What was the UW Encampment Protest?: A brief study of a brief moment

A note on names

The names used throughout this essay are fictional. Though many people I spoke with gave me their names or aliases on the condition I could refer to them as such, I have chosen here to further preserve the privacy of individuals associated with the encampment through an additional layer of protection by using new names for all. The only names I have left unaltered are of known public figures such as University of Washington administrators and published journalists. No characters are amalgams, all are individuals. If you should happen to recognize yourself in this story, I hope I have described our interactions fairly.

The Liberated Zone

“Next stop: Pioneer Square” says the robotic woman’s voice over the intercom as the 1 Line travels from the International District to the University District. Yesterday, the University of Washington’s protest encampment grew substantially when the UW United Front for Palestinian Liberation’s Popular University of Gaza joined the week’s earlier demonstration from the Progressive Student Union.^[1] Today, a woman three seats ahead of me in a khimar watches TikTok videos with no sound audible, a man next to me taps on his phone to confirm his Amazon Prime package has been delivered, the woman across from me looks at her face via a selfie-camera. Each’s attention focused only on their phones. All are dressed in black. “Next stop: Capitol Hill.” Those aboard not actively using an electronic device have their eyes closed. At each station old departs, new arrives, the stream of humanity thus renewed, the train continues its journey in silence, save the algorithmic announcement of the next destination. I catch sight of myself in a darkened window as the world blurs past. “Next stop: University of Washington.”

Walking toward the encampment that sunny Thursday morning, I see artifacts of arguments that started before I arrived and will continue after I depart: on a utility pole a white sticker with black text says “PALESTINIANS HAVE THE RIGHT TO LIVE IN FREEDOM THE RIGHT TO RETURN HOME” and on another pole the same stickered message can be seen scratched and cut through; a pasted on sign from the Revolutionary Communists of America declares “END THE GENOCIDE! INTIFADA UNTIL VICTORY!” over which has been scrawled “FUCK HAMAS”; a pale pink sticker high on light pole says “FREE GAZA FROM HAMAS” with the latter half of the sentiment blotted over. Thus the state of debate.

The UW encampment situated in the Quad (referred to as a “Liberated Zone” by the encampers) began 205 days after the Hamas-led attacks on Israel in October of 2023 which included the launching of thousands of rockets toward the nation, the killing of hundreds of civilians (while shopping at markets, working at their businesses, attending a music festival, walking on city streets, and receiving care in maternity wards), the sexual assault and mutilation of women^[2], and the taking of approximately 250 civilian hostages throughout the Gaza Strip. In response to the attacks, Israel instituted blockades, forced evacuations, and the bombardment of hospitals, universities, and at least 70% of Gaza’s homes^[3]. Thousands have died, more Palestinian than Israeli. Children have been killed and mothers have wept. A senior member of Hamas said the attack “succeeded in putting the Palestinian issue back on the table, and now no one in the region is experiencing calm.”^[4]

Across the United States, hundreds of universities have seen encampments arise as a form of protest^[5] against what is seen by the protesters as their institutions’ inaction, complicity, and/or support of Israel’s military actions in the current “Israel-Hamas War”, usually under the auspices of a “boycott, divestment and sanction” strategy intended to exert financial pressures and achieve policy ends aligning with Palestinian rights/statehood.^[6] Many cite the protests of 1968, in which mass movements led by college-educated students protested inequities, challenged status quo acceptance, and advocated for more peace and justice around the world, as a direct parallel of the actions being undertaken on campuses throughout the country. Many of these encampment protests have ended by police action^[7] and a few by mutual agreement between university administrators and protestors^[8].

When I arrive at the Quad, 76 tents have been pitched^[9]: a bloom of varicolored polysynthetic flowers nestled between century old buildings. The north end of the main walkway is blocked by a wall made of wooden pallets over which is draped a painted canvas sign that reads “DIVEST FROM ISRAEL”. The south end is blocked by an Information Booth with information on the “DEMANDS” of the “POPULAR UNIVERSITY FOR GAZA”. The walls of nearby buildings are chalked with “INTIFADA NOW”, “WE’LL MAKE YOU”, “FREE GAZA”, “Ⓐ”, “ACAB”. After circling the encampment a couple of times, I ask someone in a vest if I may enter and walk inside the encampment. They say, Yes, of course, they are not preventing anyone’s access. Seeing the camera draped around my neck they say to me that I not photograph any protestor’s face without explicit, enthusiastic consent for privacy and safety concerns.^[10] I agree to and respect this decision.^[11]

I am there to answer only one question, What is this protest?

The Demands

At the center of the encampment lies an Information Booth whose painted canvas sign puts the UW protestors’ demands thus:

MATERIALLY & ACADEMICALLY DIVEST FROM ISRAEL
CUT ALL TIES WITH BOEING
END THE ANTI-PALESTINIAN REPRESSION OF STUDENTS, WORKERS AND FACULTY

On fliers that further specify the demands, the explanation for why a “Popular University of Gaza” “Liberated Zone” was established on campus is given to be “to increase pressure on the University of Washington to meet our demands. There will be no business as usual during a genocide. We stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people, and will not leave until our demands are met.”

To a person, each and every protestor says they will stay until each of those demands is completely and satisfactorily addressed. Also to a person, each when asked how long they think that will take responds “I do not know” and/or “it’s up to the University”. When the question is posed as a sliding scale, as lying somewhere between tomorrow and the rest of their natural lives to devote to the cause, most see to a horizon of completion a couple of months from now, though they are quick to let their ideals lead them slightly further by accompanying their estimate with “however long it takes”.

Many encampers identify two dates on the calendar for resolution or dissolution. On May 8, a Board of Regents meeting is scheduled to take place where the demands of the encampment can be heard and acted upon, especially if the protesters can demonstrate significant support before and during that meeting. A month later, on June 8, the University’s Graduation Commencement ceremony is scheduled to occur. I am told that since the Quad is a place where many students and their loved ones like to take pictures to celebrate the occasion, the University would be pressured to address the encampments demands before this ceremony or risk disruption.

The Groups

The encampment began three days ago, when approximately two dozen students associated with the Progressive Student Union (“PSU”) erected seven tents including a medic tent and a food tent on the northeast^[12] quadrant of the Quad.^[13] Plans for an initial encampment were scheduled for it to begin four days earlier, “but was postponed due to heavy criticism for [PSU’s] failure to to consult Palestinian, Muslim, and Arab students during the planning process”^[14].

Two days later, the encampment doubled in size and numbers when the UW United Front for Palestinian Liberation (“UF”) set up more tents on the northwest quadrant of the Quad^[15], brought in more encampers, and centralized supply drop off through their organization.

Under UF’s umbrella more groups joined including Students United for Palestinian Equality and Return (“SUPER)”, United Students Against Sweatshop (“USAS”), the Muslim Students Association (“MSA”), Jewish Voice for Peace (“JVP”), and an “autonomous” group which included self-identified anarchists, communists, socialists, and antifascists usually wearing mostly black. As time went on, student supporters, community supporters, and homeless men^[16] joined the encampment to varying degrees.

As with any coalition of groups, there was synthesis and disparity, grievance and unity. I offer below my candid, incomplete, idiosyncratic impressions of each group as an “outsider” to the groups and an uninvited (and at times unwanted) guest at the Liberated Zone.

PSU: The Progressive Student Union is a collection of students with leftist support of liberal and progressive idea(s). The members were friendly, engaging, and among the most continually present and helpful of the encampers. They cooked food every day and shared it. They did not wash their dishes everyday. They brought shelled walnuts to feed to ducks. The organization asserts that it “host[s] protests and other direct actions on campuses to show students that they have the power to win policies for a better campus and to move society as a whole in defense of progressive social movements.”^[17] Members included Tay, Jerry, and Tanner.
UF: The United Front for Palestinian Liberation calls itself a “Coalition of students on the University of Washington-Seattle campus fighting for a liberated Palestine”^[18]. Among the most diverse of the groups, those involved ranged in background and motivation, but all adhere to the talking points given to them, and try to put forth a uniform posture. They controlled the “liaisons” for the encampment. They are the group primarily negotiating with the university administration. The United Front came to be an umbrella term for the entire collection of protesters in the encampment. Members included Sera, Serena, and Stabitha.
SUPER: Students United for Palestinian Equality and Return is an organization “dedicated to justice for the Palestinian people” which “hold[s] educational, awareness, and speaker events annually, in solidarity with the Palestinian people.”^[19] Members of this organization are earnest, hard-edged, disciplined, and focused on the mission of the protest. Many volunteer to serve as de-escalators around the encampment during every hour of the day. Members included Trampoline, Crystal, and Oklahoma.
USAS: United Students Against Sweatshops is “an anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist, student-led labor-solidarity organization” that “partner[s] with both workers and communities to leverage student power toward local and international campaigns that promote, support, and develop economic justice and workers’ rights.”^[20] After a few days, they became responsible for managing supply and food drop-off and storing, organizing, and distributing those supplies and food throughout the encampment. Members included Leonardo, Cassie, and Kai.
MSA: The Muslim Students Association says its “focus is on community development, service, spiritual growth, and leadership” for the local Muslim community during their college years.^[21] The members were gracious, kind, and charitable. They could often be seen in laughter amongst themselves. Their quadrant of the encampment (primarily the southeast) was the most neatly organized. Members included Noor, Sonya, and Eshan.
JVP: Jewish Voice for Peace^[22] had few members present but those there lend a unique perspective and credible nuance to distinguish between “Judaism” and “Zionism”. The members I spoke with were honest and open about their support of Palestinian liberation while able to reason through pros and cons to the form of activism they were engaging in. Members included Beau and Tonya.
“Autonomous”: The “Autonomous” group was a hodge podge collection of anarchists, communists, and hooligans located chiefly in the northwest quadrant of the Quad. They ranged from the immensely articulate (able to quote Marx chapter and verse) to the easily excitable (wanting nothing more than to “bash”/”fuck”/”kill” “fascists”). Some self-identified proudly as “Antifa”. Some quibbled over the various forms of anarchism. Some refused to talk at all to anyone with a camera. They mostly wore black. Members included Shirt, Addam, and Arizona.

Members from the groups took on different roles within the encampment. While I am unaware of any “official” designations for these roles, I observed and had described to me by various encampers at least the following positions:

Media Liaisons / Spokespersons — “designated and trained” individuals responsible for conveying information to any and all “authorities – police officers, administrators, or press” usually only saying previously established talking points;
Information Boothers — those individuals sitting at an Information Booth to answer basic questions for those passing through the encampment or guiding those wishing to contribute resources to their appropriate locations;
De-escalators — these folks patrolled in and around the Liberated Zone to ease any tensions that arose with respect to the protesters and were easily identifiable by their green arm bands and/or the green duct tape appended to their clothing;
Scouts / Security — closely associated with and often indistinguishable from de-escalators, these people walked around the encampment looking to spot trouble and address it before it grew if possible, using walkie-talkies to coordinate their efforts;
Medics — either sat in or around a medic tent^[23] dispensing medical supplies^[24],^[25] or walking around with red duct tape appended to them looking to treat those in need of attention^[26];
Mental Health Helpers — community members who used a tent^[27] across from the medic tent to offer mental health check-ins and sought to address the stresses encampers faced via the protest;
Supply Liaisons — I bundle together here those tasked with staffing the supply drop-off tent, staffing the mutual aid tent^[28], and organizing supplies;
Food Liaisons — I here bundle together those responsible for receiving, cooking, distributing, cleaning up, and donating leftover food served for breakfast, lunch, and dinner; and
Other odds and ends — such as librarians at the “THE PEOPLE’S LIBRARY” also called the “LIBERATION LIBRARY”, those facilitating and making art, those painting nails, those reading Tarot cards, those handing out fliers and literature, those checking and replacing ice in coolers, and and those taking the trash out to the dumpsters behind Raitt Hall.

While there were others doing more than I ever saw, the encampers did at least this much.

To organize and sustain the protest, PSU initially posted a set of “RULES AND GUIDELINES” for the encampment in their main tent (since after all, “WE ARE HERE FOR PALESTINE”) which includes “Separate time and place for escalation – think of community members”, “No public criticism”, “No drugs, alcohol, smoking”^[29], “No fighting, No guns”, “Respect personal boundaries”, “Do not engage with counterprotestors”, and “Contribute what you can”.

After establishing their “Popular University for Gaza Liberated Zone”, the UF wrote up and distributed throughout the encampment a set of 11 “Community Guidelines” which in part reads:

“We commit to remain grounded in why we enter this space – as an act of solidarity with Palestinian people” and “We will not comply or leave until our demands are met. All of our other commitments follow this point”;
“We recognize our role as visitors, and for many of us colonizers, on this land. We set up our zone with an acute awareness that we do so on colonized Coast Salish land” and “We recognize the reasons we are here are direct results of the genocide of Indigenous peoples”^[30];
“No desecration of the land, no littering. We will honor the land by keeping our zone clean and respecting our plant kin-please pick up your trash and do not harm the trees and plants”;
“We commit to making our liberation zone accessible to all who support a Free Palestine. No drug use/alcohol consumption inside the liberation zone”^[31];
“Respect personal boundaries”;
“We commit to never photographing or videotaping another community member without their affirmative consent”;
“We will check in on and take care of each other”;
“We will not speak to any authorities – police officers, administrators, or press – without first consulting a designated liaison”;
“We will treat each other with kindness, and respect. We commit to assuming best intentions, granting ourselves and others grace when mistakes are made, and approaching conflict with the goal of addressing and repairing”;
“We move at the will of the most marginalized among us – centering Palestinians. Please think of community members when making decisions about autonomous action”^[32]; and
“We commit to not engaging with zionist counter-protestors. They seek to distract us, and we must exercise Samud – remaining steadfast and unified for Palestine.”

Whether the rules/guidelines posted were strictly adhered to, Reader, I invite you to join the jury.^[33]

Informative signs made of cardboard and paper plates have written on them details for the groups’ Instagrams, Telegrams, Venmos, and Cashapps. Others list what is still needed: Sleeping bags, Sleeping mats, tents, duct tape, flashlights/lamps, blankets/pillows, high vis. vest, (clear) plastic bins, scrap wood, nails/screws, and plywood sheets. A sign sitting outside the medic tent says “JONATHAN CHOE LIVES AT XXXXX XXX XX XX BELLVUE, WA XXXXX”.

The strategies and tactics of the protest are as myriad and varied as the groups protesting. While the diversity of perspectives and approaches is laudable, the efficacy of the many modes appears as mixed as the methods. At times and in their own ways, I saw this as an oil and water mixture of the serious and the silly^[34], the concerned and the concerning, with equal calls for “autonomous” and “community” action. On one end of the Quad, there are devout Muslim students advocating for the creation of a sovereign territory governed in accordance with Shari’a Law. On the other end of the Quad, there are atheist anarchist community members who do not believe in the legitimacy of any national borders. In between, spectra of principles and opinions as dynamic as the beating of every human heart in between.

Perhaps volatile elements embedded into stabilizing elements effectuates change better than either could alone, just as nitroglycerin can be safely packaged into dynamite, whose energy has certainly changed and shaped the world time and again. But just as certainly when a fuse is lit, the explosion is inevitable.

The Campus

“Is it silly that I feel safer here?” says a young woman as she enters the Liberated Zone.

Past noon, hundreds of students pass through the Quad. A call and response chant is initiated by the encampers to draw the students’ attention and convey at least a portion of the protesters’ mindset. “Free free Palestine” someone shouts into a megaphone. “From the river to the sea” the shouter continues. “Palestine will be free” the shouter shouts. “From the sea to the river” the shouter reverses. “Palestine will live forever.” The words are read from a phone before being megaphoned out into the crowd. “No justice” says the shouter, “No peace” say the encampers, unenthusiastically and without unison. “No justice”. “No peace.” “No justice.” “No peace.” “In our millions, in our billions”, the shouter tells the crowd and which the encampers reiterate, “We are all Palestinians”.

Reactions from the passing students range from fleeting to generally positive. No one stops to argue with the protesters, but nor do they join in response to the chanted calls made by the megaphoned shouter. After a few minutes, the passing students now sequestered away into their classrooms, the Quad returns to a murmuring quiet.

I photograph a person dressed in all black looking at their phone sitting outside their tent ($199.99 from Coleman^[35]) whose side has a neatly painted on yellow Ⓐ. Tay from PSU in a high vis vest and a face covered by a keffiyeh approaches me and talks to me about not photographing people’s faces and about getting consent. I tell him I understand and ask if I can photograph him. He says yes and flashes a peace sign as I point my camera at him.

After an hour another wave of students pass through.

Professor Ed Taylor, a Vice Provost and Dean of Undergraduate Academic Affairs, can be seen walking among the bustle of students making their way through the Quad. He chats amiably with all who approach him. He takes his time walking through and observing the encampment. When a couple of protesters recognize him, they proceed toward him, and have a conversation with him. He listens attentively to what they have to say. All depart cordially, the encampers returning to their tent, Professor Taylor heading toward Red Square.

A group of student athletes walk between Red Square and the Quad carrying signs urging people to “Join the NMDP” — the National Marrow Donor Program. A woman with a clipboards signs people up.

At the south end of the Quad, outside the current bounds of the Liberated Zone, Chabad ––describing itself as “a warm, non-judgmental, fun, exciting, and lively [group] that practices the Jewish faith”^[36] –– has set up a table on which they have set an “ARK charity box” and asks students who pass to contribute what they can. I am told by members that ARK stands for “acts of routine kindness” and the demonstration is intended to nurture the habit of giving, a principle of Judaism. Jim, a student who had been previously blocked by Ali and Emme from filming inside the encampment^[37], takes a picture of the twelve members and their Rabbi.

On the southeast end of the Quad, Jackie Kent from KOMO News reports on the growth of encampment. On the northeast end of the Quad, Gwen Baumgardner from KIRO7 and her cameraman record an interview with an older Jewish couple who are upset by the encampment protest.

After their interview, I ask the older Jewish couple what they think. They recount the arguments they have been having with protesters this afternoon. As the couple kvetches, a young Jewish Yemeni American joins us and tells us in her brief time within the encampment this afternoon she was called a “white” “colonizer” for her support of Israel’s existence. She says she lost patience talking with encampers when she, a woman whose parents fled from unrest with her in their arms, was told she “hasn’t suffered truly enough”.

I watch as small Palestinian flags are planted into the ground near the Media Center tent. Half are upside down.^[38]

Jerry brings out a banjo and plays (Scruggs style) as he waits for a woman who is bringing hers (she plays clawhammer) to join.

Art is made on a tarp –– acrylic paints on cardboard box tops, pastel chalks on brick walkways, washable markers on posterboard –– to express the feelings of and unite disparate encampers through creative processes.

A professor walks through the encampment and records the scene on his laptop.

“Guys. Mask up. Mask up” a protestor tells others.
“Oh my,” the professor says, “what a tragedy if one’s face was on camera.” He is flanked by people with open umbrellas trying to obstruct his (camera’s) view.
“Why would you be putting people’s face on camera?” he is asked.
“I am in a public space taking pictures of what I see”, he answers.
“Okay.” The protester says.
“I have the right to do that. You have the right to walk near me with an umbrella.”

The professor walks over to a section of the encampment where people are painting their nails under a canopy.

“Hey don’t push” he says to someone blocking his path. “Hey I’m trying to walk here.”
“I’m actually standing right here” the obstructor tells the instructor.
“Alright” he says “no problem” and walks around them.

Juno, a de-escalator wearing green tape on the thigh of their pant leg, takes the umbrella from the obstructor, and covers the professor’s laptop camera entirely with it. Juno follows the professor around as he continues to try to film.

“Is this necessary?” Juno asks the professor.
“No” the professor says.
“Okay, so then could you just like do us a favor and get out of here?”
“No” he says again.

The professor continues to walk around the encampment recording.

Once the professor makes it to the center of the Quad, a man in a green vest follows in front of him and “pretends” not to be getting in the way of his camera by continually looking off to the side, not facing the professor or his camera, and being performatively obtuse to his obstructions.^[39]

As the professor attempts to sit on the Quad to listen to a speech being given, the man in the vest practically squats in his lap. Sensing that he will not be able to sit in the grass without the vested man’s ass in his face he gets up. The man in the vest gets up and again obstructs the man’s path in any direction he walks.

“You know that what you guys are doing with this could be considered intimidation. Intimidation is not free speech.” The vested man continues to perform his role as obvious-oblivious obstinate hindrance.

Students in the grass observing the scene offer quizzical looks of what is occurring in front of them. “Excuse me sir”, the professor says to the vested man, “I want to sit in the grass.” Upon doing so, the vested man squats such that his crotch is directly at the professor’s eye level. A man puts an umbrella over the laptop camera and in so doing hits students sitting in front of the professor. A sign that reads “Hawaii Stands With PALESTINE” is then held by the vested man to block the laptop camera’s view.

The professor stands to reposition himself to be embedded within the group of people listening to the speech. The vested man then steps over and between people who have been listening in order to block the man recording.

The professor gets up and walks away. He is surrounded by three people — one wears green tape, one wears red, one wears both colors — all with umbrellas open and directed his way.

At another end of the Quad another man is yelled at to “get the fuck out of here”.

The Preacher

Beginning around 3:00 p.m., a “Political Education Teach-In” is held in the southwest quadrant of the encampment. Students and encampers gather on the lawn. A masked woman reads a speech from her phone. An imam tells the crowd “everyone here is making a difference and don’t let anyone tell you different, not even the devil.” Beau, a Jewish student, advocates for a free Palestine. After half an hour, the assembled crowd is instructed to form a circle so that a discussion can be had amongst attendees. Ten minutes later, the Preacher arrives.

