the anti-war movement,” according to the organization.
"Here at Case Western Reserve University, our motto is to 'Think beyond the possible,' and this is clearly thinking beyond the possible," Jad Oglesby said.
Oglesby is a graduating senior at CWRU and one of the protest organizers as the vice president of the group Students for Justice in Palestine.
"I'm very thankful that things here at CWRU have remained peaceful," he added. "However, looking at the situations in other campuses, I do remain vigilant and weary of potential escalation from CWRU PD as well as other police departments around."
The group has gained support from outside its student body.
"I'm Jewish, but I really deplore what Israel has been doing," Susan Schnur, from Cleveland, told us.
Schnur says she joined the protestors to show it was not antisemitic, as some have claimed.
"I've never met a bigger group of people who really want to work on not only issues of antisemitism, but racism, Islamophobia, sexism, just to make this a microcosm of what we could do in the world," she explained.
Case Western Reserve University provided the following statement to 3News regarding the protest:
"Open discourse and the free exchange of ideas are hallmarks of higher education—and they are central to all that we do at Case Western Reserve. Across classrooms and common spaces, lecture halls and laboratories, and everywhere in between, challenges to the status quo are what make universities—especially ours—such powerful learning environments.
"We are seeing this in action right now, as individuals in support of Palestinian liberation are protesting on the Kelvin Smith Library oval. We support these individuals’ rights to free speech, and Case Western Reserve police will protect their right to peaceful freedom of expression in accordance with our policies.
"However, we want to be clear about the rules and processes moving forward for those who choose to participate in this activity:
- The university will not tolerate hate speech in any form.
- In accordance with Case Western Reserve policies, protestors must follow specific restrictions regarding the time, place and manner of such activism—including ensuring their actions do not unreasonably interfere with university operations (this includes setting up encampments on campus property and the use of disruptive sound)."
The school was initially going to prevent protestors from staying overnight and putting up tents, but has since relented. However, only students and faculty will be allowed to stay through the night, with all affected being required to show a campus ID.