The KU branch of Students for Justice in Palestine (KUSJP) began an encampment on May 1 outside of Fraser Hall on the KU Campus, aligning it with the nationwide movement of Popular Universities for Gaza — the protests of which have led to arrests and violence, most notably at Columbia University.
On May 3, after two days of protest, KUSJP posted on X (formerly Twitter) that it closed the encampment “due to the lack of in-person support, threats of Zionist violence and inability to protect encampment from police.” KUSJP then re-established its encampment on Tuesday, May 7, despite it being the final week of the spring semester and classes ending on May 10.
The protests are fueled by KUSJP’s allegations that KU financially benefits from organizations that profit from or support Israel. The protesters believe Israel is committing a genocide against Palestinians in the ongoing Israel-Hamas War, which was sparked on Oct. 7 when Hamas launched a large-scale terrorist attack resulting in the most Jews killed in a single day since the Holocaust.
KUSJP advised protesters to cover their faces and remain anonymous, not engage with reporters and not engage with “Zionist counter-protesters.” Additionally, it called for donations of both money and supplies for maintaining the encampment through social media posts.
Anti-Israel protesters chanted and carried signs with slogans such as “Intifada Now,” “Never Again for Anyone,” “Zionism Harms Jews,” “From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be Free” and other messages condemning Israel, Zionists, the United States government, the university and its administrators. Students from Lawrence High School joined protesters on May 2, and protesters marched through various other campus buildings before gathering in KU Chancellor Douglas Girod’s office, according to the University Daily Kansan.
At 10 p.m. on May 7, police officers began attempts to dismantle the encampment. The encampment violates the KU’s camping policy, which prohibits sleeping outdoors between 10 p.m. and 8 a.m. and “establishing or maintaining outdoors… a temporary or permanent place for cooking, storing personal belongings, or sleeping by setting up any bedding, sleeping bag, mattress, tent, or other sleeping equipment, or by setting up any cooking equipment.”
According to a May 8 Instagram post, KUSJP claims that police officers “stole water, food, medicine and more” the night of May 7 as they attempted to dismantle the encampment. On May 9, KUSJP posted that KU’s provost rescinded an offer to meet with KUSJP because they did not leave their encampment.
On May 9, the university sent a message to KUSJP saying that commencement and graduation activities were beginning and “KUSJP has not reciprocated our good faith efforts” to advise the organization of when it violated KU policies. The university told KUSJP that this is the final notice, they must clear the site by 10 p.m. daily and KUSJP bears responsibility for non-KU affiliated individuals who join their protests.
KUSJP did not clear the site, and posted a call on X for protesters to bring friends and families. According to the University Daily Kansan, more than 10 police cars and 30 to 40 officers from Baldwin City, Eudora and Lawrence, Kansas, as well as KU police and county sheriff’s office, arrived at the protest site near midnight. By midnight, protesters had marched to Anschutz Library on campus.
At midnight on May 10, three protesters were arrested on criminal trespassing charges at the library according to the Douglas County, Kansas, Sheriff’s Office booking records. Anschutz Library is open 24 hours per weekday to students as a study facility, according to the university’s website.
These arrests are in addition to one person who had been arrested on the first night of the protests for battery, according to the University Daily Kansan.
Students organize pro-Israel response
Pro-Israel students were quick to respond to the encampment when it began. Adina Thompson, a sophomore from Skokie, Illinois, and vice president of Students Supporting Israel at KU (SSI), began arranging a pro-Israel gathering across from the KUSJP encampment only hours after it was established.
“I spent all morning texting as many Jewish students as I could think of to ensure we had a presence,” Thompson said. “I coordinated with all these people where we would meet and what we were going to do and say while out there. It was important to me to get out there as soon as we could.”
Pro-Israel students carried photos of the hostages kidnapped and still held by Hamas, and many were draped in the Israeli flag or wearing blue and white clothes or stickers.
Representatives of KU Chabad and others from SSI were present, and Thompson estimates that about 30 to 40 people gathered to support Israel on May 1. KU Chabad staff and rabbis wrapped tefillin on Jewish students, and they and other students led prayers, songs and chants such as “Am Yisrael Chai,” “Oseh Shalom,” and Matisyahu’s “One Day.”
Thompson said that they were shouted at by KUSJP protesters with phrases referencing intifada and “‘from the river to the sea…’ which are calls to violence or advocating for the annihilation of the Jewish state.” Additionally, she said a protester “walked by and shouted at me, ‘You guys are pathetic!’ and gave me the middle finger.”
Thompson disagrees with characterizations reported in the Lawrence Times and University Daily Kansan that the pro-Israel students were causing trouble or “jeering.”
“If you actually listened to what we were singing, you would hear that we were singing for peace, unlike those calling for an intifada revolution,” she said.