The Preacher, a blue-eyed, 38 year old, 6’4″, 230 lb, male, described by the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit as, “a devout Christian who seeks to spread the message of the gospel at well-attended public events”, carries a CORE 6-Person Lighted Dome Tent and a rolled up vinyl canvas. Within five minutes, he unfurls his tent in front of the white PSU tent, connects fiberglass tent pole segments together and attaches a dark navy blue polyester canopy to the poles. Three de-escalators in hi vis vests approach him. “We’re setting up Grace Camp”, he tells them. Juno, a de-escalator without a vest, tries to reason with him not to set up in this spot. “This is the Grace Camp now.” Five more people surround him. One, a tall man wearing headphones, Eayiq, stands such that The Preacher is unable to raise the tent in the intended location. “Are you going to move so I can set up my poles?” The Preacher asks Eayiq. The Preacher lifts up the tent, moves the it a few feet away from the tall man, closer to the PSU tent, he says again and again “This is prime real estate”. Half a dozen people sit and stand on the tent to prevent The Preacher from staking it into the ground. Juno and another hi vis vest wearing continue to reason with him. Unable to further fortify the tent, The Preacher retrieves his printed vinyl canvas sign, unrolls it, and hoists it above him. It reads “ASK ME WHY YOU DESERVE TO BURN IN HELL” on one side and “THOUGH YOUR SINS BE AS SCARLET THEY SHALL BE WHITE AS SNOW JESUS WILL FORGIVE YOUR SINS IF YOU REPENT” on the other. More people gather. Many around him shout that he stop what he is doing. Eayiq pulls up one of the tent poles, destabilizing the tent. A woman, Julie, with green tape on her hat and arm sees what the tall man has done and begins disconnecting each of the tent poles, bringing the tent down. Trampoline, also with green tape on her hat and arm, holds aloft an umbrella and watches Julie’s actions from a short distance away. Others sit on the perimeter of the tent to prevent its re-raising. A woman from the crowd grabs The Preacher’s sign and cuts an 18″ gash with a pair of scissors.^[40] A man, Bass Pro Shop, takes three tent pole segments and walks off with them. The Preacher puts the sign down and tries to collect the remaining dismantled tent poles. “I’m homeless”, The Preacher shouts. Tay, trying to calm the situation, repeatedly whispers the Our Father into The Preacher’s ear. Three more hi vis vest wearing de-escalators arrive to convince the people on the tent perimeter to move, and back the crowd away from The Preacher. Some encampers link arms to shield The Preacher, others shove umbrellas into the faces and cameras of gathered onlookers. The Preacher sits on the canopy of his fallen tent and holds the deconstructed tent poles to his forehead as Juno says that he can remain in the Liberated Zone, just not in this exact location, and offers to help him move his tent. Reluctantly, The Preacher agrees and his tent poles and canopy are brought under a tree on the east side by the entrance nearest the HUB, as Bass Pro Shop, after having broken one of the tent pole segments and throwing two others into a nearby trashcan, takes and hides The Preacher’s cut up sign. The Preacher rebuilds his tent against the tree, then goes to his car to retrieve paperback King James Versions of the Bible, another printed vinyl sign, a speaker system, and two microphones. An hour after initially raising his tent, The Preacher preaches.

Davis, a homeless man who regularly sleeps on or near University property, asks The Preacher to stop for twenty minutes to allow tensions to ease. The Preacher acquiesces, waits, turns his speaker on twenty minutes later. A member of the encampment asks The Preacher to wait another twenty minutes so that Muslim students may conduct their Jumu’ah prayer on the nearby tarp. The Preacher turns off his speaker, waits, tells me he will read from the First Epistle of John, and after the completion of the prayer says “Okay, time to hear the Word of God” into his microphone. The Preacher reads from and comments on the Epistle of John. Call and response chants — “Free free Palestine” — begin. A woman who had been previously interviewed by a local news station regarding the protest, upset by the encampers’ chants — “From the river to the sea / Palestine will be free” — yells at the man leading the call and response, then to the crowd to stop and leave the Quad. After an unproductive minute, she then exits to the north. Bass Pro Shop pairs his phone via bluetooth to his Sony speaker (ULT FIELD 1, $129.99 from Best Buy), plays music loudly leveled at The Preacher’s ears.^[41] The call and response chants continue — “From the sea to the river / Palestine will live forever” — and Tay tries asking The Preacher to stop. A de-escalator reasons with Tay to leave The Preacher be and he does. The de-escalator reasons with Bass Pro Shop to leave The Preacher be and he does. The call and response chants continue. The Preacher goes silent.

Four community members stand around The Preacher. One tells him he ought not preach here. Another shows him the text of a Psalm on her phone and asks him to read it aloud. A well dressed Asian American student with a khaki MOLLE backpack records the interaction with his phone as a man in a black shirt with a duct taped red cross on the chest watches him. The de-escalator ask the community members to leave The Preacher be. Another Asian American student begins to record the scene with his phone and has a watermelon colorer umbrella thrust in his way. A blue umbrella is opened toward his well dressed companion. A third umbrella is opened in between the other two to cover the scene. The recorders say they should be allowed to film in the public space.^[42] Those holding the umbrellas have no intention of allowing them to. Within minutes each go their separate ways.

The low sun casts long shadows.

The four community members leave The Preacher and a woman takes a seat in the folding chair next to him. As she talks to him, she holds his Bible in her hand. As he listens, he holds a microphone in his. On the grass of the southwestern quadrant, two women give a brief overview on how to use an Epi-Pen should anyone in the encampment need it. After the women finish, The Preacher turns on his speaker, lifts his microphone, and begins to speak. Within minutes, a woman connects her phone to the speaker system previously used to explain the mechanics of an epinephrine auto-injector and plays Palestinian music loudly.

The Preacher’s cut up sign and missing tent poles are returned to him. He thanks the person who returned them, then uses yellow duct tape to fix the broken pole and mend the cut sign.

Night Falls

Midnight marks the beginning of the fifth day of the encampment. The Quad is quiet save for the hum of a gas powered generator.^[43] The tarp on which Muslim students held their Maghrib Prayer hours earlier lays empty. A woman chalks a phrase in Arabic on the main east-west brick walkway as men around her make nothing but suggestions.^[44] A handful of young men try grappling up the side of a building. Tanner practices judo with a resistance band made of marine rope tied to a light pole near the tent in which The Preacher sleeps. Most tents are dark and quiet, some have whispers, others shared giggles, one has its walls illuminated by interior candle flickers, its contents stretched into abstractions on the canopy walls, Platonic cave shadows of a reality I will only ever know from a distance, obscured by a synthetic membrane.

Two protestors have a brief conversation. “You spending the night?” “No. I’m going home.” “Alright. See you later.”

At one end of the encampment, a couple assembles a tent by lantern light. At the other end, a dozen students openly smoke marijuana and discuss tactics.

People in high vis vests patrol the perimeter and give me extended looks. Eayiq rides a monowheel up to me and asks if I am alright, his eyes toward the camera in my hands as he asks. I say that I am. Satisfied with my answer, he rides off. Shortly after, a scout comes up to me and asks, “Do you support us?” and I say that I do broadly speaking but am unsure of the efficacy of the form of protest. The scout asks me to clarify. I say that I sense a dark irony in a mode of expression in which college-educated students choose to sleep in tents in a safe and secure environment in which their needs are met (free food is provided, their trash is collected, toilets are accessible and cleaned regularly) to make their point, while a few blocks in any direction away from the University, people sleep in tents not by choice with little safety or security whose needs are not met. I ask what makes this an effective message. The scout tells me that unhoused individuals have joined the protest and now benefit from the mutual aid it provides. Before I could ask any follow on questions, the scout tells me they were just coming to check on me, and leaves.

Three teenagers on bikes ride through the east-west thoroughfare and scream, “I can’t stop.” They laugh to each other afterward.

Rain begins to fall. The hum of the generator’s engine matched by the thrum of drops hitting the tops of tents.

“WHOEVER STAYS UNTIL THE END WILL TELL THE STORY”

In the Seattle rains, wedding pictures are taken and funeral eulogies given. A pair of ducks walk around the encampment. Some encampers lay on their back in tents, laptops on their bellies, facing screens. Other encampers tie ropes together, screw the ropes to pallets for use as handles, cut wooden boards for an art wall with a handsaw. Others have dug and planted an herb garden has that includes basil, oregano, dill, thyme, parsley. The Preacher walks to the porta potties behind Raitt Hall. A sign with Jonathan Choe’s home address still sits near the medic tent. Somber cello tones emanate from deep within the Music Building.

The sentiments of the encampers take on different forms. “How many Dead in GAZA” has been painted onto a wall of Savery Hall. “F BOEING” has been spray painted in white on a brick walkway. A sign has been painted with flowers accompanying a quote by Dr. Mahmoud Abu Nujaila: “WHOEVER STAYS UNTIL THE END WILL TELL THE STORY WE DID WHAT WE COULD. REMEMBER US.”

I approach the Information Booth and a man in spiked loafers and two black surgical masks invites me under the canopy cover as the rain drizzles. A man approaches the Booth and asks if there is an email list they can sign up for to find out more and is told by the man in spiked loafers, “We don’t collect personal information for obvious reasons”. A woman approaches the Booth and asks how she can best support and is told by the man in spiked loafers “Your presence is support enough”. I ask the man in spiked loafers what will the success of this protest look like to which he tells me of the recent agreement made at Evergreen State College to end its encampment.^[45] I ask him how long it might take and he tells me it “depends on the publicity this protest gets” and that I should “give it a week” to see how things develop, mentioning an event with Charlie Kirk on May 7th and a Board of Regents meeting planned for May 8th. The man in spiked loafers does not believe UW will divest from Boeing and considers the Israel-Palestine conflict “the ultimate 2024 wedge issue”. When I ask him if he has any concern that the movement has been or could be co-opted, we are interrupted by an encamper needing the man in spiked loafer’s help, so he leaves to help.

The Preacher returns to his tent and begins to preach using his speaker system. Two minutes later, the encampment’s loudspeakers play loud music.

A man in a blue plastic poncho regales a woman with a story of how he scared away a man with an expensive camera since even though the man with the camera said he was a student, the man in the blue tarp did not believe him.

A woman comes up to me to tell me that some people in the encampment might be uncomfortable with my presence and picture-taking. I tell her I am familiar with the guidelines surrounding protester privacy and the need for consent to prevent doxxing. I ask her what she thinks about Jonathan Choe’s address being displayed prominently in the encampment. She says she is okay with it and walks away.

I approach the Media Center tent whose table has taped to it fliers for Liberated Zone Community Guidelines by UF, the List of Demands from the protesters, and answers to the questions “What is a Popular University for Gaza?” and “Why establish a ‘Liberated Zone?’”. I ask a representative about the effectiveness of this particular form of protest — choosing to live in tents on University grounds — given the prevalence of homelessness in the area — compelled to live in tents elsewhere — to which the representative says “It’s not our fault” for the housing crisis. “In fact, the University is a major contributor to the problem” by continuing to buy real estate. The representative says, “We are reclaiming land” that “we pay for with our tuition dollars” and moreover “we donate surplus to our unhoused allies”.

A father carries a generator and his son carries a tent to donate to the encampment. They are directed first to the Supply Drop-Off tent, then directed toward the southeast quadrant. Their supplies are sent to the southwest quadrant where new tents are being added. A sign outside a newly constructed tent reads, “Want to JOIN? This tent is VACANT (full of bedding!) — COME ON IN — FREE PALESTINE”.

The Preacher finishes his reading from Hebrews. I ask to take a picture of his tent to which he assents, “I’m not embarrassed.” Two men, not students^[46], are taking down a tent neighboring The Preacher’s. The tent contains an inverter generator, a cloth tool bag, a box of trashbags, and 24-count package of bottled water. I ask to take a picture of it and am told by one of the two men, “No”, and when asked why not, he says, “It’s not beautiful.” The other man tells me, “I’d prefer if you go take pictures of the food.”

Dinner is served around 5:40, encampers line up to receive plates which are then loaded with donated communal food. Some take more than others. Masks are lowered to eat. Some take more than they eat as evidenced by remnants in the nearby trash. Some leave their plates in the rain to be disposed of by others.

The Preacher starts up again, on “the supremacy of Jesus Christ”. From inside a tent comes “Oh my God” in exasperation. A reporter from The Daily says to a photographer, “They will not break this guy”. He replies to her, “You can’t break this guy”.

Shirt picks up a megaphone and initiates a call and response chant to drown out the Preacher’s sermon. Minutes later, a community member engages with The Preacher, “You’re giving Christians a bad name because––” The Preacher responds, “You don’t understand, because God has sent me––” A friend of the community member comes up to her, grabs her by the arm, and walks her away from The Preacher, “Okay we’re going”.

The megaphoned call and response is replaced by Amir and his friend playing music with an oud and hand drum. Others sing along.

Ramma, an Assistant Professor born 200 miles from Gaza, attempts to converse with The Preacher in a subdued tone. After a few minutes he steps back as a more animated community member attempts to talk with The Preacher. Several encampers and passersby gather around to hear the more animated discussion. After a few more minutes, Davis arrives and tells The Preacher “Hey, shut the fuck up and listen”. He tells The Preacher “they don’t want to hear the Bible” and says instead “I want to hear your fucking story”. Davis urges him, “Become one of us”. More encampers gather. One yells at The Preacher, “Do you have a small member?” One in a neon green jacket patrols the boundary of the growing scene with her bicycle to prevent passersby from joining in, several times circling those who do not back away. One tries to stop Davis, “Get your hands off me” he says. He says to both The Preacher and the assembled crowd, “I’m not yelling at you, I’m just telling you from the bottom of my heart”.

The music continues.

To the west, the art wall is joined to its supports. To the east, Bass Pro Shop hammers down stakes for tents to be erected.

An encamper walks in the center of the Quad holding the sign with Jonathan Choe’s address. I ask him, “Do you mind if I ask about the sign?” to which he responds, “I do actually” and quickly walks off, returning the sign to the medic tent.

The music ends.

“Gonna finish Genesis 9”, The Preacher says, “and after this, the judgement”. The gathered crowd disperses.

More food, chicken tikka masala in self-serve containers, is brought into the encampment and delivered to the food tent. An hour later, an MSA member delivers a container to The Preacher while he rests in his tent.

As rain falls and night dawns, an anarchist dressed in black plays flute.

“Do you know who she’s talking about?”

New graffiti can be seen in the northwest corner of Raitt Hall. “FREE GAZA”, “FREE PALESTINE”, “VIVA VIVA PAL” it proclaims. Newly chalked phrases abound on buildings and walkways: “FREE PALESTINE”, “LAND BACK” “ACAB”. A white angel under the phrase “Let Life Live” greets visitors to the encampment from the north. On the brick walkways, messages spray painted in thematic colors. In red, “FREE”, in green “Pussy, Money, Weed”^[47], in white, “COEXiSt”, in black, “Suck My SouL”. In combinations of each, the encampment is declared to be a “Hate Free ZONE”. For the first time, I see death enter the lexicon, both accusing others of its cause (“CAUCE KILLS BABIES”^[48]) and declaring an encamper’s intent (“I kiLL pussies who kill babies”). Students can be seen painting a small Palestinian flag on bricks under lamp light.

An hour before my arrival, the Quality Service Record for the Honey Bucket porta potty indicates full tank usage and that it has been cleared accordingly.

Shields made from cut up plastic trash cans, cardboard, and rope can be seen half hidden under a tarp. One such trashcan shield with a black Ⓐ painted over encircled red, white, and blue rings (a la Captain America’s shield) sits outside a tent as its intended user rests inside.

Toward the center of the encampment, art made over the past several days has been taped to a tarp. Around the encampment, signs have arisen with bit.ly urls and gofund.me pages and cashapp details soliciting donations to “HELP A fAMily in GAZA” and “HELP RANDA’S FAMILY EVACUATE” and to “Feed our medics”. At the periphery, signs with “kiDs ARE HERE! BE kIND tO EACH OtHER” have been put up.

A spiral has been chalked on a walkway with a heart at its open end. As I try to capture its ephemerality, Jerry sees me and we strike up a conversation. He tells me of the energy rippling through the encampment. Earlier in the day, stories went around of “bleach laced cookies” that were “sent”/”eaten” and made “someone”/”several” ill.^[49] Tomorrow is the Charlie Kirk Event. And therefore tonight a mixture of preparation and anxiety percolates. Jerry talks about the rise of the escalatory tactics, such as the new graffiti, being used to vent anger and frustration as well as apply further pressure on the University administration during negotiation sessions. He also talks about the effectiveness of the protester’s de-escalatory tactics and how offering food to everyone visiting the encampment is one of those: “It’s hard to argue when someone puts food in your hands”.

During our chat, I am approached by two people wanting to know my name and my business. I tell them both and ask them their’s. They do not tell me. “Is it a blog?” One asks me. “It might be”, I say. “What are you doing here?” “Trying to understand what motivates people” and “the effectiveness of this particular form of protest.” Prior to their arrival, Jerry and I had been talking about the power of spontaneous community. Now I ask the two of them how posting a sign with Jonathan Choe’s address in the encampment contributes to the legitimacy of the encampment’s means and ends. One tells me that the sign only comes out when Choe himself is present as a diversionary tactic.^[50] With that, they tell me they were just coming to check me out; their increased vigilance due to today’s and tomorrow’s events.

“Just blow on it and say Bismillah” a friend teases her friend about her food as they pass on their way to the prayer tarp. A group of a dozen — half men, half women — pray as a Boeing jet flies unseen behind dark clouds, the exhaust screaming louder than the gentle sing song “Allahu Akbar” emanating from the head congregant.

A professor escorts a young contrarian white man to the media tent where they meet two women to address his questions. They explain what the protest is about and how the push for divestment mirrors the calls to action against South African apartheid, a period of time the young man admits to not knowing about. He argues the encampment,”infringes on people’s right to use and enjoy the Quad”, to which one woman responds that the encampment is not preventing people’s access through the Quad, to which the other woman responds that there are other open grassy areas people could use for recreation if they so desire, to which the professor responds that anyone using the Quad necessarily and temporarily prevents others from using it as they may desire, such as a group playing volleyball or throwing a frisbee around doesn’t allow others to lounge about reading, but that this is not an infringement on anyone’s rights but rather a necessary compromise of living in an area with multiple people with multiple interests. The young man argues that Israel belongs to Jewish people. One woman, a Native American herself, tells the young man of the history of Indian eradication as enabling Americans’ claim to lands it did not previously possess. The other woman uses the young man’s argument as a vehicle to convince him of displaced peoples’ right to return to lands they once occupied. The professor explains how settler colonialism has been a mechanism of (European) control for centuries and that Israel’s nationhood nearly 76 years ago is a recent example of that in the Middle East. The young man argues that if the Palestinian government was stronger, they would do the same thing as Israel. One of the women asks, Would that make it right? The young man asks, “Where are the Jews supposed to go” if not to Israel? The other woman asks, Why should Palestinians be supposed to go?

The prayer over, Muslim women dance in the rain.

Searching around the art tarp, Lana looks for her lost AirPods. She has the Find My location app enabled and she sees that they should be somewhere around here. She has retraced her steps, looked in and around her tent, and gone around the camp half a dozen times. She goes to the “Lost + Found” box at the Information Booth and finds them there. She says, “I fucking love these people.”

The rain falls hard.

Under a canopy, Tanner plays a tin whistle. Under an umbrella, Trampoline tells me about her interest in local politics and about her experiences at city council meetings. Crystal takes off her mask and drinks tea. Oklahoma talks about a quiz he should be studying for. All are resigned to what tomorrow might bring. None believe the encampment will last through the summer. The University probably wouldn’t let them, they tell me, plus a lot of people have other things to do. None look forward to the coming election.

Inah Dane Harrah comes over to tell Trampoline that the fellow in yellow has to stop telling her not to sing. She says to her to tell him she would “knock him the fuck out” next time he told her to stop. “I’ll punch him right in his fucking face” she says. “Tell him that.”

“Do you know who she’s talking about?” I ask Trampoline.

“No.”

The Day of the Charlie Kirk Event

Three hours before an event to be held in the Husky Union Building Ballroom in which Charlie Kirk will “speak[] about freedom and American Values” as part of “The Live Free Tour”^[51], University of Washington Police take their second report of “Assault in the fourth degree” that day.^[52]

The United Front asked for the event, scheduled three months earlier and 500 feet from the Quad, to be canceled or moved farther from the encampment “out of concern for student safety” and a desire to “reduce the potential for conflict or violence that could result”.^[53] Moreover, the United Front “asked for no police presence” since “we know that the police do not keep us safe”^[54] and for the next few hours before the event, no police were present in or around the encampment and none would be present for the rest of the night.^[55]

Steel barricades provided by the University of Washington have been set up at each entrance to the Quad. Signs attached to the barricades read “TEMPORARY NO THRU ACCESS”.

In the days leading up the event, an “AUTONOMOUS CALL TO ACTION” had been posted on social media and on paper fliers around campus telling individuals to “GATHER YOUR FRIENDS TO DISRUPT, OPPOSE, AND REJECT WHITE SUPREMACY, ZIONISM, AND CHRISTIAN NATIONALISM” in response to the event. “FASCIST ALERT” the flier alerted. “BLACK BLOC ENCOURAGED” it said. “TRAVEL IN GROUPS” it suggested. “WE KEEP US SAFE” it proclaimed.

Across the encampment signs state “If you plan on getting arrested, write the number for jail support on your arm”. Throughout the day, several encampers can be seen with the number markered onto their arm. (None were taken to jail.)

Markered in red, green, and black ink on alternating bricks along a walkway was written “SAVE / GAZA / FREE / Palestine / 14,500 KIDs / DEAD / How Do You / Justify that? / Imagine It was / YOUR son? / What abt Your / Daughter? / Or Your / Little Sibling / Or Your / Mom / Or YOUR / DAD / Or Your / Bby Cousins? / WHAT IF IT / WAS YOUR / ENTIRE FAMILY” culminating in a white spray painted question “Would You Do Something?”

Along the path, a brick has been pulled up and removed.

The Preacher has a new long sign laying nearby his tent. As he begins to preach, Tay and Shirt engage in a call and response via megaphones to drown out The Preacher’s words. The Preacher stops and shortly thereafter so too does the call and response.

A medic comes over to talk to The Preacher as Pastor Vera, here to support any congregants who may need her today, listens on. The medic tries to explain why today is different and why therefore The Preacher should act differently.

On the light pole nearest The Preacher’s tent, a flag of Palestine has been raised. Upside down.

Members of the Freedom Socialist Party arrive with fresh support and crisp white signs that say to “END U.S. MILITARY AID TO ISRAEL!”. Protesters tape Palestinian flags to tents, not all right side up. One tent has strung around it inflatable watermelons.

Pastor Vera recognizes a student as he walks by. He is upset about school. She breaks off from the conversation she was observing to sit and counsel the young man.

Shirt gets upset thinking someone had taken his umbrella. After a couple of minutes he finds it where he previously left it. “I’m just on edge,” he says. “I want to bash some fascists.”

He joins a circular gathering in the northwest corner of the Quad where approximately 100 people are being prepped. Half are dressed in black, a quarter wear keffiyehs, all are masked. Fifty feet north, a man with an electric guitar, effects pedal board, and small amplifier plays gentle looping music. A crow caws atop the Music Building.

In the northeast quadrant, a circular enclosure made from pallets houses trashcan shields, goggles, first aid kit, bottles of water for eye washing, umbrellas, rope, gloves, fist-sized u-bolts, a cooking pan, and two plastic signs (one spray painted in green with “Fuck OFF”, the other spray painted in black with “BASH THE FASH”), remains unmanned. Broom handles and dowel-rods with Palestinian flags rest under trees.

Two more bricks are taken up from the walkway.

Two young women blow bubbles in the middle of the Quad.

A cameraman from a local news organization records tents in the Quad. A video journalist from another local news organization stands in front of a camera and portable light stand and reads aloud a script from her iPhone. A community member arrives with a poster that says “IMAGINE WHAT THEY DID WHEN WE COULDN’T SEE THEIR CRIMES ON OUR PHONES”. He tries to keep it upright with a rock while the wind tries to blow it down.

