Drexel students, pro-Palestinian protesters erect Gaza Solidarity Encampment on Drexel’s campus

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Hundreds of pro-Palestinian protesters marched from City Hall to University City on Saturday afternoon, where they linked arms in a circle around students and community members who set up tents on Drexel University’s campus.

The Drexel Palestine Coalition said in a statement that the Gaza Solidarity Encampment demands “divestment from genocide and redistribution of funds toward investment in Palestine, disclosure of material and financial expenses and profits, defense against repression and censorship, and an explicit declaration that we are witnessing a genocide.”

After marching from City Hall to 33rd and Market streets with a police escort, protesters broke off and moved toward Drexel’s campus, encircling the Academic Quadrangle, also known as Korman Quad, which sits between Chestnut and Walnut streets. That’s where people began setting up tents on the grass.

Tensions escalated between police and protesters when police set up a barricade around the perimeter. Protesters grabbed the barricades and placed them around the encampment area. Police then took the barricades back and replaced them around the perimeter. Police in riot gear entered the barricaded perimeter but later left.

As of time of publication, no arrests have been made. Protesters gathered outside the barricade played music and danced and delivered pizza and food to those inside the encampment. A counterprotester approached the encampment and later walked away, escorted by police.

Drexel University did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Before marching through the intermittent rain, speakers addressed the crowd, marking the anniversary of the 1948 Nakba and demanding a permanent ceasefire in Gaza.

As they marched from City Hall down JFK Boulevard and Market Street, protesters held signs with the  names of Palestinian cities and the number of Palestinians killed and displaced there.

The Nakba, which means “catastrophe” in Arabic, is remembered by Palestinians on May 15, which this year fell on the day after Israel celebrated its independence day. Nakba refers to the mass displacement of 700,000 Palestinians before and during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, as Palestinians were expelled from the land that is now Israel and were not permitted to return.

The remembrance comes this year as Israel continues to advance military operations in the Israel-Hamas war, which began when Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing more than 1,100 Israelis and taking 240 people hostage. Since then, Israeli airstrikes and ground offensives have killed more than 35,000 Palestinians, more than 40% of whom were children, according to Palestinian health authorities.

Around 1.7 million Palestinians in Gaza have been displaced at least once, if not multiple times, since the war began. Since last week, 600,000 Palestinians have been forced out of Rafah by Israel’s ongoing invasion. Israel’s restriction on aid has resulted in a “full-blown famine” in northern Gaza that is now extending south, according to a senior United Nations official.

Israel has denied it is targeting civilians and refuted charges of genocide at the International Court of Justice.

The Saturday protest and encampment follows Philadelphia Police’s arrest of 19 protesters Friday night who attempted to start a second encampment on the University of Pennsylvania’s campus and occupy Fisher Bennett Hall.

Last week, police arrested 33 protesters at the encampment on Penn’s campus. The Penn encampment was established at the end of April to call for a permanent ceasefire and university divestment from Israel in solidarity with student protests across the world.