Social media posts by KUSJP also targeted and insulted the supporters of Israel. One Instagram story shows a photo from KU of a rabbi, police officer and students draped in Israeli flags with a caption saying that the KU Police Department, Ku Klux Klan and Israel Defense Forces are “all the same.”
Not all Jewish students were against the KUSJP protest; some partook, holding signs reading “Jews for Palestine.” The Lawrence Times interviewed Jewish KU staff and students who gathered in solidarity with the protesters; one student shared hopes to establish a local branch of the anti-Zionist organization Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP). The University Daily Kansan reported that JVP would provide legal support for pro-Palestine supporters if they were arrested.
Organizations respond
KU Hillel shared a message on its social media on the morning of the protest, stating that it is “aware of the ‘encampment,’” reminding campus partners that the right to protest “does not include the right to harass, intimidate, threaten, target or physically block Jewish students as they access campus buildings and spaces.” KU Hillel reiterated its commitment to the safety and wellbeing of Jewish students.
“When students first heard about and saw the encampment on campus, there was definitely a sense of fear,” said Ben Davis, KU Hillel’s assistant director. “They have all spent the last month watching Jewish students getting harassed, assaulted and intimidated at universities across the country and were understandably worried that it had finally reached KU. We heard stories of students changing their route to class or skipping class entirely, considering whether or not it was safe to wear their Magen David or Hebrew necklace, and being faced with troubling conversations with TAs and professors… students felt safe, but worried that it would not stay that way.”
Davis called the encampment “unprecedented, because now the antisemitic voices are that of fellow students and faculty. Jewish students fear for their safety because of the actions of their classmates.”
KU Chabad posted on its Facebook page that it is “so proud of our students for respectfully joining together to sing in prayer, to proudly put on tefillin, to support one another and ensure that we will never cower in fear but rather stand taller, prouder and louder, because Am Yisrael Chai.”
In a message sent to KU Chabad supporters on May 2, Directors Rabbi Zalman and Nechama Tiechtel wrote that the KU administration and law enforcement were “taking the event very seriously,” with school representatives and a visible police presence.
“It's important to emphasize that our campus continues to be a safe environment,” they wrote. “The University has implemented additional security measures, including heightened patrols, to ensure the safety of all students, faculty and staff. From the highest levels of administration, there is a concerted effort to address every aspect of safety.”
Both KU Chabad and KU Hillel emphasized their goal to help any Jewish student who needs support at this time. More information about both organizations’ actions are available on their Facebook pages.
Support for Israel and Jewish students also came from the Kansas government. U.S. Senator Roger Marshall visited KU Hillel on May 3 to hear Jewish students’ concerns.
“I hope Sen. Marshall understands how Jewish students are navigating a difficult campus environment, whether it’s finding different ways to get to class or being confronted by protests,” said Jeremy Rosenwald, a KU sophomore from Minnesota. “Until this week, I have never had to think about whether it is safe to wear my kippah on campus. I know many Jewish students have had the same thoughts when they get ready in the morning.”
Sol Landman-Feldman, a sophomore from North Carolina, said that “it was good that [Sen. Marshall] came and was attentive to the concerns of Jewish students on campus. I appreciated him taking time out of his day to meet with us.”
Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach sent a letter to Chancellor Girod and Kansas Board of Regent members on May 2 telling them that Kansas law prohibits the university from granting KUSJP protesters’ demands, which include KU divesting of financial ties with the Israeli government and military interests; having financial transparency; providing amnesty for protesters who may be arrested; and ending all university connections and partnerships with the U.S. Armed Forces, Department of Defense and police departments.
“Thus, you cannot grant what these protesters, in their ignorance, demand,” the letter reads. “Nor should you even consider it. As is often the case with uninformed, petulant loudmouths, [the protesters] have not done their research. And their views are reprehensible. I trust that you will not honor them… [KU] has many hallowed traditions, but siding with bloodthirsty, antisemitic terrorists is not one of them.”
UMKC protests
The University of Missouri - Kansas City branch of SJP also set up an encampment of protesters on its university’s campus. The encampment, which it called a “Liberated Zone,” was established on April 29 and lasted one day, demanding the same of UMKC as KUSJP demands of KU.
The UMKC SJP also created a petition (which did not succeed) to cancel the Jewish Community Relations Bureau | American Jewish Committee (JCRB|AJC) virtual antisemitism training offered to the KU Medical Center and the KU Health System on May 3. The petition claimed that the organizations are “promoting silencing Palestinians and harming Jews” by allowing the antisemitism training because JCRB|AJC states that anti-Zionism is antisemitism. SJP claims this “conflates the illegal and inhumane crimes of Israel… to the Jewish community. As a result of this misinformation, antisemitism rises and Jews are wrongfully targeted for the crimes of Israel.”