Walking from west to east, a student on the Associated Students of University of Washington (ASUW) Student Senate walks through the Quad to vote on a resolution in mere minutes in the very building the Charlie Kirk event will be held. The resolution^[56], R-30-24, “calls on the University of Washington to meet the demands of the Liberated Zone”.

Walking from south to north, a Medical Resident makes his way through the Quad to an anesthesiology seminar. He tells me days before his Department had received notification to prepare for possibly treating multiple people for tear gas injuries.

Some of the barricades begin to be closed by the encampers.

One hundred minutes before the event start time, the circular gathering in the northwest quadrant disbands and escalators take up with trashcan shields, gas masks, and umbrellas, many of which sport one or more Ⓐ symbols.

I ask an earnest young woman about the effectiveness of today’s tactics toward advancing the protest’s cause. She explains how it is often necessary to create painful pinch points to achieve desired ends and cites as an example the Tet Offensive launched by the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese People’s Army as successfully “ending” the Vietnam War.^[57] I ask her if she is sure that is the example she wishes to cite. She says it is and that I ought to learn more of the history of revolutionary movements. When I ask her how long it was from the initiation of the Tet Offensive to the end of the Vietnam War, she again reiterates that said Offensive and resultant student protests ended the war.^[58] I thank her for her time and wish her luck at the barricades.

A man whose draft lottery number was not called for the Vietnam War rides up to me wearing a a cycling jersey and bib shorts and tells me of his disappointment with what he sees in the encampment today. He says he has tried to talk with protestors but that they do not want to hear “facts”.

Three bricks have been taken up here from a walkway, a cluster of five bricks are taken up there. A loose brick can be seen next to a stem of flowers by an encamper’s folding chair.

The Bouncer has arrived. He is a member of the community on security duty. He wears an earpiece, a tactical vest, a backward hat, and sunglasses. A knife and pepper spray are on the right side of his belt. A keffiyeh hangs from the left side. He gives me a long hard stare, as he does others he deems not supportive of the encampment. He will spend the night primarily patrolling the east entrance.^[59]

The Preacher’s tent and long sign are blocked by a man and a woman carrying a longer sign that says “CHRISTIANS for a FREE PALESTINE”. The woman dances as I ask to take her picture. The man looks at me in stony silence. Two young Christian men approach The Preacher and converse with him for a few minutes. Then The Preacher tries to preach.

A series of call and response chants begin through the encampment’s speaker system. A man masked in a keffiyeh yells into the microphone, his call louder with each crowd response, the timbre of his voice rising to crackle and distort the registers of the sound system.

Outside the encampment, hundreds of people wait in line to attend the Charlie Kirk event. “Black Bloc” members sit overlooking the line leading to the HUB. Some wear bicycle helmets and gas masks. Others wear ski goggles and new black shoes. Their trashcan shields can be seen in their hands or at their feet. At the sight of a camera, they open their umbrellas, one of which contains Jonathan Choe’s home address. I am told this is to discourage Choe from recording them.

The man himself, Jonathan Choe, passes by the Black Bloc members with his smartphone in hand recording, refers to them as “Antifa” several times, stirs up the crowd in line for support, and quickly makes his way into the HUB and up a flight of stairs to attend the event. (While this occurs, the sign with his address rests outside the medic tent.)

Between the Black Bloc members and those assembled in line to attend the event, stands Emmit Mays on the grass holding a large sign above his head with a shoulder-mounted PVC-pipe constructed frame that reads “IF YOU HAD TAKEN CHARLIE’S ADVICE ON VACCINES THIS EVENT WOULD NOT BE FULL”.

At the eastern entrance, Trampoline spots me and asks, How’s it going. I tell her it is really something to see this kind of community support and action deployed. I ask her what she thinks will happen. She tells me, It will be what it will be. A person who I had never met to this point, Warthog, then closes in on me out of my periphery. “Would you back up, you’re making me uncomfortable” says Warthog. “Bye-ee” Warthog says as if I have been duly commanded to leave. “You’ve been acting like a weirdo for a few days” Warthog says to me. “Okay, we’re not talking to him” Warthog says to Trampoline. I say goodbye to Trampoline and walk away.

Just then, Thomas, a preacher carrying three black signs on a wooden poll and speaking through a megaphone, walks through the eastern entrance with The Preacher. The Bouncer stares them down when they walk past him. As they proceed to the center of the Quad, the call and response chants grow from fledgling to reanimated. Several protesters surround Thomas in a bid to get him to stop his preaching. Their insistence fueling his own. His obstinance fueling theirs.

A man blows into a green rubber resistance band to make fart sounds at Thomas.

The Preacher tells me his microphone and speaker system have been stolen.

The eastern entrance is fully barricaded. Some of those in line unable to get into the event start to walk down the path from the HUB to the Quad. Black Bloc folks with their trashcan shields and umbrellas form a line in front of barricade, while a crowd of about thirty gathers to observe the blocked entrance. Warthog and The Bouncer patrol the barricade.

The Preacher is on one side of barricade, one of the Christians he spoke with earlier on the other. Both wish to cross the barricade. Neither is allowed.

A member from the gathering crowd tries to go into the bushes around the barricade and his prevented from doing so by two men wearing keffiyehs (one being the man with the voice that crackled the sound system earlier). Another man tries to go around and scuffles with a member of the Black Bloc carrying a SABRE Red Home Defense Pepper Gel bottle (32 Bursts, $49.99) in the lower righthand pocket of their black cargo pants.^[60]

Inside the encampment, supporters hold aloft new signs on wooden pickets provided by the “Party for Socialism and Liberation” and “shutitdown4palestine.org”. “RESISTANCE IS JUSTIFIED WHEN PEOPLE ARE OCCUPIED!” says one. “HANDS OF THE MIDDLE EAST” says another. “STAND WITH PALESTINE! END THE OCCUPATION NOW!” says another. “HANDS OFF IRAN! DEFEND SOVEREIGNTY!” says another. “END ALL U.S. AID TO ISRAEL!” Says another. “STOP THE INVASION! HANDS OFF RAFAH!” says another. “FREE ALL PALESTINIAN POLITICAL PRISONERS” says another. The by now familiar rhyming call and response chants ebb and flow with enthusiasm as a hundred supporters stand around.

The Preacher walks to another entrance of the Quad to exit and makes it around the eastern barricade blockade to join its crowd which now numbers about fifty. Most look on the blockade with bemusement and curiosity. Those manning the eastern barricade, about equal in number to the crowd on the other side, are told to raise their fists in the air.

Photographers take pictures of the developing scenes. Cameramen record the shouts from the protesters and the crowd not allowed in. Hossam Nasr is interviewed by a news outlet with the Quad in the background. A man rides on a monowheel and livestreams the protest to social media.

Half a dozen protestors line up bikes forming a barrier twenty feet ahead of the Black Bloc with their half trashcans and opened umbrella, guided by The Bouncer. A woman in black with a bike records a young man in a green shirt arguing that he ought to be allowed into the Quad with her phone inches from his face. A minute later the young man in the green shirt removes his shirt and continues to argue for a few more minutes bare-chested.

Warthog retreats from the front of the trashcan shielded and has their left finger wrapped up by a masked medic. Warthog retreats further still to the medic tent.

A call and response chant at the eastern barricade is initiated by a man masked in a keffiyeh shouting through a megaphone. “Free free Palestine”. A Black Bloc member with a dowel rod tries to hit a nearby bike rack in unison with the chants but never quite gets the timing right.

Another preacher carrying three more wooden-poled black signs, Jason, makes it into the encampment through the north entrance. A Black Bloc member carries additional steel barricades up the stairs to the north entrance to prevent further entry. The medical resident returning from their anesthesiology seminar is denied access.

Warthog returns to the eastern barricade with the sign bearing Jonathan Choe’s home address and holds it facing the crowd (now at about forty) in their right hand.

After the event, the crowd at the eastern entrance grows to about sixty with photographers, protesters, and event attendees intermixed. Jonathan Choe approaches the bike blockade and is handed an umbrella “with your address on it” by a woman recording with her phone on a stabilizing gimbal. He takes the umbrella from her and opens it toward the protestors blocking the entrance. “Hey, look at my address” he says to them. “This is out of control. They’re trying to dox me.”

“More fights. More fights”, he says as a confrontation breaks out between a man in plaid and several people dressed in black. “Another conflict” he says as photographers with zoom lenses surround the skirmish. The Bouncer watches on and stays in position amongst the bike blockade. Warthog approaches The Bouncer to talk, neither intervenes. “Fuck you” shouts a man in black to the man in plaid as punches are thrown about. A man taller than all steps in between the punch throwers. The people in black get around him and push the man in plaid into some bushes while several point cameras. A man wearing black with an ill-fitting white surgical mask yells “Hold the line!” The man taller than all again steps in between the man in plaid and the people in black and pushes them apart. A man in black pushes the man in plaid with a flagged dowel rod. The man in plaid takes the flagged dowel rod. The man in black tries to chase after him but is held by the man taller than all. The man in plaid throw the flagged dowel rod into the bushes he was previously pushed into. The man in black rushes to retrieve it. Through a megaphone in the distance a call and response chant can be heard: “Free free Palestine”.

Nine bricks have been taken up as a cluster, one remains near the hole left behind, the other eight spread amongst the encampment.

“ABOLISH UW” has been spray painted in red on a corner of Miller Hall. I photograph it and a masked encamper notices. She follows me as I walk to Smith Hall, where a steel barricade has been ziptied to the handles of a door. After I photograph the doorway, she comes up to me and tells me not to. I say that I am abiding by the guidelines of the encampment as I have for many days now and no encampers nor their faces appear in the photographs I just took. She asks me who I am with. I say I am here on my own. She tells me I need to check in with the media tent. I say I am not media. She asks me my name. I tell her. I ask her her name. She does not tell me. She says she is going to tell the media tent to check me out and departs.

At the west entrance, a maintenance man tells the protests at the barricades that he has to come in and check out one of the buildings. They block his path and say he is not allowed in. They do not trust that he is who he says he is despite the impressive amount of keys that dangle at his side and the specificity of his request. When it becomes apparent that he will not be allowed in tonight, he returns to his UW Facilities truck, calls his supervisor to let them know the situation, and drives away.

At the northwest entrance, Pollock, a young man wearing pajama bottoms, breaks away from his five friends and jumps over a guarded steel barricade. He is surrounded by protestors in black before he can put both feet onto the Liberated Zone’s grounds. His friends look on as he tries to push his way through. One yells at the protesters that they have a right to go through the Quad, an argument then taken up by Pollock himself. Using a camera hidden in his glasses frame, one of his companions records Pollock arguing with protesters for admittance into the encampment given that he has already made it past the barricade. The protesters do not move, Pollock does not relent: mutually assured intransigence.

Ten minutes pass, and three of Pollock’s friends leave the scene. I ask the two that remain how long they think he would keep at it. They shrug, ambivalent. I ask Pollock how long he intends to keep going. He turns to address one of the two remaining, “You’ve been friends with me for nine years. When have you ever seen me back down when I think something is bullshit?” Ten minutes later, Pollock exits.

I walk to the train station^[61] and board a train heading south. A woman sits across from me, exhausted. She wears a mask, a black jacket, and a green arm band. I say to her, tapping my own arm, “Long day de-escalating.”

“Yeah” she says. “I had the time.”

Halfway Points

If one were to measure the duration of the encampment protest as from PSU’s initial tent assembly to the public announcement that an agreement had been reached between the encampers and university administrators, the halfway point would be the morning after the Charlie Kirk event, where the high emotions of the previous night led to a low silence as surely as the trough of a wave follows its crest.^[62]

If one were to measure the Liberated Zone’s autonomous existence as spanning from the establishment of UF’s “Popular University for Gaza” to University of Washington President Ana Mari Cauce’s message to students, faculty, and staff about “offensive graffiti across multiple buildings all over campus”, the halfway point would be that afternoon, where only the residue of the hundreds of yesterday’s supporters hear from a speaker about “Self Care & Activism Burnout”.

If one were to measure the encampment’s existence as beginning with the first encampers staking the ground and ending with the last encampers removing their trash^[63], the halfway point would be the next day’s night after the UW Board of Regents meeting^[64] where a reporter reports that student protesters were able to address the Board of Regents “pressuring them to meet their demands […] as we are on day ten of this encampment, or Liberation Zone as they call it, with no signs of leaving.”^[65]

Joe Biden comes to Seattle

The Beast turns left from Madison onto 5th Ave en route to the Lotte Hotel where President Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr. is set to give a speech in the Sanctuary Grand Ballroom, once part of the oldest church in downtown Seattle, for an event to support the President’s reelection campaign. A Joint Fundraising Committee, the Biden Victory Fund, organized the event for which attendees were solicited to individually donate sums that would put them in the top ten percent of contributors to Biden’s campaign.^[66] The day before, Biden participated in a fundraiser at billionaire venture capitalist Vinod Khosla’s Silicon Valley residence for which tickets to attend cost between $6,000 and $100,000, adding a million and a half dollars to the campaign’s ledger.^[67]

Under a bridge, a block away, people live in tents.

A crowd of a few dozen hold signs provided by the “Freedom Socialist Party”, the “Party for Socialism and Liberation”, and “shutitdown4palestine.org”. They bear the same slogans in the same colors as those seen at the Charlie Kirk event. A man with a megaphone says the same chants — “Free free Palestine” — to which the dozens of protesters provide the same responses.

To control the crowd, the Seattle Police Department deployed its Public Order Engagement Team (“P.O.E.T.”). The officers from the unit tell me they are trained to ensure safe environments for protests by building relationships and keeping open lines of communication with those protesting. “You all wanted a different response to police protests” an officer tells me, “Here we are.”

Half an hour after the last of the President’s motorcade has passed, the crowd dissipates. Amongst those who remain I recognize a few from the encampment. Dan collects the signs provided to the protesters. A “medic” talks to me about a local church planning a “March for Israel” through the Quad two days later. The man who rode around on his monowheel recording the encampment with his phone, rides around on his monowheel recording. Jafar, carrying his “EPSTEIN WAS MOSSAD” sign tells me he was late to this protest because traffic was slow. Standing on one side of the street is Emmit Mays with his shoulder-mounted PVC-pipe constructed frame has a new sign that reads “LOOK UP “NAKBA””.

A woman on the other side of the street shouts at Emmit Mays, “You are a predator. You are a fucking predator.” She walks into the street toward him, “You are a predator”. Emmit Mays walks toward her and brings a small megaphone to his mouth. “That is not true”, he says to her. “Not true.” The two of them meet in the middle of the street. The woman shouts “You are a predator” while he looks down on her and smiles.

Members of the crowd work to separate the two of them and after a few minutes each return to their respective sides of the street. “You are a predator” the woman shouts, “Everyone should know you are a predator”. I ask the woman what she means by that and she tells me how Emmit Mays shows up to protests outwardly supportive of the cause and tries to gain the affections of (younger) women thereby. She tells me how she got a restraining order against him. As she tells me this story, Emmit Mays uses his small megaphone to say, “You’re only getting one half of the story”.

Twenty minutes after Biden began his remarks, he concludes them. He then returns to The Beast to be taken to his downtown hotel for the night. A lid has been called.

On the corner of 6th Ave and Westlake Ave, outside the front of the Westin hotel, a Secret Service agent named Ben talks to a young girl in a high vis vest hoping to see the President arrive.

“How old are you?” he asks her.
“Three”, she says.
“Three? That’s so old!”
She turns bashfully to her mother who says to her, “It’s okay, you can ask him” and the little girl asks if he uses his radio.
Yes he does, he says. “They talk to me up here though” he says, tapping his earpiece, “And they never stop talking”.
The Secret Service agent points up to the sky above the little girl’s head. “And that’s how you know he’s here.” High above them a helicopter with the Sheriff’s Department circles three times.

Four dozen police officers turn left from Virginia St. onto 6th Ave. The President has gone in the back way. The little girl did not see him.

The “homeless White House”

Approximately ten minutes after Joe Biden made it to his hotel room, Jonathan Choe posts a video on X with the text: “President Joe Biden is in Seattle Friday and Saturday to mingle with the elites and raise campaign cash. On the opposite side of the tracks, there’s a guy who’s also feeling presidential in his very own “homeless White House.” Mr. Biden, you gotta take a look! @WhiteHouse @POTUS”.^[68]

As “Hail to the Chief” plays, the video purports to show a homeless encampment on 3rd Ave S near its intersection with S Holgate St, where a man has made a structure out of pallets and sheets of vinyl to resemble the North front of the White House.

“Okay, so I’m not going crazy” Choe asks the man “you are trying to build a White House out here?”
“Correct”, the man says. “I just figured it was the easiest thing that everybody should know what it was.”

Living blocks away from the intersection, I visit the scene the next day.^[69]

There is no sign of the encampment. There are no tents where the video showed them to be. There is no “homeless White House”.^[70]

The only remaining evidence that it once existed is a white foam board cutout in the shape of the Portico stuck between barbed wire at the top of a chain link fence.

Biden on Hamas and Israel in Medina

At the private residence of Jon Shirley^[71], a former president of the Microsoft Corporation, President Biden says to a crowd of donors and supporters:

“You know, there would be a ceasefire tomorrow if Hara- — Hamas would release the hostages — the women and the elderly and the wounded. Israel said it’s up to Hamas; if they wanted to do it, we could end it tomorrow. And the ceasefire would begin tomorrow. It all has to do — you know, we’ve not — anyway, I don’t want to — I guess I shouldn’t get into all this about Israel. But, you know — well, I don’t want to get going, I guess.”^[72] The donors laugh.

After the laughter stops, Biden says, “But, look, I want to thank you for your support and — for this campaign, especially Brad and — and Kathy Smith.” (Brad Smith is current Vice Chair and President of Microsoft.^[73]) “Brad”, he says looking around the crowd of supporters, “there you are. We were recently in another part of the world — in Wisconsin doing an incredible job. And Microsoft is investing $3 billion to build a data center in Racine to power their artificial intelligence system. It’s being built on the same site that Trump promised FoxComm [sic]^[74] would build a $10 billion manufacturing center. Trump even showed up at the groundbreaking with, literally, a golden shovel — (laughter) — promising this would be the, quote, “eighth wonder of the world.” Give me a break. Anyway —”. The donors laugh again.

A March Downtown

A crowd gathers in Seattle’s Westlake Park. There are amongst them many signs (handmade and mass produced), many Palestinian flags, many photographers and newspeople, and many familiar faces.

Crystal is here and says hello and asks how I am and we talk about what we have been up to since the Charlie Kirk event. The Bouncer is here and he gives me a hard stare of semi-recognition as he patrols. Jafar is here and shows me his cardboard sign. Bass Pro Shop is here and lifts his mask as I walk by. Amir is here and calls me “brother” upon greeting me. Husam is here and he smiles widely as he says “we keep seeing each other at these things”. Dan is here and says to me “long time no see” as he hands out the same signs he collected after yesterday’s protest. Warthog is here and talks into a walkie talkie as they walk past me. Roger is here and he tells me he volunteered to drive his car to help lead the parade route.

Roger is told by Warthog to move his car so that other cars may fit into the section of Pine St between 4th and 5th Ave that protestors with bikes have blocked off. I say to Warthog, that life certainly has its strange turns, “One day you’re bashing fascists, the next you’re directing traffic.” They did not laugh.

Speeches are given by designated protesters through a loudspeaker system. Police direct traffic around the block section of Pine St.^[75] A hotdog vendor has a steady stream of customers.

To the west, across the street half a dozen Black Hebrew Israelites preach through a loud speaker at the amassing crowd across the street and the tourists furtively passing on the sidewalk on their way to Pike Place Market. At least two of the men among them openly brandish the grips of handguns. To the east, a Chinese American woman in plainclothes standing outside the Seattle Center Monorail station raises her voice to tell anyone nearby to listen to Jesus with their hearts. In between, a bearded white preacher with a shirt that says “JESUS SAVES” has a theological conversation with a man masked in a keffiyeh.

I ask a couple police officers how this situation compares to other protests they’ve seen. “I’ve seen worse” one tells me. “This is nothing” the other tells me.

Warthog speaks with a P.O.E.T. officer and a uniformed Seattle Police officer for a few minutes then goes back to directing cars over their little stretch of blocked off street.

Half an hour after the speeches began, about two dozen activists begin creating a painted mural on the ground of Westlake park. It starts with a chalk outline of the mural’s elements whose dimensions are specified by printed pages available at a centralized art supply table. The white letters of the mural’s main message are filled in first: “LONG LIVE PALESTINIAN RESISTANCE!” Red petals of a poppy bloom and the green stem and leaves sprout. The words “REMEMBER” and “RETURN” in black appear at the top and bottom of the mural.

I ask one of the art coordinators what they hope to achieve with this mural painted on the ground. She says that she can’t believe some people are more concerned about paint on the ground than a genocide occurring. I try to rephrase my question, acknowledging that art can be powerful and transcendent and as such useful in achieving desired ends and that I was trying to understand how she sees this art affecting the protest’s ends, as the white worded message is encircled by black paint. She says it’s really not up to her how long the city leaves the mural there^[76] and that she will keep trying to convince The Powers That Be to obtain the most immediate and longest-lasting ceasefire possible, end what she sees as a genocide, and advocate for a free Palestine until each happens.

As I listen to her answer and watch bright yellow added to the background of the mural, a person I had never met before comes up to me and says, “You must be Barry.” I say that I am and ask who they are. “I’m not going to tell you” the person says. I ask them how they know who I am. “I’m not going to tell you that either” the person says. The person has a folding knife prominently tucked into their belt. I ask if there is anything they want to talk to me about. They say “No” and walk to the art table to retrieve a half gallon of yellow acrylic paint that they distribute to the background painters.

Second coats and touch ups are added by rollers and brushes. A painter drops a splotch of yellow outside the bounds of the mural, steps in it, and leaves a trail of footprints. I tell the painter and together we clean it up.

The protesters are directed by a speaker to start assembling between the cars on Pine St. Once the paint is dry, they will march.

I ask a police officer if she knows what the route is for today’s protest. She says the protesters have not shared that information with the police. I say to her “At least we know they’ll start by going that way” pointing in the “ONE WAY” direction of 4th Ave. “You’d be surprised” she tells me, “sometimes they go the wrong way.”

Fifteen minutes later, an initial convoy of a couple dozen bicyclists split in two with half blocking the south and west crosswalks at the intersection of 4th Ave and Pine St, and half cycling ahead.

At about 4:00 p.m., eight cars turn right onto 4th Ave heading north for one block to prevent any impediments along the march’s circuit. Behind them a clean black Ford F-150 leads the march carrying two men standing in its bed saying by-now-familar rhyming call and response chants through a speaker system.^[77]

After one block, the march turns left onto Stewart St. heading west. Several large banners are carried at the front. “FREE ALL PALESTINIAN POLITICAL PRISONERS” one says. “FREE ALL PALESTINIAN PRISONERS” another says. “RISE RESIST RETURN GAZA” yet another says. The banner that says “MANY FRONTS ONE STRUGGLE” has a downward pointing red triangle between the Y-frame of a slingshot. The banner that says “THE ENDLESS NAKBA MUST END” has a graphic of a large key which is declared to be “A FEMINIST ISSUE”.

