Stanford students defy orders to clear camp
A tent encampment of pro-Palestinian demonstrators remained on the Stanford University campus over the weekend despite orders to leave the night before.
Administrators had warned students to clear out of White Plaza, a grassy area outside the student union, by 8 p.m. Friday or face discipline, including arrest.
Deputies with the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office made their way through the encampment of about 20 tents around 7:30 a.m. Saturday, trying to identify those involved. Protesters said they had heard of no arrests Saturday.
During the night, the university posted a printout of an email at the corner of the encampment warning protesters that they are violating university policy.
“It’s just fear-mongering tactics,” Stanford student Carlos Enrique Ramirez said of threats of administrative discipline and further repercussions. “I think there’s no bite behind the administration’s words.”
Ramirez, 20, said that while some at the encampment have wandered away, most eventually return, leaving what he estimates to be a hundred students remaining.
“We all showed up last night,” he said. “We listened to music, we had fun, we watched a movie, we made food. We literally broke bread.”
The students had created a “People’s University for Palestine” at White Memorial Plaza on Thursday, similar to other demonstrations at U.S. universities over the past week to protest Israel’s attacks on Gaza.
Student protester Yungsu Kim, 21, said the encampment is intended to be a space of “joy” and “liberation.” The space was filled with Palestinian dance and music Friday night.
“We have these moments of joy to sustain ourselves for the next day,” he said.
Although Kim said he doesn’t sleep at the encampment, he has been showing up early each morning to support the movement. He was present when police entered the encampment for a welfare check earlier in the day.
“It’s terrifying, obviously,” Kim said. “That only comes to show how steadfast the people who are committed to keeping this ‘People’s University’ really are.”
Stanford is in the midst of admit weekend, in which hundreds of newly admitted undergraduates visit campus to learn more about the school’s offerings. Many protesters say that is even more of a reason to keep up the demonstration.
“The role of the ‘People’s University’ is to demonstrate that even in the world where Stanford does divest, there’s a positive way forward, there’s a way forward where the university still exists, where scholarship can still happen and where community can still happen,” Kim said. “And that it can be done through our power and because we commit to making it happen.”
Protesters wearing yellow vests remain posted around the edges of the encampment, monitoring people entering the space. As the sidewalk slowly filled with morning joggers and other students, these vested students rose from their seats and began to pace around the perimeter of the space.
“These movements have always been something that’s been youth led, and I think in understanding that and in recognizing that, we need to empower the youth and make the youth coming into Stanford feel empowered,” Ramirez said.
Students sitting in the encampment chanted “Free Palestine” and other phrases. Amid a sea of posters and flags lining the encampment were signs reading, “Stanford tell admitted students the truth: you fund genocide” and “Jews say ceasefire now!”
Large metal pots and plastic tubs filled with food sat atop the concrete benches of White Plaza as the students slowly spilled out of the tents around 9:20 a.m for breakfast. A handful of protesters made pancakes for the group.
A couple with three young children who said they were visitors to the area donated money to the students and commended them on their perseverance and message.
The encampment drew a small crowd of passersby, some of whom began speaking with protesters about the conflict.
A man who identified himself as Lior said he agrees with the students’ right to protest but disagrees with their cause.
“At a university of the rank of Stanford, which is the bastion of education, I would expect people to be a lot more educated,” he said.
Lior and his girlfriend, who grew up in Palo Alto and requested anonymity, joined in on a conversation between another passing couple and students.“I don’t see anything peaceful. Not one mention of the word ‘peace’ or ‘two state solution’ or ‘surrender of Hamas,’ ” she said. “I think a lot of these things here are blatant lies.”
A related protest is taking place at Cal Poly Humboldt in Arcata, which closed its campus Friday through the remainder of the school year after the occupation of an academic and administrative building by pro-Palestinian activists. Students continued to occupy buildings Saturday in defiance of the university’s 5 p.m. Friday deadline to leave.
The protests come as Israel’s war on Gaza and Hamas nears its seventh month. More than 34,000 Palestinians have been killed and more than 77,000 have been injured as a result of Israeli airstrikes, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health. Hamas sparked the war on Oct. 7 when its militants invaded Israel, killed about 1,200 people and took around 250 hostages. About 100 remain missing.