UW Madison's Bascom Hall - Photo by Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's Mark Hoffman
MADISON, WI (WSAU) – Students at UW-Madison have joined other U.S. universities, such as Columbia and Yale, in setting up pro-Palestine encampments to draw attention to claims of genocide occurring in the Gaza Strip following terrorist organization Hamas’s unprecedented attack on Israel last fall.
According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, UW-Madison staff told students on Friday that camping is “prohibited” on campus, but at around 9:45 a.m. on Monday, at least nine tents were set up on Library Mall at the UW-Madison campus, and around 200 protesters circled the tents, arms linked in solidarity, clapping and yelling phrases such as “Disclose! divest! We will not stop! We will not rest!” One organizer told those at the protest that the students would not be speaking with police or reporters.
Wisconsin state law bans camping on university property, and in the Dean of Students warning to students last Friday, any student who violates the university camping policies “will have consequences, both within our code of student conduct and more broadly under Wisconsin law.” Earlier this year, five UW-Madison students were arrested following a sit-in outside of the chancellor’s office.
According to university spokesman John Lucas, who spoke to the Sentinel, the University of Wisconsin–Madison does not control its investments or endowment and is against academic boycotts, including Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel.
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