After two blocks, the march turns left onto 2nd Ave heading south. Several members throughout the crowd amplify the call and response chants by using megaphones. “Bombs are dropping” one call goes, “While you’re shopping” the response comes, while asynchronous claps punctuate each word. A man with a snare drum tries to help with the rhythm but only serves to accentuate the variations of the crowd’s tempos. Ahead of the marchers, Warthog and The Bouncer talk to each other overlooking the “PUBLIC MARKET” sign at the end of Pine. “While you’re shopping” the call reverses and the responders respond “Bombs are dropping”.

After two blocks, the march turns left onto Pike St heading east. Protesters carry their signs above their heads like manifested thought bubbles^[78]: “KOREANS FOR A FREE PALESTINE”, “FEMINISTS AGAINST GENOCIDE”, “PALESTINE WILL BE FREE”, “BOEING GETS RICH. Palestinians Die!”, “STOP U.S. MILITARY AID TO ISRAEL”, “OCT. 7 DOES NOT JUSTIFY THE GENOCIDE AGAINST PALESTINIAN CiViLiANS”, “INTIFADA REVOLUTION”, “AREN’T YOU TIRED OF WAITING FOR THE WORLD TO BECOME KIND? Permanent Ceasefire Now!”, “ZIONISM IS FASCISM” “SEN. MURRAY SUPPORTS MURDERING 12,000+ KIDS”, “LET RAFAH LIVE!”, “HANDS OFF RAFAH!!”, “FROM THE JORDAN RIVER TO THE SALISH SEA”, “STOP THE U.S. WAR MACHINE”, “RESISTANCE UNTIL LIBERATION”, “REVOLUTIONARY STUDENT UNION”, “解放巴勒斯坦 FREE PALESTINE”, “PEACE LOVE PALESTINE”, “JEW’S 4 PALESTINIAN LIBERATION”, “END THE OCCUPATION” “TEACHERS4PALESTINE”, “Stop Burning the world to protect ISRAELI WAR CRIMES”, “PALESTINE IS THE WORLD”, “PALESTINE WILL BE FREE”, “STOP US MILITARY AID END ISRAELI OCCUPATION & APARTHEID”, “CEASE FiRE NOW”.

After two blocks, the march turns left onto 2nd Ave heading north for one block to return to Westlake Park. The eight block, half mile trek lasted approximately 40 minutes.^[79]

After the march downtown a “COMMUNITY GATHERING AT THE UW LIBERATED ZONE” was planned^[80] with “DINNER PROVIDED!” When I arrive, fewer than twenty people are in the Quad. Those there are sullen. Most sit in lawn chairs and look at their phones. “I’m tired” Beau tells me. “Isn’t there a dinner coming?” I ask him. “It was supposed to be.”

Distant joyous cheers and electronic music echo off the building walls of the Quad. I walk toward the sounds and am met by Jerry who is coming from the UW Night Market being held in Red Square and hosted by the Taiwanese Student Association at UW. He tells me about dance routines being shown at a main stage and delicious food being served all around. I ask him why the encampment is empty and he thinks today’s and tomorrow’s marches might have something to do with it.

In Red Square there are hundreds of people walking around vendor booths. Couples embrace, children play, battered and fried pieces of food on sticks glisten golden as the sun sets. Smiles are seen on many faces.

Returning to the Quad, I see a duck walk over the empty prayer tarp. A pair of geese waddles to the back of the PSU tent and drink water from a dirty pan. A rabbit scurries past The Preacher’s empty tent. A crow caws to another from its nest.

A child named Moonie asks that I play with them. They have built a spaceship out of cardboard boxes and half a dozen traffic cones and want me to board for an adventure. I join and my legs stretch out of the front of the ship. That’s okay, Moonie tells me, they are the blasters. An encamper walks by and Moonie entices them to join us and they come aboard. Briefly, we fly together through space.

On earth in the Quad, woodchips have been used to fill the holes in the walkway from bricks being taken by encampers. Steel barricades have been secured with a cable lock. A new sign has been added near the medic tent that lists Jonathan Choe’s phone number. Guttural screams come from the northwest corner of the Quad as people are taught basic self-defense techniques.

I ask an encamper how prepared they are for tomorrow. “Prepared as we can be” they say.

The morning the day before, graffiti was pressure washed away by crewmembers of UW Facilities. Shortly thereafter, the University of Washington released a statement^[81] regarding the “encampment and counter-protest on Sunday” that read in part “Every day the encampment remains, the security concerns escalate and become more serious – for our UW community and for the people in the encampment itself. The University is aware of a counter-protest being organized this Sunday that gives us significant concern because of the likelihood for confrontations.” The statement concludes “The University’s response to students’ call for change will not be based on an encampment. It will be through constructive engagement on issues that are important or meaningful to our students and broader campus community. We call on members to dismantle the encampment voluntarily for everyone’s safety and continue constructive engagement for collective action.” In response to the statement, that night two members of the encampment spray painted messages onto the walls of buildings around the Quad, “FREE GAZA”, “FROM THE RIVER TO THE SEA”, “END ISRAILI APARTHEID”, and “ABOLISH UW”.

Returning later, I see that Moonie has rearranged the seven small traffic cones that were once the bounds of our spaceship and placed them in a line with 22 water plastic water bottle along the main walkway of the Quad to serve as a barricade to protect the encampment from tomorrow’s marchers.^[82]

A March for Israel

The day after the Charlie Kirk event, Pursuit NW church^[83] sent out a press release announcing a “United for Israel” rally at the University of Washington that would “start at Red Square […] march through the campus and […] conclude at the Pursuit Seattle campus located on UW’s frat row”^[84]. As originally planned, the “march through campus” would have the rallygoers head straight from Red Square through the center of the Quad via Pierce Ln.^[85]

To prevent entry into the encampment, encampers have pulled up bike racks and arranged them in a line to form a boundary between Red Square and the Quad that those Marching for Israel are not to cross. Foam pool noodles have been cut in half and duct taped to the bike racks such that they face toward the Quad. Toward the side facing Red Square where the Marchers for Israel will soon gather, the bare steel bakes under the high noon sun. Completing the boundary established by the bike racks are pallets standing on their sides held together by steel pipes duct taped and loosely tied to the pallets’ stringers extending into the grass and through the bushes. Hidden between the upper and lower deckboards of the pallets are several free arm length wooden boards with exposed nails at one of their ends.

More wooden boards with exposed nails are held in reserve throughout the encampment. That one of these may be swung at another human being before the day is out –– one child swinging at another on Mother’s Day –– makes me uneasy. The tenor of the encampers is different today. Though the Quad is mostly desolate at this point, those around are dressed in black and talking only of action. A cool breezes by them they are unable to feel.

More graffiti was added the night before.^[86] Added to the walls of buildings surrounding the Quad: “BELIEVE IN LIBERATION”; END ISRAEL”; “FASCiST GO HOME”; “FREE GAZA”; “FREE GAZA”; “FREE GAZA”; “FREE GAZA”; “FREE GAZA”; “FREE PAL”; FREE PAL”; “FREEPAL”; “FREE PALESTINE”; “FREE PALESTINE”; “FROM THE RIVER TO THE SEA PALES- TINE Will Be FREE”; “FUCK OFF ZIONISTS”; “FUCK THE IOF”; “Glory to the MARTYRS”; “NO,LET’S TURN TEMP UP 20º BITCH”; “REVOLT IS JOY”; “THE OCCUPation Will BE Defeated”; “VIVA”; “VIVA PAL”; VIVA VIVA”; “♡ PALESTINE”. Added to the brick walkways: “BoNK BONK”; “BONK”; “FREEGAZA”; “FREE PALESTINE”; “FREE PALESTINE”; “VIVA”. Added to light poles (“FREE GAZA”), added to campus maps (“FREE GAZA”), added to benches (“Cauce is complicit in GENOCIDE”), added to bike lockers (“A C A B Ⓐ”), added to the walls of ADA ramps (“NO JUSTICE NO PEACE”). Added in paint sprayed, brushed on, applied with gloved fingers. Added with markers both permanent and oil based. Added in black, white, red, green, yellow, fuschia, pink. Added under the cover of darkness by people in black clothes and keeping each other’s secrets.

A dozen police officers^[87] work quickly^[88] to create their own boundary between Red Square and the Quad using steel barricades. They assemble the boundary about fifty feet in front of the encamper’s improvised bike rack barricade. The officers add two layers of steel barricades with cross-bracing barricades between the layers and secure the assemblage with braided and locked cables. Two officers are left to watch the boundary as the others leave to assemble other boundaries at other entrances.

After police erect their set of barricades, people dressed in black survey them and see there is not much they can add. The coiled energy of the encampers slackens some.^[89]

The southern entrance secured, I walk to the north entrance. There two dozen bricks have been chalked in a multicolor tatreez pattern. North of this a woman chalks the phrase, “THIS MOTHER’S DAY PALESTINIAN CONGOLESE SUDANESE MOTHERS ARE CRADLING THE REMAINS OF THEIR CHILDREN. CHILDREN ARE LEFT MOTHERLESS AND WOUNDED”. After she draws a set of connected spirals, one twirling inward clockwise, the other curving counter.

The Preacher starts preaching and minutes later loudspeakers play Arabic music to drown out his message.

Juno walks by and points me out to the person walking with her as I write in my notebook:

I saw a crow bury its food.

Black clad encampers retrieve steel barricades that have been hidden away since the Charlie Kirk event and assemble them at the western entrance twenty feet behind the barricade boundary police have created.

“I guess we’re not getting out” says one person in a motorized wheelchair to another, before continuing their discussion regarding the in-fights of the Black Bloc. “Some are primitivists, others are…”

The Preacher is having a conversation with Sanjaya, a passionate young supporter of the protest, and Joel, an advocate for free speech. They all discuss the meaning(s) of a March for Israel led by a Christian pastor through a pro-Palestine protest.

An hour before the rally is scheduled to begin, approximately 150 people gather in a circle in the northwest quadrant of the Quad to be given instructions regarding how to protect the encampment from the Marchers for Israel set to arrive.^[90]

I sit on a shaded portion of the wall along the north entrance staircase watching respectfully out of earshot. A person working security for the encampment comes and sits next to me. “Just getting some shade” he tells me. “You’re cool man, I’ve seen you here before”. We talk about last night’s blowout of the Mariners by Oakland. We talk about how Kendrick Lamar gutted Drake a week earlier.^[91] He tells me how it’s hard for him to keep up his interests when he knows a genocide is occurring in the world. I offer as metaphor that even in this encampment I have seen people dance in the rain under storm clouds. Two other people working security come over and sit with us. One lowers his mask to snack on chips.

The man who rides a monowheel and records with his phone rides over, dismounts, takes a seat on the wall across from us, and points his camera at the circle of protesters. I tell the man eating chips, “Hey just so you know that guy over there is recording.” “Thanks”, he says and pulls up his mask. The security man I was originally talking with gets up and goes to talk to the man recording on his phone, but before he can reach him, the man mounts his monowheel and rides away.

Wishing to see the rallygoers for which the encampers are preparing I walk up the stairs and exit through the north entrance. A parallel set of steel barricades with kitty-corner openings is manned by a police officer who tells me this will be the only way in to and out of the Quad for the next few hours.

Red Square is nearly empty. Twelve people stand around a small bluetooth speaker listening to a Bill Maher monologue^[92] while waiting for the March for Israel to begin. Joel and his friend Ken watch on from stairs of Suzzallo Library.

Thirty minutes before the rally is scheduled to begin, a dozen Washington State Police officers are led by a UWPD police officer^[93] through Red Square to the southern boundary barricade near the Quad. There they stand with their backs to approximately 60 encampers at the barricades and overlook Red Square as more Marchers arrive.

With the arrival of the police, a megaphoned call and response chant is initiated amongst the encampers and the scene teems with black clothed energy. Past the barricades on the west side of the encampment, a woman quietly paints war statistics on the art wall.

As the dulcet ending melody of Ratat’s song “Tropicana” fades away, the rally for the March for Israel officially begins. “Hey friends” Pastor Russell Johnson says, “welcome to our Christians Standing With Jews United For Israel Rally at Red Square at the University of Washington.” Cheers and applause are elicited from the crowd. Signs saying “ISRAEL HAS THE RIGHT TO DEFEND ITSELF” and “PURSUIT STANDS WITH ISRAEL” and “SEATTLE STANDS WITH ISRAEL” and “FREE GAZA FROM HAMAS” and “LOSING A WAR YOU STARTED IS NOT GENOCIDE” are waved above heads. The white and blue of many Israeli flags wave against a cloudless sky.

Approximately one hundred people are gathered in a semi-circle listening to the Pastor.

“You know, I’ve been asked,” he tells the crowd, “Why host a Stand for Israel Rally on Mother’s Day? And here’s the reality: There are still a hundred and twenty eight hostages held by Hamas. And I think about their mothers and how they must feel on this day. So it could not be more appropriate that on this Mother’s Day we weep with those who weep and we stand alongside our Jewish brothers and sisters and we once again declare: Bring! Them! Home!”

After his introductory remarks, a man plays a trumpeter version of the Star Spangled Banner into a microphone held by a man who held his hat over his heart. A woman then sings Hatikvah acapella.

The Pastor then gives a fiery ten minute speech reading from an iPad toward the end of which he says, “Why must Christians and Jews stand together? Because we have a common enemy but more importantly we have a common god. So we are asking this god today, Arise and defend your people. And may the nation know that our god still answers by fire.”

Additional speeches were given by a host of an eponymous talk radio show, Ari Hoffman (“The last time I was in this Square it was filled with Hamasniks”^[94]),”a reserve soldier in the IDF”, David Solomon (“I just came from the Gaza border”), a member of “Oregon for Israel”, Eron (“I’m a Zionist too”), and a man “who leads the local chapter of StandWithUs”, Randy Kessler (“Isn’t it a provocation? Well I think what is a provocation is over there”) as a hundred more people gather in Red Square.

“Hey listen friends in just a few moments we are going to begin our March” says the Pastor. “Let me explain to you a little bit of the parade route so that you understand the strategy. We’re gonna head directly towards the main entrance of the Quads. When we get to the main entrance of the Quads, we will stop there for a moment, we’ll do some chants, we’ll wave some flags, we will make our presence known. At this moment, the police and the UW University leadership have barricaded off every entrance to the Quads, which means that at this point we are not able to march through the Quads as was our original plan. We will rally in front of the Quads and then we will hang a left and we will march back up to the Pursuit Seattle campus which is on Frat Row about three and a half blocks from Red Square.”

After inviting “Everyone here today, even our media friends” to a special service at his church the Pastor says “But let me be very clear: I am not going to give the other side what they want.” He insists that he is “not going to align with the narrative that I’ve been told that really the source of conflict on this campus is Christians and Jews” and instead “we are going to peacefully march. We are going to peacefully assemble. We are going to continue on our merry way” since “We are the party that respects police. We are the party that respects boundaries. We are not the party that sets up tents and chants all sorts of awful things and then refuses to leave and then the UW has to appoint a “negotiator” to negotiate with these types of foolish type activities”. He concludes his remarks by saying “Your voice is needed. Let’s not allow the national media to only hear antisemitic voices coming Seattle. Let us have loud pro-Israel voices coming from this place as well. Let’s begin the march.”^[95]

A minute later, Jonathan Choe is among the first to arrive at the southern barricade, his phone in his hand recording his walk there and initial confrontation with encampers at the border. The crowd follows. Drums and trumpets, shofars and shouts, chants of “We will stand with Israel” sound. Police officers stand between the hundreds of arriving Marchers^[96] and the hundreds of barricaded encampers. The chorus of “Bring them home! Bring them home! Bring them home!” clashes against the call-and-response of “Free free Palestine!”

Emmit Mays stands amongst the Marchers with his shoulder-mounted sign that says “OK, LOOK Every decent person wants the hostages to be safe, but why do you care more about the 100 hostages than 10,000 dead Palestinian children?” A police officer lowers his plastic face shield. One turns around to look at the encampers. Another stares straight ahead unflinching as Marchers walk up to him.

The “Hey hey, ho ho, the occupation has got to go” of the encampers’ chants blends its long Os with the “Bring them home!” chants of the Marchers. Flags wave with equal passion feet away on either side of an arbitrary border.^[97]

The encampers open umbrellas. “Free free Palestine!” The Pastor speaks into a megaphone. “We will stand with Israel!” The intensity of each side’s chants waxes and wanes, grows and fades.

A man masked in a red keffiyeh flips off half a dozen people with their cameras pointed at him. “Show your faces. Show your faces” the Marchers chant in response. A man masked in a black keffiyeh joins in flipping off the Marchers. A state trooper talks with a masked protester who has begun swinging his flag across the barricade.

“Take off your mask. Take off your mask. Take off your mask” the Marchers say more insistently as the protesters make all manner of hand gestures their way.

After ten minutes, the Marchers walk north up Memorial Way Northeast. Ten minutes after that, only a couple dozen rallygoers (and the few dozen that came to see them) remain near the barricade.

The Preacher, who had joined the rallygoers in Red Square, returns to the encampment. He enters through the west entrance which has two sets of barricades, one from the police, the other constructed by the encampers to include broken tent parts, chicken wire, pallets, and zipties. He scales the first set of barricades and is met with fierce resistance at the second set. A few encampers grab him trying to stop his entry and then a few other encampers tell them that that’s just The Preacher who lives in the camp and that he could be let through.

Once inside the encampment, The Preacher walks east to return to his tent. And it isn’t there.

His tent, chairs, music stand, signs, banners, bibles, and backpack, “Everything was gone” he tells me. “It was just all gone.”

The Preacher falls to his knees, cries and prays.

Across the walkway, members of the MSA see him. They see his tent missing and offer to find him a new one. They try to console him.

A member from MSA sits down with him where his tent once stood and asks, “Do you know who took it?” as distant call-and-response chants of “Free free Palestine” can be heard.
“I don’t even know what they did with it” The Preacher says. “But I had several people come over here and say they’re going to help me get a new one.”
“Yeah yeah”
“You guys are upset about that, right?”
“Of course. Yeah. Of course.”
“You don’t think it’s right to go out and steal––”
“You have been a nice guy all of the time––”
“It’s not right to go out and steal a tent––”
“No no. No.”
“––even when we disagree.”
“No no”, the MSA member says. “All of this is about land theft.”
“Yeah.”
“So of course we do not want to steal anything. That is not us.”^[98]
“No.”
“I’m really sorry. I mean when many people are showing up, some of them are good, some of them are––”
“Some of them are just bad people” The Preacher says.
“And I’m really sorry for you man. Soon we’ll help you.”
“Okay. Thank you, brother.”

While members of the MSA work to requisition a new tent for The Preacher another protester goes looking for his old stolen one.

At the western barricade, Bass Pro Shop tries to burn a flag of Israel, grows frustrated when the flame does not catch, and then works with another protester to tear the flag apart. In between the two is a man wearing a black-helmet emblazoned with “PRESS” pointing his camera at the scene.

A group of keffiyeh-masked protesters persist in trying to light the torn flag. After a minute, a piece of the flag is on fire. An encamper tries to block the flaming flag from view with a trashcan shield (spray painted with a black Ⓐ) but the man holding the burning flag out in front of him does not allow it.^[99] A news photographer outside the barricade carrying with her two cameras manages to take pictures with both before the battered flag and its flames are stomped out.^[100]

The Preacher’s stolen tent is found in a heap near the northeast corner of the Quad. The tent has been slashed and torn, some of its poles missing, some broken. The Preacher, undeterred, decides to erect again under the same tree it has been for the past ten days.

As The Preacher is reassembling his tent, an encamper takes his speaker system and throws it into the bushes outside the eastern entrance of the Quad.

Ari Hoffman walks along Chelan Ln near Raitt Hall when the American flag around his neck is snatched by a man wearing a black shirt and black pants and carrying an umbrella.^[101] The snatcher runs toward the western barricade, but a man in a white shirt and shorts stands in his way. The snatcher turns around, runs toward the portapotties, and makes his escape through the northwest entrance into the encampment.

“Finally found it, by the grace of God”, The Preacher says of his speaker system. “Finally found it by the grace of God. Was able to locate all of my stolen equipment, belongings, everything. By the grace of God, recovered it all.”

He posts a vlog later that night explaining what had happened to him.^[102] In it he says that someone came up to him to and said “this is a message” from the encampment. He notes that “there’s just a lot of animosity, right now, a lot of tension, a lot anger.” During the video The Preacher asks, “Why all the hate? What’s with all the hate?”

“Well,” he answers, “by the grace of God, the Muslims supported me.”

“feeling that not enough was done”

As the sun set on the encampment that Sunday of the March for Israel, the chants of the encampers died down, their community supporters departed, and those that stayed in the Quad eventually slept in their tents.

The next day, group members’ high emotions had fallen to their basal states. Euphoria transmuted to banality. Feeling to numbness. Those excited by action had the dull sense of stasis. Some felt they were just sitting around waiting for things to change.

Others were disappointed with the latest offer^[103] made by the University to peacefully resolve the encampment protest. Some had heard that talks with the university’s administrators had stalled and that “they would refuse to have negotiations with us again”.

Discussions in the encampment turned toward next steps, what more they could do. I was told there was a “feeling that not enough was done”. To the Marchers, to the University, to meet the protesters’ demands. Some started to talk of “escalation”.

Some were advocating for escalatory tactics, others were agitating for it. The quiet voices amongst the group were not as heard as the loud. Rising action won over steady.

The day after, some went chasing the dragon of yesterday’s thrill.

The Writing on the Wall

Eight minutes before 8:00 a.m. on May 15, Randy Hodgins, Vice President of the Office of External Affairs, sent an email to his staff members, which reads^[104]:

“For everyone’s information and especially for those of you who will be on campus today, there was a major escalation by our tent encampment last night. Virtually every major building on the main campus was spray painted with pro-Palestinian and antisemitic slogans. Gerberding Hall is locked today so bring your Husky Cards.

It will take days to clean all of this graffiti and it’s a shame what has happened to our campus.

Ana Mari will be releasing a statement later this morning.”

Under the deepest darkness of the night before, individuals who had been given the go ahead, coordinated to amplify the protest’s messaging to pressure university administrators to reconsider their demands. The tactic settled upon by a sufficient number in the encampment was for a mass graffiti event that would be difficult for the university to ignore. All participants covered their faces and wore dark clothes. Some carried their cans the entire time, others grabbed theirs from a bag as needed. Participants traveled in pairs and groups, never alone. With black cans of MTN and red cans of Do it spray paint in hand, they left their marks.

The graffiti added to buildings and walkways was multimodal, multicolored, and multifaceted. Many hands had contributed.

Some of the graffiti echoed previous calls to and support for “free” territories such as “FREE GAZA” in red on the front of Suzzallo Library, “FREE GⒶZⒶ NOW!” in black on a wall of the Art Building, “FREE GAZA” in white on the pedestal of the George Washington Statue, and “FRee PALeSTINE” in green on Savery Hall.^[105]

Some of the graffiti advocated for life such as “LONG LIVE PALESTINE” in white on a concrete wall, “Intifada IntIfada LONG LIVE THE INTIFADA” in red on stair steps to administration building, “LONG LIVE THE INTIFADA Ⓐ” in black marker on a dumpster, and LONG LIVE THE RESISTANCE” in red on a wall. Some did so en Español as in “VIVA GAZA” stylized in white with red outlines on Raitt Hall, “VIVA GAZA” stylized in white on the George Washington statue base, and “VIVA PALESTINA LIBRE” in red on the steps between the Quad and Red Square.

Some of the graffiti reiterated demands of the protest such as “Cut ties” in black, “CUt ties w/ BOEING” in red, “CUT TIES WITH BOEING” in white on the windows of the Microsoft Cafe, “Divest from Boeing” on a concrete bench, “Divest or kids DIE” on a building, “Meet ouR Demands” on a wall, and “UW DIVEST” in red on Gerberding Hall.^[106] On the concrete bench nearest the encampment at the west entrance, it was declared “WE OCCUPY UNTIL UW DiveSTS”.^[107]

Some of the graffiti stated facts (“CHILDREN ARE DYING”), others took moral positions (“Resistance is Justified!!”, “UW has BLOOD ON THeir hands!”), and still others offered policy prescriptions (“Decolonize”, “EYES ON RAFAH”, “HANDS Off GAZA!!!”, “LⒶND BⒶCC”, “no justice no peace”).

Some argued for the equivalence of certain groups (“SPD = IDF = KKK” in red, “SPD IDF KKK “THE SAME”” in black), others for new alliances (“DⒶWGES 4 GAZA”)

Some offered only half complete thoughts (“Enough with the OCCUPATION” on a bench, “First they came for us…” on a wall with red hand prints underneath, “PRIDE” on bricks, “ZIONISTS” on a dumpster).

Some graffiti championed liberation (“LIBERATION 4 PALESTINE” on a building wall, “LIBERATION 4 PALESTINE ♡Ⓐ” on a porta potty wall, both in black). Others proposed abolishment (“ABOLISH Israel” on the side of a bench, “ABOLISH UW CANT REFORM COLONIAL INSTITUTION” on the corner of a building). Others still wished for termination (“END ISREAL”, “END AMERICA”).

Some of the graffiti posed questions such as “CHILDREN ARE DYING AND YOU’RE JUST GOING TO CLASS?” asked in white on a southern brick wall of Kane Hall and “HOW MANY MUST BECOME A STATISTIC” asked black on the sandstone wall of the Art Building. Others intended to provoke thought such as “As you are walking to class Remember there are no univeRSITIES LEFT IN GAZA” stated in red outside Gerberding Hall.

Some of the graffiti signaled anarchy (with “Ⓐ” in red on a light pole, “Ⓐ” in green on a building wall, a white “Ⓐ” on wood paneling of the Microsoft Cafe, and “Ⓐ” in black on bricks).

Some of the graffiti expressed anger (“FUCK BOEING” in white on windows, “Fuck colonial law!” markered in black on a building corner, “FUCK OFF FASICIST”^[108] in black on bricks, “FUCK OFF ZIONISTS” on the Music Building, “ZIONISTS FUCK OFF” in red).

Some of the graffiti reused old slogans such as a multicolored “from the river to the sea” hand painted onto the bricks of the main walkway and “FROM THE RIVER TO THE SEA”^[109] spray painted black on a brick building wall. Some repurposed those old slogans toward new ends such as “From Hind Hall To Gerberding”^[110] in red on a building corner.

Some of the graffiti spelled out the newest tactic (“escalate 4 GAZA” painted on concrete bench, “Escalate 4 GAZA” in red and black marker on buildings, “Escalate 4 GAZA” in black on the wall of a planter)^[111]. Some continued old grudges (Jonathan Choe’s address was spray painted under the carillon of Kane Hall and at the southern entrance of the Quad^[112]).

Some of the graffiti expresses itself with a kind of dark artistry such as the half-skeletal visage surrounded by the phrase “HE TAKES OFF THE MASK TO KILL EVERYTHING YOU LOVE”.^[[113] Some offers platitudinous phrases bordering on the saccharine such as “IT ALL STARTS WITH YOU”, “SOLIDARITY FOREVER”, and “AN ARMY OF LOVERS CAN NEVER LOSE”.

Some of the graffiti points its message in a direction such as “CAST YOUR BALOT” and “VOTE HERE” on the walls of a porta potty with arrows toward the chemical toilet, arrows marking where one should “PISS ON ZIONISTS” in the corner of Savery Hall, and on Red Square in white “Fascists Here” points its arrows at the library^[114].

Some of the graffiti asserted that the University of Washington and its President Ana Mari Cauce loves, participates in, funds, and should stop funding “genocide” (“AMC ♡ genocide”, “CAUCE KILLS”, “UW FUNDS GENOCIDE”, “STOP FUNDING Genocide”). In the nook of a building we are admonished that “thal SHatt not KiLL”.

Some of the graffiti straddled the border of violent rhetoric and “crossed the line” for some at UW and in the Liberated Zone itself. I highlight and discuss four examples below in order of increasing animosity (both in terms they expressed and pushback they received).

“COLONIZERS DIE” was spray painted on the seat of a concrete bench. While one could make the (likely disingenuous^[115]) case that the verb “DIE” is used here as a stative verb describing what (eventually^[116]) happens to all of us (including colonizers), what is most likely meant is the verb’s imperative case, commanding those who are “COLONIZERS” to “DIE”. This reading also allows moral implications to seep into the gap between the words: they “can” or “should” or “ought” to. Because the statement was written on a bench between Denny Yard and the Quad and was on a surface horizontal to a typical gaze, this was the least objectionable of the Clearly Objectionable Graffiti^[117].

“EVERY SHOT FIRED AT THE US IMPERIALISTS IS A SHOT FIRED AT THE ZIONIST ENEMY” was markered onto many trashcan lids throughout encampment. Where the “DIE” of the first example presents its violence abstractly, the “SHOT FIRED” here clearly implies the use of a weapon and more specifically a gun. Considering the prevalence of gun culture and violence in America, the violence inherent in the message is obvious. That such violence would be encouraged on a university campus given the ongoing tragedy of school shootings adds to the comment’s unpalatablity. Even if intended in more metaphorical terms, a “SHOT FIRED” means to initiate force, to combat, to hurt. Though still speaking in broad and general terms, this graffiti identifies two specific types to fire shots at: “THE US IMPERIALISTS” and “THE ZIONIST ENEMY”. At the encampment, “imperialists” have been described as everyone who contributes to, participates in, or is supportive of “settler-colonialism” and its accompanying principles of (unequal) political, economic, and military influence across sovereign boundaries. This has been described to me as broadly as to include nearly every single citizen of the United States to as arbitrarily as all Republicans and most Democrats. Indeed, I was told anyone not actively working to dismantle capitalism in the country and around the world could be thought of as an imperialist.^[118] The term “Zionist enemy” gained popularity after its use by Ruhollah Khomeini during the Iranian Revolution^[119] and persists today amongst more propagandistic outlets to refer primarily to the nation or the government of Israel, but is also used more generally to refer to anyone supportive of the nation Israel. Because the United States is a key ally of Israel, the writer of the message deduces that one means by which to hurt “THE ZIONIST ENEMY” (the implied intended target) would be to hurt “US IMPERIALISTS”. And because the message is contextualized within a US-based encampment that has many derisive ways of speaking about “Zionists”, it follows that its author supports hurting those in this country to hurt those supporting another country.

“MAY GOD SHOW YOU MORE MERCY Than the Student Intifada” was spray painted in red across wooden doors of Mary Gates Hall. Unlike the two previous examples with more direct calls to “DIE” and have a “SHOT FIRED” at certain types, the violence of this graffiti is more implicit. Beginning at the end, the word “Intifada” has no doubt wormed its way into the lexicon of those who went to the encampment. I am told the Arabic word, انتفاضة, comes close to meaning a “tremor” or a “shaking off”. Beginning in 1987, the word came to be closely associated with a mass movement in which Palestinians resisted Israel through boycotts, strikes, tax avoidance, and acts of physical confrontation^[120]. This “First Intifada” ended six years later with the Declaration of principles signed by the PLO and the government of Israel. Seven years later, a “Second Intifada” was initiated, more violent than the first. It lasted five years and resulted in Hamas’ control of the Gaza Strip, a substantial increase in Israeli military funding, and thousands of Palestinian and Israeli deaths. Since the 7 October attacks, some have sought to label the subsequent pro-Palestinian student protests as another “Intifada”. The history of the term suggests at least the possibility of resistance using force (be it moral, economic, and/or physical). Sidestepping the theological ramifications of deified judgment, the phrase intimates that more mercy ought to be expected from “GOD” than “the Student Intifada”. Variations of the phrase “may God have mercy on your soul” are notably pronounced by judges after sentences of death have been conferred upon convicted individuals. The graffitied phrase can therefore be read as saying that after the reader is dead may they not receive a worse fate than that bestowed on them by the students as they rise up against oppressors. It lies just a few degrees from imposing individuals saying “nice university you got here, it would be a shame if anything happened to it.”^[121] Taking together the facts that the graffiti was prominent in a highly trafficked area of the campus and force could easily be inferred by its content and context, it is understandable why many found this message alarming.

“SAVE A LIFE… KILL YOUR LOCAL COLONIZER” was spray painted in red on the base of the George Washington statue.^[122] The distastefulness of this graffiti is so obvious that it does not necessitate deep consideration. The operative word “KILL” has few other interpretations than to “cause the death of” or to “put an end to”. The graffiti says that one could/can/need/should/ought “KILL” in order to “SAVE A LIFE”, and since defense of another’s life^[123] is second only to defense of one’s own concerning the morally justifiable use of violence, the message clearly posits that some must be made to die so that others might live. The target to be “KILL[ed]” to bring about this desired end? “YOUR LOCAL COLONIZER”. Throughout the encampment protest two nations have been continually referred to as comprising colonizers: the United States and Israel. And while “not all Americans” and “not all people in Israel” are the intended target^[124], a subset of Americans and Israelis most certainly is. This evocation of causing the death of a fellow American and/or Israeli, stated openly and in a highly visited portion of the campus, was met with near universal displeasure. Every student and community member I spoke to not associated with the encampment voiced their discomfort and disagreement with the message and several encampers themselves also said they wished it had not been done and that it should not be considered representative of them.

To address the situation, around 3:30 p.m. President Ana Marie Cauce sent a statement to all students, staff, faculty, and academic personnel at the University of Washington.^[125] In it, she discusses how the University has joined the calls for a ceasefire in response to the heartbreaking humanitarian crisis in Gaza. She explains how “groups of student and non-student protestors set up an unauthorized tent encampment in the Quad on our Seattle campus more than two weeks ago” that “did not substantially disrupt the learning, activities and operations of our University”. She declares her support for free speech rights and that she “understand[s] that protest by its very nature is structured to be uncomfortable and bring attention to a cause.” She says the University has had a “long-standing commitment to dialogue with students during protest actions” and believes “that engaging in dialogue is the most productive path to a resolution that can see the encampment voluntarily depart.”

Regarding the protesters’ demands, Cauce notes that there have been “multiple, ongoing discussions with representatives of the encampment to find common ground with the expectation that the encampment peacefully and voluntarily disband.” She makes clear that the university “will not engage in an academic boycott of Israel” as it “run[s] counter to academic freedom”, has allowed encampers to meet with the University of Washington Investment Management Company to show that the University has “no direct investments in Boeing or weapons manufacturers”, and has “heard their concerns about support for Palestinian and other Muslim and Middle Eastern students, and offered tangible actions to improve our campus culture and deepen our commitment to their education.”

Cauce characterizes the latest discussions as less productive, because “representatives of the encampment have presented a series of changing and escalating demands” such as “demanding the creation of a new department that would have an “anti-Zionist” litmus test for faculty hiring”, “granting a student group oversight of awarding new, religion-based University scholarships”, and “blanket amnesty for all violations of the law and student code”. She says such demands are untenable as they “are contrary to academic freedom and/or to state or federal law.”

Cauce then addresses the “offensive graffiti across multiple buildings all over campus, some quite clearly both antisemitic and violent, creating an unwelcome and fearful environment for many students, faculty and staff, especially those who are Jewish.”^[126] While she “strongly support[s] free speech and peaceful protest” she “also strongly support[s] the rights of all our community members to live, learn and work without fear” and that “every day the encampment remains, safety concerns escalate for our UW community and for the people in the encampment itself.” As such she calls “on members to dismantle the encampment voluntarily for everyone’s safety, end the vandalism to our campus and continue constructive engagement with [the University] on the issues of concern.”

Cauce concludes that “The situation now is untenable.” She reiterates that “The University’s response to students’ calls for change will not be based on an encampment — there are many ways for voices to be heard that don’t require tents, violent rhetoric and vandalism.”

The response to the response of the graffiti and the response to President Cauce’s message differ markedly amongst the groups in the encampment. In the southeast quadrant members are dismayed, in the southwest quadrant members are uncertain, in the northwest quadrant members are derisive, and in the northeast quadrant where it all began resignation and resolve ebb and flow.

“Dude, you understand you are coming across like an obnoxious 14 year old right now?”

That evening, Mike Harvey, a television news photographer with FOX13 (KCPQ), stands on the intermediate landing of the stairs at the northern entrance of the Quad and points his camera at the Autonomous group’s main tent.^[127] On the walkway in front of the tent, Shirt notices the camera pointed at him, and swings a dowel rod covered with a foam pool noodle above his head. Addam walks behind him, says a few words only they can hear, and Shirt covers his face with a balaclava. Shirt and Addam step into the Autonomous group tent, emerge with black umbrellas, and head toward the photographer.

“Hey bro, what’s up? You recording?” Addam ask the photographer as Shirt mutters “escalating, escalating, escalating.”
“I am”, the photographer replies.
“Escalating, escalating, escalating”, Addam and Shirt say in unison as they put their opened blacked umbrellas in front of the camera.
“Do not touch the camera”, the photographer tells them. Addam growls. “If you damage the camera, it’s a felony.”
“Have you heard about Rick and Morty?” Addam asks.
“Rick and Morty’s my favorite show actually” Shirt says.
Addam cackles and repeats the question.
“It was my favorite show,” Shirt says, “until Justin Roiland was like fucked up and then we’re like, damn, bro kind of fucked it up for the rest of us, cause like I can’t like watch that show anymore like in good conscience without knowing that what he did.”^[128]“Good for you. I appreciate that,” the photographer says.
“Rick and Morty is so good,” Addam says, “how have you not heard about it?”
“It sucks because the voices they replaced them with are trash,” says Shirt.
Addam laughs.
Shirt asks what news channel the photographer works for and upon learning it is FOX13 does an atonal rendition of the news channel’s theme song.
Meanwhile Addam says “Rick and Morty, Rick and Morty, Rick and Morty, Rick and Morty, Rick and Morty, Rick and Morty, Rick and Morty, Rick and Morty”.

They each peak from behind their umbrellas to look directly into the camera.

Katie Daviscourt approaches the photographer and asks if she can record the interaction. The photographer tells her, “It is a public space, you are allowed to record, so I have no problem with you recording.”

Shirt asks, “What happened to Bill Wigsby?^[129] Shout out to my guy, Bill Wigsby. Shout out to Bill Wigsby, we miss you. Bill Wigsby’s the O.G. at Channel 13 Fox. He’s the best weatherman of all time, Bill Wigsby. He had the hair on point every time.”
“But what about Rick and Morty?” Addam asks.
“We’ve done our work here,” Shirt says. “We’ve done our job.”

Shirt and Addam walk away.

When they reach the bottom of the stairs they are met by another encamper, Patch, who convinces them to walk back up the stairs to the photographer.

As they walk up the stairs, Patch points a green laser at the photographer and his camera.

“Okay, that’s assault right there”, the photographer tells them.
“That’s assault right there”, Addam mocks back to him, pointing his bandaged finger his way. “Right there. Right there, officer.”

Two more encampers, masked and dressed in all black, join Patch, Shirt, and Addam.

“It is assault to hit someone in the eye with a laser” the photographer says.

One of the black clad enampers turns on a flashlight and points it at the camera.

“Just the lens” intones Shirt. “Just the lens. Just the lens. Just the lens. Just the lens. Just the lens.”
“Rick and Morty, Rick and Morty, Rick and Morty” Addam says. “Rick, Rick, Rick, Rick.”

Patch points the green laser at the camera lens. The photographer covers the lens with his hand.

“If you damage the camera, because of the value of the camera, it’s a felony,” the photographer tells the group. “And I will have––my employer will press charges.” (The black clad enamper with the flashlight walks back down the stairs.)
“You know who else likes to press charges?” Addam asks. “Deez nuts”, he says cackling at his own wit. “Look at this guy.”^[130]“Dude, are you on drugs or something?” asks the photographer.^[131] (Shirt and Patch walk back down the stairs.)
Addam laughs. “Look at this guy. Look at this motherfucker,” he says. “Hey, hey hey. Ayy, ayy.” He begins grunting.
The photographer acknowledges Daviscourt, as Addam transitions his grunts to say “Rick, Rick, Rick and Morty. Rick, Rick, Rick and Morty. Rick, Rick, Rick and Morty. Rick, Rick, Rick and Morty. Rick, Rick, Rick and Morty. Rick, Rick, Rick and Morty.”
“I’m glad you like Rick and Morty” says the photographer.
A black clad encamper asks, “Who are you here with?”
“I’m with FOX13.”
“Fox who?”
“FOX13. Channel 13.”
“Okay. Do you know like kind of why we’re asking you not to film?”
“Yes. And honestly, I don’t care. Because this is a public space. It’s a newsworthy event. And I have a right, just as she has a right” (referring to Daviscourt) “to record me cause I’m in a public space. So it’s a news thing. I have a right to record.”
“And you don’t care you could be putting people in danger?”
“How is it anymore danger than her recording me?”
“I mean––”
“How are you being put in danger right now?”
“Because there are people who are actively trying to dox folks at this camp. It’s already happened.”
“So you understand that you’re going to a public event––a public protest, an ongoing public protest––that you want to get your message out, but then you don’t want anyone to record that. Do you understand how kind of absurd that is?”
“I mean, we’re not stopping anyone from recording” the black clad encamper says as Addam holds an umbrellas inches away from the photographer’s camera. “We’re just asking you don’t get people’s faces. And you are obviously––”
“Look, I’m shooting––Well, it would help if someone, if he didn’t come right up to me. But I’m right here, I’m shooting the scene.”
“Have you talked to our media team?”
“I don’t need to.”
“I mean, it’s a helpful thing. That’s why they’re there.”
“I’m just here to get footage. I’m not here to do any interviews. It’s just, Hey, it’s, what is it, Wednesday, it’s still here.”
“Do you want to talk to our media team?”
“Not really.”
“I’m sure they’re very happy to help you with that.”
“I’m going to shoot footage. I’m going to shoot footage, and then I’m gonna leave. And I don’t need to talk to anyone. Because I’m not here to do interviews today. I’m just,” the photographer gestures toward the encampment, “it’s still here.”
“And just like you’re allowed to record in public places, we’re allowed to stop you from recording.”
“No, you’re not. You’re actually not,” the photographer informs the black clad encamper. “RCW 9A.84––”^[132]Addam interrupts to mock the photographer’s citation of the Revised Code of Washington which prompts the photographer to flip off Addam which prompts Addam to say “Fuck you” to him.
“There is a statute,” the photographer tells the black clad encamper, “that says you cannot interfere with other people’s recording.”
“You cannot interfere,” Addam mocks back to him, “cause of the so called sacred law, sir. The good old sacred law.”
Addam dances around with his umbrella and sings a long, loud “Laaaaw!”
The black clad encamper turns to Addam and says, “It’s so sunny. It’s so awful. I’m glad you have your umbrella.”
“Thank you,” Addam says. “Yeah, it’s so sunny out. Negative vibes out today, right?”
“Yeah, mostly from you,” the photographer says to him.
Addam laughs and asks “Have you heard about Rick and Morty? Have you heard about Rick and Morty? Have you heard about Rick and Morty?”
“Do you realize how idiotic you sound right now, dude?” asks the photographer.
“Because I like talking about Rick and Morty?”
“So why don’t you tell that guy?”
“Because you look fun. I want to talk about Rick and Morty with you. Don’t you want to hear about Rick and Morty?”
“I know about Rick and Morty.”
“No you don’t understand Rick and Morty.”
“Yes I do. I heard it’s an awesome show.”
Addam again reverts to repeating “Rick, Rick, Rick and Morty. Rick, Rick, Rick and Morty. Rick, Rick, Rick and Morty.”
“Dude, you understand you are coming across like an obnoxious 14 year old right now?”
“That’s the point of this, bruh. You up in here recording our shit.”
“So, so, so I actually want to know now, I’m trying to understand you––”
“You’re coming across as an obnoxious 14 year old.”
“––so, so you want to present this message, you want to get your point out, but you want to do it by acting like a 14 year old?”
“Motherfucker you work for the same people that are committing genocide. Like literally.”
“I’m committing genocide?”
“You work for the same people that are portraying genocide as fine, so like you the one that needs to like leave the space.”
“No, I’m good. I can be here.”
“Do you have a minute to talk about Jesus Christ?”
“I know Jesus Christ”
“No no you don’t know Jesus Christ.”
“Yes I actually do.”
“Did you know Jesus Christ said cameras are against––”
The black clad encamper asks Daviscourt, “Are you recording for his safety?”
Addam continues, “Cameras are against the sins of Jesus Christ.”
The photographer says to the black clad encamper, “I have no idea. I don’t know her and I don’t care. It is a public space, she is allowed to get my face.”
Addam continues, “––cameras are against Jesus Christ and––”
“No they’re not,” the photographer says to Addam.
“––and––and––and––”
“I’ve read the Bible enough,” the photographer says. “It’s not against Jesus Christ.”
“And Philip,” Addam says. “And Philip. Don’t forget Philip.”
The photographer picks up his camera and moves it away from Addam. (The last black clad encamper walks back down the stairs.)
“And don’t forget Philip, sir,” Addam says as they follow the photographer. “You have someone named Philip you must listen to. Philip. Do you know Philip? Do you know Philip, sir? Sir, I’m trying to talk about Philip. Do you know Philip? Phil, Phil, Phil, Philip, Phil, Philip, Phil, Phil, Philip, Phil, Phil, Philip. This is too fun.”
“If this is your idea of fun––dude, if this is your idea of fun, you’re pretty lame.”
“You’re pretty lame, bro, up in this space trying to record people.”
“Because it’s literally my job.”
“Bro, that’s why you need to get out of here, weatherboy.” Addam laughs again at his own wit.
“I’ll tell you what,” the photographer says, “if you want to pay for my autistic son’s therapy lessons, cool, I’ll get out of here, otherwise, shut the fuck up and leave me alone.”
“Sure, I’ll give you a couple of dollars. I’ll give you a couple of dollars.”
“Do you have a job to give me a couple of dollars?” asks the photographer.
In response, Addam repeats, “Rick, Rick, Rick and Morty. Rick, Rick, Rick and Morty. Rick, Rick, Rick and Morty. Rick, Rick, Rick and Morty. Rick, Rick, Rick and Morty. Rick, Rick, Rick and Morty. Rick, Rick, Rick and Morty. Rick, Rick, Rick, Morty. Rick, Rick, Rick and Morty. Yo, this is some valuable film you’re getting. Damn.”
“It is.”
“Damn, yeah, some valuable film you getting.”
“Yep.”

Addam pokes the camera lens with their right middle finger, says “Boop”, and walks away, folding up his umbrella as he returns to the northwest corner of the encampment.^[133]

A minute later, Addam retrieves a green laser and points it at the photographer and his camera as three black clad encampers next to him hide behind an umbrella.

“This is not our voice”

The next day is a dreary gray. A man in a powered respirator pressure washes the stone walls on one end of Savery Hall while another man applies a chemical solvent to graffiti on the other end. Other men scrape paint off the windows of Miller Hall.

The Media Center tent is empty. No “liaisons” are around to answer questions. Few encampers are present.

I see Beau and ask him how he is feeling. “Man, I’m tired” he tells me. I ask him how he feels about all this while gesturing to the men cleaning paint off the buildings. He says he is disappointed with the escalation. He says that many in the encampment are off-put to varying degrees by the graffiti. Though visibly dejected, he lifts his head, shrugs his shoulders, says “It is what it is”, and heads to class.

I catch snippets of other students’ conversations as they walk through the Quad. “Why would they do this?” one asks. “What is the point?” asks another.

On the east side, hundreds of bricks have been removed from a walkway and stacked nearby.^[134] A man on his knees uses a trowel to level the earth and fix the walkway.

“Where is everybody” I ask Tay. He says they are in class, at work, or away. He himself, he tells me, had spent last night at home with his partner.

In Red Square, activists from Tiny Heartbeat Ministries stand around with pictures of allegedly aborted babies. Most students pass by the people handing out fliers without even deigning to look. Some students make a point to voice their disagreement with the activists. After being told to “Fuck off” by a headphoned passerby, I ask a woman handing out fliers what she thinks of that. “I have seven kids” she tells me. “Nothing can make me irate.”

Though the Media Center tent remains empty, I am told that a liaison will be available to answer my questions in an hour.

Chabad UW has set up a brief event on the south end of the Quad. They hired a graffiti artist off Task Rabbit and are offering free custom painted canvasses to those who stop by. The rabbi explains to me that the purpose of the event is to present a positive response to the hateful things that have been said and done around campus. “You don’t fight darkness with darkness,” he says, “you meet it with light.”

Campus security guards the bricklayer as he replaces the bricks of the torn up walkway. Addam picks up a megaphone and starts saying things like “oink oink” to the people he calls “piggies”. He derides all involved as doing bad work for bad people. He implies that even if they repair the walkway, their work will be undone. As I write about the interaction in my notepad, a woman in a hijab comes up to me to go on record clarifying that Addam “does not speak for all of us”. She tells me, “I just wanted you to know, this is not us. This is not our voice”.

Brother Don, a veteran street preacher in San Francisco’s Tenderloin who has come up to Seattle to support The Preacher in his ministry efforts at the encampment, enters the Quad with a new speaker for The Preacher.^[135]

A media liaison, Serena, is ready to speak with me.

She begins by reciting what the encampment’s demands are –– “divest from Israel”, “cut all ties with Boeing”, “and then also end the oppression of pro-Palestinian students and faculty” –– and when I ask what she considers the likely outcome she says “it’s definitely up in the air, but we are not going to leave until our demands are met.”^[136]

“Obviously you have from tomorrow til the end of your natural life to devote to that cause. Realistically, where do you think the line gets drawn?” I ask. “I mean”, she says “I think it’s unrealistic to assume the University won’t eventually divest cause they have divested in the past”. She tells me “they will have to because there is a large social reckoning right now. And if they want to be on the right side of history then they will end up divesting.”^[137]

When I ask, “how and why” the encampment “is an effective form of protest” she tells me it is “because we are actively occupying a space that the administration does not want us to be here.”^[138] “They desperately want us to leave, so they should be willing to meet our demands if they want us gone.” The Preacher starts preaching through his new speaker.

When I begin to ask about the recent spate of graffiti, another media liaison comes over and whispers in Serena’s ear, after which she tells me she only has five minutes left to speak.

With that ticking clock set, I ask how the recent thefts, violence, and graffiti affect the effectiveness of the protest.

“First of all,” she says, “the theft, I mean, I don’t think that’s necessarily representative of everyone. I think there is actions that certain people take autonomously. And [The Preacher] has made some really offensive comments that I also––I don’t necessarily––like I think there’s differing opinion on how that should be addressed with him.”

“Regarding the violence”, she continues, “I would say what I have seen is the Zionists engaged in violence first and I would argue that the––you can’t––there is aspects of self-defense.”

“And with the graffiti I would say,” she says, “the UW is more worried their buildings rather than the money that they’re getting to send bombs to Palestine and kill children.”

Loud music is played through loudspeakers pointed at The Preacher.

When I say to Serena that I have noticed many people soured by the graffiti and ask if the tactic risks alienating others rather than rallying support, she says “I think people if they want to express their outrage in a way against the buildings, I personally don’t––I think that’s fine.”^[139]

“At the end of all this”, I ask, “what if nothing changes?”

“That’s definitely a possibility” she says. “I think the administration is gonna do what they wanna do.”^[140]

The interview ended and I go to sit on a bench^[141] in the northwest corner to write my notes. Encampers nearby form a circle and pass a tennis ball between themselves swing rackets, scraps of wood, and tops of trashcans. “You want to play Antifa Super Tennis with us?” a black clad encamper asks me. Another assures his compatriots, “That dude’s been here the whole time, he’s a homie”. “You want to play?” another asks, “We have plenty of plywood.” I demur.

Fierce winds blow through the encampment. Tents collapse^[142], the Information Booth blows over, poster boards standing along the walkway fall flat. Members from the MSA reset the Information Booth canopy and secure its legs with cinderblocks. Canned food is used to weigh down the art tarp. Shifted ground sheets expose yellowing grass underneath.

The encampers playing with the tennis ball try to entice students to join as they pass: “We don’t know what the rules are, but…” One passing student says they cannot because they are “trying to get to class.” “Fuck your classes” says an encamper at play.

A young woman talks to her phone’s camera about what she sees as she walks by.

A homeless man named Tom talks with Brother Don about Jesus Christ.

Two people retrieve wood planks, cinder blocks, fertilizer, and various plants from an Oregon-plated Toyota to set up a garden at the southwestern edge of the encampment while two other protesters draw a penis ejaculating in the dirt of the path the bricklayer was earlier leveling.

I return to the Media Center tent^[143] for another interview and am told that no further interviews will be given today as they are working to craft a statement regarding the graffiti. I ask if there will be any further escalation and am told they “can’t speak to” that.

After speaking with them, Tom decides to pitch his tent next The Preacher and Brother Don.

“I think it was a misstep” a student tells me reflecting on the mass graffiti event.

A drone flies far overhead for a few minutes and records the Quad.

A three man band, Grupo Linaje Dorado, walks with their instruments toward the center of the Quad. They remove their guitars and upright bass from their cases and begin quietly practicing their music. They play an acoustic set on the southwest quadrant and then are invited across to the southeast side to play through the speaker system. As they play, they ask for donations which they say will all be given to the camp.

Another drone flies over the encampment, this one dangling beneath it an Israeli flag. As it flies lower, a gust thrusts the flag up into the propellors and gets entangled. The drone falls from the sky onto an unoccupied tent. Several encampers have witnessed this and rush to the crash site.

Shirt is among the first there. He picks up the drone and tries to break it apart with his hands. He then throws it to the ground and begins hitting it with a wooden plank.

Trampoline says to him “Let’s not do this in public”. Shirt picks up the flag wrapped drone and walks with Trampoline around the corner. They both enter an ADA compliant porta potty.

Shirt can be heard hitting the drone repeatedly inside the porta potty for a minute, then he and Trampoline exit empty handed.

The drone and flag have been disposed of into the toilet.

Within 15 minutes, the wall of the porta potty has written on it in pink: “I SHAT ON THE FLAG OF ISRAEL hERE”.

An Agreement

Less than 24 hours later, an agreement was announced^[144] between university administrators and the protesters to end the encampment.^[145]

There were disagreements among the groups in the encampment but a vote was taken and a sufficient number were in favor of accepting what the university proposed. The MSA, which was the organization with the most direct and personal ties to Palestine and its people, voted overwhelming to peacefully end the encampment.^[146]

President Cauce released the full details of the agreement^[147] which required “The United Front for Palestinian Liberation [to] call for all individuals to voluntarily end of [sic] the Quad encampment Friday, May 17, and for the encampment to not be reestablished” and “By Monday, May 20, 3 p.m. the United Front will leave the encampment, remove all tents and personal belongings, and clear the Quad of all trash.”

Fourteen points were included as part of the agreement, which I summarize below.

Support the review of divestment requests (Points 1-3)

The University President will convene an in person meeting with the Chair of the Board of Regents, a UWINCO representative, any staff invited by the Board Chair and “no more than five student representatives on the divestment request”. The Board of Regents’ already established policies and procedures for divestment requests^[148] would not be changed, but if certain criteria are met^[149], the President would “Advocate for appointment” of an Advisory Committee on Socially Responsible Investing (“ACSRI”), “Advance two representatives recommended by this group to serve on the ACSRI”, “Support the ACSRI’s determination of what “actions or inactions of [a] company or companies are deemed morally reprehensible…””, “Support the outcome of the ACSRI’s work”, “timely consideration of the proposal”, and “ask for a vote at the next meeting of the Board of Regents”. If an ACSRI is not established, “the President commits to convene a follow-up meeting with up to five representatives […] to discuss ongoing engagement in the divestment process.”

Clarify investment holdings and Boeing relationships (Points 4 and 5)

We are told “The University will be transparent about its investment holdings and fund managers” and moreover that “The University has no direct investments in Boeing, major weapons manufacturers^[150], or companies domiciled in Israel.” To the extent possible, “The University will be transparent about Boeing’s support for the University so anyone opposed can decline Boeing support.”

Fund educational strategies to promote cultural competence based on a task force’s work (Point 6)

The University’s “active task force on Islamophobia” will assess “the extent to which students, faculty, and staff are experiencing discrimination or harassment due to their identities, with an emphasis on those who identify as Palestinian, Muslim, Arab, or of Middle Eastern/North African origin” and “Once this work is complete, we have set aside funding to invest in educational strategies, including potential hires, to promote cultural competence at the University.”

Solicit external funds to support public interest engineering scholarships and faculty fellowships (Point 7)

To promote the College of Engineering’s “vision of engineering for the public good”, “external funds” will be solicited “to support public interest engineering scholarships and faculty fellowships.”

Waive tuition for at least 20 Gazan students (Point 8)

The University will “welcome applications from displaced Gazan students and will develop financial support strategies, including waiving tuition for at least 20 Gazan students to complete their studies” and “commit to fundraise to cover additional costs for these students.”

Establish a faculty committee to review study abroad programs (Point 9)

The “University will establish a faculty committee to review and recommend changes to study abroad programs, including pausing or discontinuing programs that exclude participation of students from specific countries or communities, such as Palestinian or other Arab students and/or which violate Title VI of the Civil Rights Act.”

Deepen and broaden scholarship of Palestine via seed funding, hiring, and pursuing connections with Palestinian Universities (Points 10 and 11)

A “tri-campus faculty committee” convened by the Provost will “examine opportunities to deepen our expertise in the scholarship of Palestine into a range of existing academic units” and “On the recommendation of this committee” “seed funding” will be committed “to accelerate a hiring plan” “to pursue faculty-led future fundraising, grant applications, and/or organized research or study units, including for a center with a focus on the scholarship of Palestine.” The University’s Office of Global Affairs will also be “prepared to help interested faculty pursue new and renewed academic connection with Palestinian Universities.”

Agree not to discipline students based on First Amendment protected protesting (Points 12-14)

“The University has not and will not discipline students exercising their First Amendment rights” to protest and “The President commits to ongoing engagement” with the protesters, but notes that “Vandalism, property damage, bias, harassment, or discrimination are violations of law and the student conduct code and will continue to be investigated and acted on accordingly.” As such, the University will “Forgo referrals for citations or conduct violations for camping”, “Consider the commitment to voluntarily end the encampment a significantly favorable mitigating factor in the resolution of any student conduct matters related to the encampment” and “will follow its non-retaliation policies with respect to students, staff and faculty who participated in the encampment.”

In response to the agreement, the United Front posts on their Instagram “The UW has clearly demonstrated its commitment to neoliberal values, weapons corporations, and facilitators of oppression rather than the calls of its students and workers and the calls for humanity for Palestinians against genocide.”^[151]

In explaining “WHY WE HAVE ACCEPTED THIS AGREEMENT” the United Front said “We are not satisfied with this deal and we understand that many members of our community will not be as well” “However, these commitments are one step in our struggle towards fully meeting our demands” and as such “We remain steadfast in our willingness to struggle for as long as necessary for a free Palestine, and to take advantage of every opportunity to make a difference in Palestinian Liberation” and that “Reaching this agreement is only one part of our strategy, and this momentum will continue.”

“It’s difficult to imitate sincerity”

The next day, I walk by a pile of trashcan shields and foam pool noodles. The painted cardboard signs on the art tarp have scattered with the winds. Several tents have already been removed and leave behind dying grass.^[152]

A twittering chorus of birdsong from robins, finches, chickadees, and sparrows reverberates off still half-graffitied walls in the now emptied Quad.

Near the unstaffed Media Center tent, Jerry and Beau tell me what they view as the positive outcomes to the protest including the community building, learning how to work levers of power, and that Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim voices were not drowned out by the Autonomous types.

Tom snores in his tent.

On the whiteboard at the Medic tent for “Date 17 May 2024 — infinity” and “Time: NOW AND FOREVER” is written “The fight isn’t over yet!” and lists the “TOP NEEDS” as “Educate yourself”, “Find what you’re called to do” and “Courage, loyalty, determination”. Under the outline of a Palestinian flag it says “Thank you all for being here, Showing up for Palestine”. In the bottom right corner details are given for a Cashapp to “Feed our Medics!” We are told “leftover funds will be donated to Gaza Gofundme”. A pile of unused hand sanitizer sits in the nearby grass.

A bowl outside the PSU tent has a sign that reads “WATER FOR DUCKS!! DON’T REMOVe”.

Two crows build a nest in a tree under which walks Professor Taylor from Red Square through the Quad. He watches me taking pictures and making notes and comes up to me. He asks me what I thought of the encampment. It was the first time I had been prompted to give an assessment.^[153] I say that I saw mostly earnest students championing a cause they believed in via a means that became fashionable across the nation, they made local demands that would not be possible to meet, the swells of community support in response to the Charlie Kirk event and the March for Israel brought out more aggressive types than were generally participating in the encampment, that the graffiti was a bridge too far for most including many Muslim student protesters, and the University effectively allowed the protest to “flame itself out” by not using any heavy handed enforcement tactics.^[154] He compliments me on this analysis and I ask him what he thought and he praises the students’ efforts, their passions, and their education being used to advance the causes of justice. He commends many of the groups for their fortitude, their good-faith discussions, and their courage for standing up for what they believe in.

Seeing me and the Professor talking, Beau walks over to join our conversation. Beau thanks Professor Taylor for taking the concerns of students seriously and Professor Taylor thanks Beau for being a reasonable voice in the room during negotiations. The three of us stand around a half finished “SOMALIA Stands With PALESTIN” sign as we discuss the impact of and our experiences with the encampment. As we say our goodbyes to each other, Beau modulates his toward Professor Taylor to “rather, ‘See you next year’”.^[155]

Arizona walks up behind me and says “it’s good to see you” and I even get the impression he means it. I ask him how he is and he says “You know” unenthusiastically. “Yeah” I say. We watch the child Moonie play around the Quad. Gesturing toward Moonie I say at least there’s some joy in the world. Arizona tells me it’s hard for him to watch children playing “knowing kids in Gaza are suffering and dying.” He says “That’s the reason why I’m not on Twitter anymore.” Scanning across the horizon of the encampment, he says “wonder what we’ll do next weekend”.

Moonie shoots me with a bubblegun as their dad, Clay, talks about joyfulness in a serious world.

A sign says “WAR IS NOT GOOD FOR CHILDREN AND OTHER LIVING THINGS” shaped like a red balloon.

Two Muslim women take down a tent as a man photographs their efforts.

A sign says “DO NOT GO GENTLE INTO THAT GOOD NIGHT” next to a painted olive branch in red, green, white and black.

Beau and others work to save some art and discard the rest.

A sign says “SPEAK UP FOR THOSE WHO CANNOT SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES, FOR THE RIGHTS OF ALL WHO ARE DESTITUTE”, quoting Proverbs 31:8.

Roger packs up supplies and takes them to his car.

A sign that says “UW CLASS of 2024 says: DIVULgE, DIVEST, WE WILL NOT STOP, WE WILL NOT REST” has appended to it in marker “or, it wasn’t our decision to, anyway”.

A 40-yard roll-off dumpster from UW is empty.

A sign says “Let us Breathe”.

Feelings around the encampment vary.

I ask Sera, “How do you feel about all of this?” and she says “I don’t have any feelings.”

I ask Lorenzo about ending the encampment and he says “Honestly, I ain’t fucking happy about it cause they shouldn’t have” accepted the agreement.

I ask Trampoline what she thinks about it all coming down and she says “What do I think?” letting out a sigh, “I think about lending a hand. What are you doing?”

I ask Emme how she feels about the agreement and she says it is “more bitter than sweet” and that the protest “could have done more”. After this there will be “lots and lots of assessment”.

I ask Tay “What’s next for the movement?” and he says “Utopia”.

When he asks me what’s next for me, I joke with Tay, “I’m here to dox you all”. He says, “You’d be a very impressive mole if that were the case. It’s difficult to imitate sincerity”.

As rain begins to fall, Shirt gets on a megaphone to initiate some call and response chants. “Oh my god, [Shirt]” let’s out a tired encamper. A few perfunctory responses come scattershot from a few as they work. Tay, huddled under blanket while his partner holds the speaker, takes over using more standard chants –– “Free free Palestine” –– as Jerry runs around with a Palestinian flag. Zeal rises, but the chants do not last long. It is hard to start a fire in the rain.

Trying, a homeless man burns a plastic bottle of hand sanitizer in a makeshift cinderblock grill to warm a can of clam chowder.

A crow hunts earthworms from the rain soaked ground.

A man in black strums his guitar and sings to the encampment.

The Preacher and Brother Don tell me they are going to the U District Street Fair to preach.

“We’ll be here tomorrow, bro” a headdress wearing student says to another who responds “I’m not”.

A homeless man pilfers an absent homeless man’s tent, adding it to his own.

Two ducks sleep on the wet grass while two crows attack a seagull.

A Boeing jet passes over. Minutes later another passes.

“I thought it would last longer”

To the north, a homeless man sits on a bench stuffing his pipe, a shopping cart full of his possessions at his side. To the east, a homeless man nestled in bushes mutters aloud of Russian troop movements. To the south, a homeless man drinks from a bottle of water, standing under a hundred foot redwood. To the west, the homeless man who took another’s tent sits outside his own. All watch the de-encampment progress.

Not every protester is present to help with de-encampment. For example, the main Autonomous tent is unoccupied and none of its former inhabitants are here. Yesterday’s rackets used to play “Antifa super tennis” lay on the ground. Jerry tells me none of the UF people have showed up to do their portion of work. Those members claim in a group text they are “burned out”. Few will arrive by day’s end.

Those encampers here are focused on finding owners of all tents and ensuring their tents are removed. People are going tent to tent, knocking on their canopy, talking to occupant if there about what needs to be done, otherwise determining whether they are (and have been) empty in which case they take it down and pack it away of their own volition or if still filled with a previous occupant’s stuff, trying to figure out whose it is and letting them know it all needs to go within twenty-four hours.

As three people take down a tent, I ask each what the encampment has taught them. “Don’t work in a community” one jokes “it doesn’t work”. Another says, “Lot of people care about Palestine and want to do something about it”. The third says they “need more time to let it simmer”.

A whiteboard sign for “The Liberation Library” says it is still “Under Construction” “but please come in!!”

Faraj, a Palestinian who left Jordan as a child during its civil war and whose first childhood memory is of the SeaTac airport, is a member of the community who agreed with what the students were doing and brought supplies to support them throughout the past couple weeks in their endeavor. He now packs up supplies and brings them to his car. He tells me, “I thought it would last longer”.

The canopy over the art collected yesterday for preservation collapsed from the weight of last night’s rain.

Two students in formal white dresses carrying matching high heels remove bricks from the edge of a walkway. They place the bricks at the base of the bush from which a man was recently nestled and muttering, ostensibly to make it easier to stand on the bosky mud as they have their pictures taken to commemorate their graduation. One brick is removed and put into place, then another, then another, and another. They stood around the bush for a minute, discussing logistics, then left. They took no pictures. And they did not return the bricks.

Jerry asks if I want to see a “luxury tent” and I acquiesce to my curiosity. Located on the northeasternmost edge of the remaining encampment, the “luxury tent” contains a rug, a mattress, bedding, blankets, pillows, inflatable wash basin, unopened three pack of soap, unused soap in a plastic container, black lace umbrella, solar lamps on the four corners around tent, and a pop up trashcan outside. It also had a spray can of “military-grade” tear gas.^[156],[157] An encamper snatches up the tear gas spray can, says he will make sure it is safely disposed of, and walks over to the main Autonomous tent with it.

Shortly thereafter, I ask a man nearby if I may go into the Autonomous tent. He tells me firmly, “No.” “Why not?” I ask. “It’s not my tent”, he says. When he was gone and there was no one left to tell me not to, I went in.^[158]

Afterwards, Clay talked to me at length about culture, denial, and a culture of denial as being underrepresented in society. He said that if the culture of denial were addressed, society would be progressed.

I asked Clay’s child, Moonie, what they thought of the encampment. “Good good good good” they told me. What makes it good? “Community.” Clay tells me, it’s “more community than they have ever known”. What’s a community to you, I ask Moonie. “A big group of people”. Why did you like this big group of people? “Cause it’s lovely”. Clay tells me they made a lot of friends. “People here received Moonie as themselves.” What made them so lovely? They “gave me lots of sweets”.

Moonie draws pictures in my notebook as Clay tells me of their idea for a “death circus”. The story of the death circus would include a portion in which humanity displeased the gods of Egypt, were made undead, and Isis ran the Nile river backward, making a river of De-Nile. He suggested this could be done in a future camp so that people could address their own instincts for denial.

On one page, Moonie draws a picture of their family standing on a heart near a tall mountain.

On the page opposite, Moonie draws a soldier defending a Palestinian flag while Israeli planes drop bombs on buildings.

The drawings complete, Moonie takes me by the hand and walks me over to the Drumheller Fountain. Professor Taylor sits on its edge and we wave briefly to each other in acknowledgement. Moonie takes me around and shows me the ducks.

A red velvet cake and a chocolate cake are delivered to the PSU tent and Moonie wants to eat them, but is told they will have to wait so that everyone can have some. Moonie accepts this reasoning and goes looking for chalk to make art on the walkway. They find a red flower and put in the outer breast pocket of my jacket.

A Seattle Times reporter is on the phone explaining what he sees. Jackie Kent interviews an unmasked encamper about their feelings about the agreement and the end of the protest. An artist-in-residence from MIT works to put together an oral history of the encampment.

Making it into none of their stories is the fact that the flag on the light pole nearest The Preacher has been righted.^[159]

Beau and three other encampers take down the art wall.^[160] The southwest quadrant has been dismantled. The planted herb garden has been packed up. The garden of wood planks, cinder blocks, fertilizer, and various plants have been retrieved by the two people and returned to their Oregon-plated Toyota.

“Are the medics gonna come for their stuff?”^[161] one encamper asks another. “There’s some nice fucking tents here.” Taking inventory of what there is and what they may want to keep for themselves, one holds a plush stuffed shark from a tent and notes, “I’m the one transwoman in Seattle without a Blåhaj.”

Tay collects signs.^[162] “You’re our historian” an encamper tells him. He replies, “It’s important.”

Several items from around the encampment have been left out to dry after having been wetted through by the earlier rains, including the book “Dispatches from The House of Death” by Bill Conroy, which has been left open to a chapter that ends with the sentence: “To say nothing of empty promises…”

A man on a bench not associated with the protest^[163] and who I observe to be a local vagrant calls the reporter Jackie Kent a “bitch ass cunt”. “She’s a bitch ass cunt” he says. “Sara Nelson is on meth” he says. “Head of Parks Department likes to have sex in the parks” he says. A male passerby tells the man to leave the reporter be. The male cameraman tells the guy to stop. I, some measure of a man, tell the dude to chill. He continues to berate Kent, “cause she’s a bitch ass cunt.” He says so over and over. All the while Kent remains silent, looks once in the man’s direction, then returns to doing her job.^[164] The man says a few more things not worthy of repeating while writing in chalk^[165] onto the concrete bench on which he sits. Kent leaves a few minutes later and I ask the man why he was yelling at her. He says “cause the lady was a reporter”.

The cakes are being served in the PSU tent. Moonie is happy. After, they take me to see the bell tower on top of Kane Hall^[166]. Nearby a dozen people watch as someone breakdances to amplified music. Clay chalks an upside down A on the “Broken Obelisk” in Red Square, which he tells me means “for all”^[167].

We return to the encampment.^[168] I to observe the last night fall on the encampment. Moonie to make more bubbles.

The owners of the “luxury tent” come to reclaim their property and they tell me that they notice that their belongings have been rifled through. Some things are even missing, they say. They take apart their tent and explain how disappointed they are with the encampment’s dissolution. They tell me they believe in the power of direct action.

A whiteboard lists items belonging to people that folks ought to be on the lookout for. Items ranging from tarps to tents, pillows to first aid kits, bins to sleeping bags belonging to Jack, Bobby, Sigorney, Pratt, Jerry, Zin, Rocca, Kalnoky, and Metra are sought. Not all will not be returned.

By sunset, much has been thrown away. Enough food waste, canopy poles, and cardboard signs have been discarded so that the bottom of the University-provided roll-off dumpster can no longer be seen.

The Last Day

Dawns will rise on days we never see. Thus, there will come a final dawn of our final day after which sunlight will not cast our shadows. Today is that day for the encampment.

Packed tents, folded chairs, plastic bins full of unused supplies, and amorphous black garbage bags line the grass near the Art Building, waiting to be loaded onto a U-Haul to be taken away. Remnants of the graffiti on the sandstone remain clearly visible behind this train of encampment provisions.^[169]

Few tents still stand. The main Autonomous tent is guarded by a man in black. The food tent still makes available snacks and bottled water to those who ask. The original white PSU tent stands open, its “RULES AND GUIDELINES” still proclaiming “WE ARE HERE FOR PALESTINE”. Brother Don preaches outside The Preacher’s tent as students walk through to their classes.

The Preacher has added several new signs around his tent which has now been slashed multiple times and can no longer zip close. He tells me he intends to stay after to protest further. A large painted banner says “Apologize Now STOP HATE Toward JEWS and Christians TurN to Jesus”. A wrinkled paper sign affixed with black duct tape to a tent not owned by The Preacher lists John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish by have eternal life.” Painted in blue on one side of a wooden A-frame sign: “Free Speech For All FaithS ☾ ✡︎ ✝”. Painted in green on the other, the stated name and purpose of his follow on protest: “Grace Camp Teaching Love Not Hate”. A laminated paper sign states the goals of his continued protest: “We humbly petition the UW administration to: • APOLOGIZE to the students and the Jewish community for harboring an UNSAFE and ANTISEMITIC environment • Protect the right to FREEDOM OF SPEECH FOR ALL • Allow the use of AMPLIFIED SOUND WITHOUT A PERMIT.” Brother Don stops preaching when no one passes by.

A student sets up an easel under the shade of an Akebono Yoshino Cherry tree and works on a canvas. He paints the segment of the Quad before him with bright red undertone, deep hunter green for the grown grass, and muted chartreuse for the patches once occupied by encampers’ tents. I ask to take a picture of the painting overlooking the emptying Quad and taken together I envisage La condition zone libérée.^[170]

A groundskeeper tells me it will take anywhere from about $20,000 to $100,000 to fix the grass.

More people are here to help with de-encampment today. Members of the UF are dismantling their tents and working with local community members to donate excess.

As Stabitha packs up surplus supplies and Roger loads them into his car to take them to Tent City 3, Jim trollishly gets in both their ways while playacting that he is only slowly strolling down a walkway. I ask him why he is doing that and he says “Oh” then gets out of their way. I ask him what he thinks of the encampment and he responds “Look at the grass”. He walks away and Stabitha says “Thanks for distracting that Zionist” as she packs up more supplies.

Pallets that blocked the main walkway when I first arrived, that housed trashcan shields before the Charlie Kirk event, that stood as barriers during the March for Israel, are now piled under a conifer by the Art Building’s ghostly graffitied walls.

Another wave of students walk through the Quad to their classes. The Preacher gets on his loudspeaker. He prays loudly toward and for others. He says to one student, “God loves you” and the student replies, “Bro, fuck God.” Someone from PSU sets up their own loud speaker connected to a phone to play music over Preacher’s preaching. Sitting on a ledge, I ask a radio reporter covering the encampment about The Preacher’s praying aloud and he tells me he was taught “Don’t pray in public, but pray for those who do”.

A KING5 news reporter comes to the encampment for his first time to report on its end.

At its peak, the encampment had 170 tents.^[171] Now, twenty remain standing. Two are associated with The Preacher’s “Grace Camp” though only one is his. Four are occupied by homeless men. Four belong to the MSA group. Four belong to the PSU. Three are the UF’s. One is the Autonomous tent. One is being used to store and help dry out tents, tarps, and rugs. One houses steel barricades that were previously sequestered.

Members of the MSA take down their largest tent. Pulling up the ground tarp, a man says “The bottom is so disgusting”.

The Autonomous tent is disassembled. One member sits in a chair and guards the supplies that were inside.

Two women in headdresses pour lemon-lime seltzer down a storm drain. Men throw water bottles into garbage cans as if shooting baskets. The watermelon balloons once strewn around a tent now deflate on the edge of an overflowing trashcan.

Tay rests for a moment under high noon shade and says to me, “Did you hear the President of Iran is dead?” He tells me it was the first time he had checked the news in a long while, having devoted himself so fully to being present at and addressing the needs of the encampment.

Beau passes by and I tell him I saw him in a recent news article. After all that, “I doxxed myself” he says.

Jerry works diligently in silence moving supplies from where they are to where they need to be.

Sanjaya comes up to me and asks, “”Hey, do you remember me?” I do, I tell her.

I sit on a bench and watch Sanjaya engage The Preacher sitting in his folding chair and a man wearing a striped shalwar kameez and knitted kufi sits beside me. I ask him what he thinks of the protest and its end. He says it’s “Good what we got” and notes that “because of the escalation” they “weren’t going to get more”. Echoing the sentiments of a communist I spoke to earlier, I ask him if it was a “waste of revolutionary power”? “It’s about the people” he tells me. The protest “did some good for actual Gazans”. After a few minutes, he gets up, walks over to Brother Don who is preaching about “smoking that demon marijuana” and “the witchcraft behind drugs”, and poses next to him for a photograph with three of his friends while they throw up hand signs.

Community members help with packing and cleaning. Julie cleans rumpled tents for stowage. Roger continues to load up his car to donate surplus. Two black women in high viz vests walk around the encampment, are directed toward representative members of the encampers, and tell them that Fresh Family LLC has been sponsored to help clean up trash.

On the pockmarked grass I find an unendorsed check made out to Kai Selma to support “The People’s Breakfast”. I approached several groups of encampers asking if they had heard of this person so that I could ensure they received it. None had heard of them. One suggested I tear up the check. Wanting the funds to get to their intended recipient, I continue to ask around. I ask Beau. Beau knows a woman who had contact information for someone associated with the People’s Breakfast, Coda. The woman contacts Coda who not only knows Kai, but will be seeing them later that day. Coda agrees to stop by to pick up the check. The woman vouches for Coda. Beau vouches for the woman. I vouch for Beau. The chain of trust thus established, I hand over the check.

For ten minutes, a drone flies overhead recording the scene.

A KOMO 4 reporter speaks with two men unassociated with the encampment while her bodyguard wearing a bulletproof vest under his bulky flannel shirt stands nearby. For her report, one student was recorded as saying, “I walked through the first day, and I tried to talk to people. I wanted to have a conversation, but the second I said I was Israeli or that I grew up in Tel Aviv, super hostile. People started surrounding me, physically pushing me out, yelling the most obscene things.”^[172]

An old man named Steve on his way to his chemistry class passes by them and tells me seeing the encampment come down reminds him of the Jackson Browne song, “The Load Out”. He takes a moment to appreciate what the encampment was: “I’ve got time”.^[173] I ask him about how he else he has spent his time on this earth. He has believes in traveling widely and learning broadly, telling me of his travel to Barrow^[174], Alaska inspiring him to take a university course on arctic environments. Turning his attention back to the Quad he admires what the students have done but then says “it’s a shame about the graffiti all around campus”.

With two hours until the official end of the encampment, Warthog arrives for the first time since the day of the March for Israel. They help Roger load up supplies into cars.

The southwest quadrant is cleared except for a homeless man’s tent to the south and a pile of pallets to the north. The southeast quadrant is cleared of all but discarded supplies. No tents remain in the northeast quadrant except those of The Preacher, homeless Tom, and an unclaimed one neighboring the other two. The last remaining tent associated with protesters is in the northwest quadrant housing barricades.

Two groundskeepers overlook the Quad from the north. One tells me he “like[s] that they are doing what they said they’d be doing”. “On the news they’ll focus on the bad things, but I think it’s good what they’re doing.”

Two encampers play as they finish packing up supplies: the man pushing the woman in a cart as both laugh. As this happens, a news cameraman focuses his lens on graffiti that says “CAUCE kills kids”.

Two Muslim women share a prayer rug and pray.

Two fire marshals survey the site.

Another homeless man named Tom sits on the spot of The Preacher’s initial tent erection combing his beard. He tells me he thinks he will either go to the UW Library or the Downtown Seattle Library next, viewing both as safe options. I ask him what he thinks of this encampment ending and he tells me he thinks the graffiti “lessened it” and says there is a “time and place for everything”.

The other of homeless Tom stands over a trashcan muttering aloud indistinctly as he watches the encampment dwindle.

Three people work to remove the barricades from the tent, standing them up nearby to be collected by UW Facilities less than half an hour later.

Another wave of students walk by and snippets of their conversations breakthrough. “Look at the grass dude”, one says. “Look at all the dead grass” says another. “It’s kind of cool how it’s stamped into the grass”, says a third.

Crystal passes through the Quad. She is unmasked and with her friends on their way to class. She was “here every night” and has mixed emotions about seeing the encampment come to its end. “It was everything for me for awhile”. We reminisce for a moment. Then she says “Farewell”. And we never see each other again.

I make a point of standing at the center of the Quad when the clock strikes three. On my way there I see an old brown penny heads up and retrieve it. Lincoln looks over the right to the date: 1968.

Grace Camp

A one-armed man wearing a “TRUST JESUS” t-shirt, Derek, and his dog, Minnie, join The Preacher and Brother Don under the shade of a cherry tree. “Grace Camp” grows.

The Preacher is interviewed by a Seattle Times reporter. He has no plans to leave until his demands are met he tells her. “We were against the genocide,” he is recorded as saying “but at the same time we cannot make Jewish students feel responsible for that and unsafe on campus.”^[175]

Beau, done after three days of packing up supplies, walks past and says he is “exhausted”. And he still has to write a final paper for one of his classes.

After his interview with the Seattle Times reporter, The Preacher preaches while a reporter from public radio collects audio for a soundscape of the encampment. When all the students pass, The Preacher falls quiet.

Davis brings a pie to share with people cleaning up, but they are all gone now.^[176]

What remains of the encampment are full trash cans, forgotten flags in patchwork grass, unclaimed supplies to the north, left behind folding chairs, a half-ripped sticker on “SIX LESSONS FROM PREVIOUS OCCUPATIONS”^[177], disregarded signs, and a handful of Autonomous and UF members sitting on a bench waiting for a ride.

On the Quad lawn, a professor sits with half a dozen students and teaches them about mergers and acquisitions.

An hour and a half after the official deadline to leave, four UWPD police officers enter the Quad. Two approach The Preacher while two hang back. One officer speaks with Brother Don. The other officer speaks with The Preacher, asking and then telling him to leave. The Preacher pulls out his phone and records the officer speaking with him. Brother Don keeps his hands in his pockets. The Seattle Times reporter watches on, writing in her notebook. After about five minutes, the police officer speaking with The Preacher issues him a formal “CRIMINAL TRESPASS WARNING” which the officer reads from a notepad he retrieves from his vest:

ATTENTION! This notice is provided as a written warning for trespass/camping under RCW 9A.52.070/080 or WAC 478-136-030. Further, be advised you have neither license nor privilege to remain. If you return or refuse to leave, you may be subject to arrest and prosecution. This is a record of your being trespassed from this location. As such, if you have further questions or are in need of clarification you may call the UWPD at 206.685.8973 and request to speak with an officer.”

After reading him the warning, the officer asks to see an ID from The Preacher, which he is provided.^[178] Once the officer has taken down The Preacher’s information, he hands him a business card with the same written warning text which also has written in bold red “You will now leave the premises and not return.” The business card warning lists where the incident occurred (“QUAD”), the date and time of the warning (“5/20/24 1628”), and the officer’s name (“IHSAN”)^[179].

As the police officers walk north to exit the Quad, those members associated with the encampment on the west side waiting for their rides initiate a chant with one calling out “A-C-A-B” and the others responding in singsong unison: “All cops are bastards”.

Tom takes down his tent. He does not want any issue with police. He leaves shortly thereafter.

Half an hour after the police leave, Derek picks up The Preacher’s microphone and raps about his messiah.

Half an hour later, The Preacher uses his phone to record from Grace Camp.^[180] “Past the deadline,” he says as Brother Don preaches to a near empty Quad, “We’re still here. We’re the only camp left. We’re here and we’re gonna take a stand against antisemitism and Christian hatred.” He walks through the northeast quadrant where the first PSU tent was erected as he narrates the scene. A Boeing jet flies over. “We’re taking a stand against the hate at this camp––that was spewed out of this camp over the last twenty-one days. We’re still here. We’re not going anywhere.”

“Let me say that again,” he says as he turns the camera toward himself, “Let me say that again. The Grace Camp’s not going anywhere. The only way we’re going anywhere is in chains.”

As I leave for the night, I see a lone cardboard sign on the ground with a taped paper flag of Palestine on which it is written: ” راجعين “WE WILL RETURN””^[181].

The Day After

The next day heavy rains fall as Sally Clark, Vice President for Campus Community Safety, and Craig Wilson, Chief of the UW Police Department, speak with The Preacher. He tells them how he was harassed, how things were stolen from him, and how his signs were vandalized, all while recording video of the interaction on his phone.^[182] “And so these are the things that personally harmed and offended me” he tells them. “It’s not that I’m angry necessarily, but I’m frustrated about the lack of accountability.”

VP Clark and Chief Wilson ask about the details of the equipment going missing. They ask if The Preacher filed a report. “We did not file any police report on that”, he says. “Did you want to?” Clark asks. “I still would like to”, he answers. “And just so I’m clear, [Preacher]”, Wilson says, “did that occur like while you’re––you were not here in your tent?” “No, half of it––” he says, “okay so about three-quarters of the thefts happened while I was here, right in front of my face.” He details one of the thefts as the two listen on.

“And it was a culture of lawlessness that was happening in here”, The Preacher says. “I witnessed multiple assaults in here. A guy––one of my friends––was pepper sprayed in here one night cause he was saying, Don’t graffiti the walls.”
“We heard about that”, Clark says. “So that was [Davis] I think.”
“Yes.”
“Yep.”
“[Davis] got assaulted.”
“Yep, yep, we heard about that.”
“I was actually physically assaulted with a shield. Somebody rammed me with a shield right into my side out here. And so, you know, I’m not trying to be petty. This is not me being petty.”
“And you can––I mean, everything you’re describing is everything about what was so difficult––”
“Yes.”
“––and why we prioritized as expeditiously––”
The Preacher sighs.
“––and I know it doesn’t feel like it––”
“Right.”
“––but we did prioritize a peaceful exit as soon as we could get the peaceful exit agreed to. And it’s, uh, it’s certainly not made anybody happy. I would say the encampment folks are not happy as well, but that was our priority. And we are trying to do a full accounting of what happened.”
“Can I ask you a personal question though? Are you genuinely, like, regretful of what happened here? Are you sorry for what happened? Because that is what we are actually asking for is is a sense of accountability––”
“Right.”
“––and a sense of an apology––”
“Right.”
“––for what happened to us in here.”
“Yeah. |I have regrets––|^[183]”
“For trying to express––”
“For what happened to you in here absolutely.”
“Okay.”
“And I wouldn’t––I wouldn’t want you to feel that there isn’t serious, serious concern for anything that was either the property taken or really that sense––”
“Right.”
“––of being under attack or not being safe.”

After awhile, Clark and Wilson depart. Wilson then returns with paperwork for The Preacher.^[184]

“You can continue to protest, man”, Wilson says. “I encourage you to protest. I encourage you. My only thing is there’s no need to have the tent set up where we’re telling you where we’re trying to get people to clean up. Well you can protest other places. Why you got to do it here, [Preacher]?”
“Cause the same reason, like I said before, we’re taking a stand––”
“Why do you want to force the issue?”
“We’re forcing the issue because they won’t do it if we don’t force the issue.”
The two men crosstalk.
“I’m not violating your freedom of speech––” Wilson says.
“When she was standing here, she said she was not willing to apologize to the students and Jewish community” The Preacher says.
“I didn’t hear that.”
“Why was she not willing?”
“I didn’t hear that.”
“She did not say that––”
“I didn’t hear that.”
“––she was not willing to––she apologized to me personally. You didn’t hear that? I have it on camera. She was not willing to make a public apology to the people that were hurt. There were people hurt, Chief. People were deeply offended and hurt.”

A UW Facilities team member works to clean the lower portion of a light pole then retrieves a ladder so they may reach higher.

Chief Wilson hands The Preacher the paperwork (with details highlighted)^[185].

The Preacher explains to Wilson what it will take for him to leave. “A public apology––”, he says.
“A public apology, okay,” the Chief says.
“––to the students––”
“To the parents”, an unseen man says.
“––of our community––”, The Preacher says.
“To the children who feel unsafe” continues the unseen man.
“––that were offended and felt unsafe. You see, I’m their voice, Chief. They’re behind me saying, Look, stand up for me right now. I’m in a hard place. I’m with––I really am in a hard place.”
“Mm hm” says Wilson.
“It’s a lot of pressure, but you know what I’m willing to take it because I know it’s right.”
“Okay, okay.”
“I know what happened here was wrong because I witnessed it for nineteen days.”
Chief Wilson tries to explains, “I would prefer you to pack the tents up so I can have Facilities––”
“We are not going to pack the––”
“––Facilities have to finish their job”.
“Chief, we’re not packing the tents up, period. It’s not going to happen.”
“Okay, okay.”

A while later, three UWPD police officers arrive to tell The Preacher to leave. “I’m staying” he says.

Reaching an impasse, The Preacher retreats inside his slashed and broken tent.

“And that is exactly what happened”

Two weeks after reaching an agreement to end the encampment, SUPER called on President Cauce to “retract the May 15th email and issue a public apology” for saying that “some of the rhetoric and language used in chants and signs within the Quad and at protests, while protected speech, was and is vile and antisemitic”.^[186]

The group requested “credible evidence to justify” her “use of the phrase “vile and anti-semitic”” via an email sent nearly a week after their May 23rd meeting.

Eighty minutes later, Cauce sent a link containing photographs. “The photos I’m sending clearly are either vile (as in F*ck Zionists) are violent/threatening (Kill all colonizers, save a life, kill your local colonizer, Death to Zionist/Fascists) not to a philosophy or ideology, but to PEOPLE who might be students, staff or faculty on this campus who hold these beliefs as part of their religious identity. And I’ve always been clear that while criticism of the Israeli government or ideological perspectives is acceptable, violence or intimidation directed to individuals is not although reasonable people might differ as to whether it’s antisemitic or not. And there are a couple that are unquestionably antisemitic (Jews with a Swastika and Kill Jews).”^[187]

Fifty minutes later, the student representative emailed back to Cauce, “Neither the “Kill Jews” or Swastika are affiliated with UW”. The representative goes on to say the “May 15th email and language you used resulted in harm and threats to the safety of members of the LZ, students, faculty, and staff at UW.” Their email concludes, “Whenever you are ready to talk about language for the public redaction and apology, please let me know.”

Fifty minutes after that, Cauce replied “even if these 2 are not from UW –– and it’s certainly a relief to know that, as I’ve said before reasonable people who do not believe that criticism of Israel or its policies is antisemitic, would still believe that the the ones saying F*ck Zionists or Death to Zionists or Kill Colonizers or the Mugging bench for Zionists are anti-Semitic.”

The next day, the student representative said the images “sent to me for review do not provide credible evidence to excuse the use of” “the phrase “vile and antisemitic” in your May 15, 2024 email talking about chants and signs in the LZ”, going so far as to claim the original email “has perpetuated legitimate harm to the UW community” and suggested to Cauce that “you need to address your own implicit biases.”

President Cauce responded by saying “I appreciate your response and perspective but when I called the graffiti vile and anti-Semitic it was primarily based on the images we all agree were from the camp –– repeated vile and often violent messages specifically aimed at Zionists and/or colonizers.” Cauce notes that “the anger I have seen toward from [sic] some members of the broader community toward the extremes of the Pro-Palestinian protestors started with the vandalism in the hub and then reached a peak when people arrived on campus May 14th to see graffiti not just in the LZ but all over campus.” She said, “that this vandalism was not only acceptable but a premeditated tactic is what was damaging.” She concludes by saying “There is no question that the vandalism on campus pales in the harm it creates when compared to the loss of life and suffering in Gaza. But when individuals participate or justify vandalism and the use that [sic] sort of vile rhetoric toward others and they, in fact, do damage to their cause. And that is exactly what happened. It was not my email that did this.”^[188]

Two days after SUPER made the email exchange public, buildings on campus were graffitied again.^[189]

On Miller Hall, the building nearest the first encampment tents, was written:

“Dont take pride
in genocIDE”

On Raitt Hall was written:

“DON’T JUST
WATCH, ⒶCT”

G
“AMC E
FUNDS N
O
C
IDE”

“ALL EYES ON
RAFAH”

“NO SCHOOL
PRIDE DURING
GENOCIDE”

“NO PINKWASHING
DURING PRIDE”

“FREE
PALESTINE”

“LANDBACK!”

“DEAD KIDS
CAN’T USe
SCHOLARSHIPS”

On Denny Hall was written:

“ALL
EYES
ON
GAZA”

“Down
With
Settler-
colonialism”

On Savery Hall was written:

“THIS SCHOOL
RUNS ON BLOOD”

“AMC is an anti-
semite”

“NO COMPROMISI
N
WITH G
COLONIALISM”

“CAUCE is
Pro-fascist”

“CAUCE
IS A WAR
PROFITE
ER”

“QUEERS FOR PALESTINE”

“BOEING
B
O
M
B
S
RAFAH”

“ALL EYES
ON RAFAH”

“free
PALESTINE”

“Colonialism
KILLS”

On Gerberding Hall was written

“FREE PALESTINE”

“DEAD KIDS
CANT USE
SCHOLAR
SHIPS”^[190]

“CAUCE
FUNDS
GENOCIDE”

“ALL EYES
ON RAFAH”

“AMC FUNDS GENOCIDE”

“No buildings
matter more
than bombings”

“QUEERS 4 GAZA”

“Free Gaza”

On Suzzallo Library was written:

“NO GRAD
IN GENOCID^E“

On Smith Hall was written:

“Didnt know
they made
HUSKY-brew
KLanhoods”^[[191],[192]

“CHILDREN
DIE
BOEING
PROFITS”

Members of the UW Facilities team worked for days to remove the graffiti. They had just finished cleaning all of the other graffiti that had been added due to the encampment on the Friday when SUPER called on President Cauce to retract and apologize for her May 15th email, itself a response to the protesters’ initial tactical graffiti escalation.

A week later, Commencement was held in Husky Stadium.^[193] The families of graduates gather at the northern entrance, passing through a tunneled walkway where a painted “free Palestine” has had “from Hamas” appended in black marker, itself edited to X out each letter of “Hamas” and add “GENOCIDE” in red. Thus the state of debate continues as students in black robes and royal purple sashes walk into the stadium grouped by the their Schools and Colleges.

“Good afternoon. And welcome to our beautiful campus,” University Marshal Joseph Janes began the proceedings after putting down a gold scepter he carried into the Stadium. “I’d like to begin this ceremony by acknowledging the land on which the University rests. The land of the Coast Salish Peoples which touches the shared waters of all tribes and bands within the Suquamish, Tulalip, and Muckleshoot nations.”

President Ana Mari Cauce presides over the Commencement ceremony. “Now, Commencement ceremonies are an expression of academic traditions that go back hundreds of years” she tells the audience “and they symbolize some of the most fundamental values of our civilization. Most particularly, the pursuit of truth and the preservation of freedom.”

She says, “one of the most important things that I think we have all learned in the last few years, no matter what degree program you’re in, that we all need each other to succeed. And that empathy, support, and collaboration are requirements for success. Whether you’re offering them or whether you’re receiving them. It’s a lesson that’s easy to forget, to set aside. But in these very polarized time it’s more important now than ever.”

She says, “I have no doubt that you will have an incredible impact on the world because you already have.”

She says, “I can’t wait to see what you do next.”

She awards President’s Medals to two recipients.^[194]

She then introduces the President of the Associated Students of the University of Washington, Jacob Feleke.

“I just want to start by saying,” Feleke starts by saying, “what a historic year and historic class of students.”

He says, “There are so many words to describe this past year but summed up: lots of triumphs and shared struggles. We witnessed some serious superheroes: our academic student employee union fighting to support their health, housing, and basic needs. But while we celebrate our accomplishments in this moment, we must also recognize the intertwined black and brown students struggles across the globe, victims of neocolonialism, genocide, and modern slavery. They will never get the chance to be in our position.” At this, the crowd cheers and applauds.

He says, “Students across the US and around the world have protested these atrocities through civil disobedience. We hear the demands loud and clear: end the genocide in Palestine.” The crowd cheers and applauds.

He says “All glory be to God in the highest. Thank you Class 2024. Now go out there and make some history.”

The University (via David Zeeck, Chair of the Board of Regents) then confers Honorary Degrees “upon two absolutely, extraordinarily accomplished individuals”.^[195]

The first, Susan Solomon, is a “renowned atmospheric scientist” whose “impact on scholarship, culture, and societal well-being is profound.” Her work has included studying the Antarctic ozone hole, identifying “the irreversibility of global warming linked to anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions”, and “co-chair[ing] the intergovernmental panel on climate change working group one” which led to “the panel and former Vice President Al Gore [being] honored with the Nobel Peace Prize.” She was described a “tireless advocate” who “expanded the awareness of the environmental issue we face” whose “clear and compelling communication style has made complex scientific concepts accessible to a wide audience, fostering a sense of urgency and collective responsibility to address environmental change.”

The second, Daniel James Brown, “a celebrated author who’s written several acclaimed works including one that I think many of you might know”. He is described as “devoted to bring compelling, historical events to life.” He has written about “Japanese American heroes of World War II”, “a Donner Party Bride”, and “the Great Hinkley Firestorm of 1894”. Chair Zeeck notes it was his book, The Boys in the Boat, that introduced “an enormous audience to what Tim Egan in the New York Times called, “an obscure story about a bunch of scrawny college kids who took on the world in 1936.””^[196] Zeeck says, “The values embodied in The Boys in the Boat are the same values that unite use today. We – Huskies, Washingtonians, and Pacific Northwesterners – have always come together to pursue bold accomplishments. It’s why this epic tale of innovation, collaboration, and shared success continues to endure and inspire.”

Daniel James Brown then delivered the Commencement speech. When reflecting on why the UW rowing team beat out everyone for Olympic gold, Brown says “what I’ve come to understand is those Huskies won their Olympic race in no small part because of their characters. Individually and collectively they embodied a set of simple values and virtues that carried them to victory”.

Brown says he “can honestly think of no better wisdom than what I’ve learned from those nine Husky athletes” and then says what he thinks they would say. “First, I think they would tell you to go for the gold.” And then, “Be audacious in your goals. Don’t let your circumstances dictate the scope of your ambitions.” And then, “Yet at the same time I think they would add, But understand that it is what you gain in the attempt to scale the heights that is most valuable. What you learn from the effort may well turn out to be more valuable in the long run than the gold itself.” And then “I think they would tell you to cultivate perseverance in the pursuit of those goals.” And then “Great accomplishments are hard won, so whatever sort of races you enter, whatever endeavors you pursue, they would advise you to keep your mind in the boat, to dig deep, stroke after stroke, and to stick with it until the race is won.” And then “But should you lose a race, they would encourage you to be resilient, to fight back in the face of challenges and setbacks. Life will inevitably hand you both.” And then, quoting The Boys in the Boat’s boat builder, “The enemy, he said, is the resistance of the water, as you have to displace the amount of water equal to the weight of the men and the equipment. But that very water is what supports you and that very enemy is your friend and so is life.” And then “Be earnest, they would say. Although it may be a cliche it is nevertheless true that anything worth doing is worth doing well. So avoid half-measures. Put your whole heart into your work, your life, your love, whatever you do, let it be a reflection of your character.” And then “They would tell you to be trustworthy.” And then “And then finally I think they would say, approach the world and its challenges with a measure of humility.”

“So perseverance, resilience, earnestness, trustworthiness, humility, these are some of the core qualities that helped those young Americans win Olympic gold in Berlin. But those same qualities did much more than that. They helped that generation of Americans quite literally saved [sic] the world. Remember, those Olympic rowers graduated from this great University at a time when tyrants strode the earth, authoritarianism was on the rise, racial and religious intolerance had blinded millions, extreme nationalism and hatred would soon take millions of innocent lives, militarism had swept Asia, the world economy had suffered a set of devastating shocks, financial security – even in this most prosperous of nations – was for many simply out of reach. But those young Huskies and their entire generation more than met the moment. They pulled together to vanquish the absolute evil of fascism in Europe, to defeat imperialism and militarism in Asia, and to rebuild a shattered economy here at home.”

“The time has come”, says Marshal Janes, “and we are now ready to present the various degrees to all candidates”. Deans^[197] of Schools and Colleges call upon their respective Schools and Colleges to rise, present them to the Chair of the Board of Regents who is responsible for conferring their degrees, recommend they be awarded their degrees, and then ask them to be seated again. President Cauce asks them all to stand again and presents them to Chair Zeeck who is “pleased to confer upon these candidates their respective doctoral, master’s, and bachelor’s degrees.”

The graduates are then told they will be “presented today with a memento of this graduation exercise” which is a decorative holder for their degrees which will be sent to them later.

Some students use this as an opportunity to speak without speaking by holding up to cameras livestreaming the event various signs and symbols. A doctoral student holds a sign that says “HANDS OFF RAFAH” with two red hands.^[198] A woman wears a keffiyeh and a Palestinian colored sash. A woman wears a sash that says “FREE PALESTINE” in black and white. A woman wears a sash with small Palestinian flags at each end. A man carries a framed photograph of his father. A man holds up his phone to the camera, but it is too dark to read. Women wear keffiyeh. Members of The Daily wear sashes designating their participation in the news outlet. A man wears a black cowboy hat and a keffiyeh. A woman in a hijab holds up her sash which has an elongated Palestinian flag on it. A woman wears a feathered headdress. A man holds his “FREE PALESTINE” painted cloth upside down and backward. The person behind him correctly holds up their “COMPLICITY = VIOLENCE” sign. Two women carry two signs that respectively read “FREE PALESTINE” and “GENOCIDE SURVIVORS AGAINST GENOCIDE” on olive green canvas. A blonde woman holds her phone up to the camera which reads “Free Palestine”. A woman shakes a keffiyeh toward the camera. Two women with Palestinian flags caped on their back. A man holds a Palestinian flag up to the camera. A woman holds her phone up to the camera with text that cannot be read. A woman holds up a sign with a monkey in a cage that says “UW: CLOSE THE CRUEL PRIMATE RESEARCH CENTER”. A man follows with the same sign. A man holds a Palestinian flag up to the camera, backwards. A man holds a Palestinian flag up to the camera, correctly. A woman in a lei holds a small hand written note that says “UW CUT TIES WITH BOEING”. A woman in a black head dress has a sash in Palestinian colors. One of the final students to cross the stage, one of the first encampers I met, holds a white cloth that has spray painted on it “FREE GAZA”.^[199]

After receiving their diploma holder, most students (and their loved ones) left Husky Stadium. “What a wonderful day this has been”, the Marshal says. “The audience and the rest of the graduating class are requested to remain at their seats until the recession of the stage party has concluded.” He then says “The 149th Commencement Exercises of the University of Washington are now closed.” He picks up the gold scepter and walks off the stage to the sounds the Fourth Movement of the Fifth Symphony of Ludwig van Beethoven. He is followed by the President and the Deans and the Regents. They walk past empty white lawn chairs where once sat students.

Four days later, President Cauce announces her “plan to step down from the role of president” next year at the end of her second term.^[200]

In a video announcing her final year as UW President^[201], she says “I don’t think I’m telling you any secrets when I say that there are huge challenges in the world – climate change, war, threats to our democracy – and we need all the talent that is out there to be able to get the tools they need. We need to have a diversity of perspectives at the table.”

In an interview with Sofia Schwarzwalder of The Daily^[202], Cauce was asked if she felt her conversations with the encampers advocating for change were productive, and she responded, “I have been at times taken aback by the fact that I have thought we’ve had very cordial, productive discussions and then you read something and go ‘what?’ I am not sure that everyone has been coming to the [discussions] in good faith, but I can assure you that I have.”

Cauce was asked what effects the “graffiti and other personally targeted messaging [that] has appeared on campus” has had on her and she answered, “I have been accused of killing monkeys before, but killing babies was a bit over the top. Can I make pretend that it doesn’t matter to me at all? Of course not. At the same time, when you take these jobs, there are ways that you have to keep your equilibrium … There is no question about the incredibly deep grief that people are experiencing and I just wish that people could realize the humanity in each other. And that it is not just one group that is hurting but how deep this hurt is. I don’t take it that personally, but can I say that it doesn’t matter? Of course not. I’m human.”

Unsolicited Prescriptions for Betterment

The encampment protest at the University of Washington achieved tangible benefits for (some, fortunate) Palestinians and was voluntarily concluded by those who began it without aggressive police intervention. The student protesters voiced their concerns, laid out their demands, and used their time and energies to bring about change. The University listened to those concerns, negotiated resolution to those demands, and did not punish those protesting for a better world. The encampment was successful at many things including lending a platform to advocate against the Israel-Hamas War, to explain the destruction wrought by colonialism, to enable students to support one another in a communal setting of their own creation, to bring to the forefront issues relating to Palestinian, Arab, Middle Eastern, and North African peoples and their struggles, and to allow safe practice of further protest/activism strategies and tactics. The encampment was unsuccessful at its stated goals, but then, that was always likely to be the case^[203], and does not detract from what was achieved. Though the United Front said “We are under no illusions that this agreement is a win” because “The only true victory is Palestinian Liberation”, the protest was a good one insofar as it had a message of discontent expressed righteously.

That said, having spent several weeks observing the protest, I believe some aspects could have been bettered. I readily admit, I did not and could not observe everything. What I report here, I saw with my own two eyes, heard with my own two ears, and understood with my own idiosyncrasies, biases, and lived experiences. And I concede, this protest is not mine and the overall struggle not my own. While the protest has my sympathy and many encampers have won my support, I was and remain an outsider to the cause and will not be responsible for a solution. All the same, I offer the following suggestions based on my observations of this protest so that future endeavors might benefit.

I resist the urge to include advice regarding actions and behaviors I merely dislike and instead focus on guidance I believe would lead to substantive benefits.^[204] Things can always be done “different”, that does not necessitate them being done “better” which is what I strive to offer here. Please note that simply because something is listed here does not imply that it was not already done well by the encampment. Indeed some of these prescriptions are offered because the encampment showed their efficacy.

In this section I slip into the second person from time to time as I try to address “you” the once and future protester for a cause you believe in.

1. Drop any and all disingenuousness

A protest needs legitimacy above all else. Whether it stems from moral righteousness or pragmatic urgency, for any civil disagreement to have hope of transforming itself into accord, it at the very least needs to be true to itself. Whether that which is called for is veracious in the fullness of time is not half so important as the sincerity with which it is put forth. Conviction proceeds actualization.

Frequently in this encampment I would observe protesters block the path of a someone while pretending not to. I would see encampers deploy their umbrellas in front of cameras and half-jeeringly talk about how bright the sun was and how they enjoyed the shade. I would see folks with green arm bands follow around people not associated with the protest and when confronted ask rhetorically, “Have I been following you?”

Let me be clear, I understand why protesters would prefer not to be recorded, would follow around suspicious “outsiders”, and block ne’er-do-wells from their provisional domiciles. And moreover, I can even be convinced these are justifiable actions to take. What I here am calling out is the hollowing out of those actions by sham bases. If you are going to try your darnedest to prevent recording of protesters faces, say so. If you are going to follow around people you don’t trust to ensure they don’t get up to mischief, do so. If you are going to intentionally obscure the view of someone’s camera, don’t blame it on the sun. The plain strength of simple reason is enough.

From my perspective, some of the most significant damage to the cause of the protesters was due to pretense. I saw the message of the protest –– support for the sovereignty of Palestinians via extrication of Israeli and American military might embodied here as advocating that a university decouple from a major corporation involved in military-industrial complexes –– turn to cant when force would be applied arbitrarily to individuals visiting the encampment by individuals residing in the encampment. Others saw this too.

Let me be still more clear, I want to state that most –– the vast and overwhelming majority –– of the encampers were genuinely pursuing a path they believed led toward a more just world. Indeed, their earnestness and vehemence fueled the protest on its journey toward resolution and ensured a concentration of effort toward its end goals. Many are the occasions in which protesters demonstrated the power of authenticity: that time three women answered a young man’s contrarian questions; that time a man shared his story of escaping violence in the Middle East and explaining its origins as prompting him to protest for a ceasefire; that time a woman patiently explained to an obstinate man why recording protester’s faces could bring about retaliation.

That said, there were many instances and individuals that chipped away at the strength the protest by feigning their actions. I think back on the professor early on trying to record the protest with his laptop being blocked by encampers so dedicated to obscuring his view they trampled on other students just sitting on the grass and trying to listen to a teach-in. I think of Eayiq who stood on ground he previously had not so that The Preacher could not occupy it. These obstructers never looked their obstructees in the eye or explained themselves. Those not already in agreement who witness such behavior are not further convinced to support it. (Who wants more sanctimonious obscurity?) This type of pretense undermines the basic premise of an effective protest: that what is done is done by right. Even if small and seemingly insignificant compared to the grand problems to be addressed, such insincere performances are seen by those still-to-be-convinced and can and do more harm than good. In the long run a pebble in one’s shoe can be a greater impediment than a mountain in one’s way.

Lay the solid stone of honest work as one’s foundation –– even when it is arduous and tedious –– and be certain that which is built on top of it has true strength to stand.

2. Don’t shun those not in (total) agreement

One way a protest can effect change is by rallying support. There are many ways to achieve this. Obviously, one can identify and corral all who already agree with the protest’s goal and focusing their efforts toward desired ends, such as the UF identifying campus organizations that expressed support for a free Palestine before setting up the Liberated Zone. More strenuously, one could seek out those who disagree with the protest’s goal, work to convince them of their error, indoctrinate a spirit of forward evangelism, and turn converts to the task of converting more, such as The Preacher’s form of preaching his gospel of his Christ. In between these two efforts is engagement with those neither in total agreement or disagreement and bridging a significant divide which compels one to go from merely an observer of a protest to a supporter. This last toil I saw rarely trouble the encampers to attempt.^[205]

What instead I saw was an early effort by encampers to convince the local student populace as they passed and which united with the Academic Student Employees (UAW Local 4121) in their efforts for better working conditions wither into a bitter exclusion of “outsiders” after the Charlie Kirk event, morph into open disdain for those disagreeing with any element of the encampment by the Sunday of the March for Israel, and finally resolve into contempt for the University around them with the mass graffiti event. Progressively, I saw less efforts to convince others and a simultaneous rise in more resigned/bored participants and more acetous resolution among a core set of individuals. This latter enmity manifest in the presentation of all-or-nothing types of engagement with non-encampers: you’re either with us or you’re against us. Those who did not agree with the formation of a Palestinian state were called “fascists”. Those born in a country and a century through no choice of their own were labeled “colonizers”. Even referring to the acts of Israel’s military as “war crimes” in lieu of “genocide” was enough to be pejoratively labeled a “neoliberal” and dismissed as not in sufficient agreement with (some of) the protesters.

But how is one to grow support beyond the fixed level of true believers if not through discussion with nonbelievers? I think back to the three women speaking with the young male contrarian. He brought up the concerns he learned to have with the encampment protest and they talked to him, each from their own perspective, about why he was mistaken, going in the right direction on the wrong track, or not considering enough of the picture with his focus. That young man was inched closer to support than the encampers were pulled away from it. The mutual respect of the participants allow all to proceed to a common truth together.

Not all who disagree with you are evil.^[206] And trying to understand them and where they are coming from will not harm you. Sympathy allows for us to hear in a language we cannot speak. Any protest which sustains itself only on the fuel of a devout few who insist upon a dichotomy of “our side” and “all others” will not make it as far as one which fosters discussion in the face of disagreement. A protest itself being an embodied disagreement ought to allocate a portion of its resources to fruitful covenant with those not in full agreement, or else risk the charge of hypocrisy and holier-than-thou piety.

Clearly, one need not engage with bad-faith types who are disagreeable for its own sake and their own pleasure. And indeed there comes a time when further discussion at a particular point leads nowhere but to further heartache. All the same, to claim the sanction of popular support, one has to earn it through convincing some of the populace.

3. Consider the beam in thine own eye and the mote in thy brother’s

If failure to act — deemed “complicity” — is among a protest’s chief complaints, protesters themselves cannot be guilty thereof and hope to maintain legitimacy. This is a simple case of bad apples spoiling a bunch of the others and I hope does not require much elucidation to understand why.^[207]

Sometimes protesters wanted to be viewed as a united front of folks for which no individual actor is to be singled out for blame and all require the protections of solidarity. Other times the protesters wanted to be viewed as a collection of individual actors capable of autonomous actions for which the collection is not to blame for those individual acts. Several (clandestine) organizations play this same logical trick such as police who maintain a “blue wall of silence” which shields the brothers and the brotherhood from scrutiny and corporations that silence potential whistleblowers with non-disparagement agreements and punish those who speak out. And while most encampers had little trouble understanding how this sort of behavior corrupts police and corporations, few thought (or sought) to apply this perspective toward their own (collective) actions.

In the southwest corner of the Quad there is a memorial bench with a plaque that reads “IN LOVING MEMORY OF DO YOUNG AHN (SUNG MIN AHN, AKA SMA) 1987.03.07 — 2021.03.03 FOREVER IN OUR HEARTS”. It was donated in the spring of 2022 by Hong-Rae Kim and commemorates the life of a person who died too young.^[208] A tragedy in the same vein as those espoused by encampers who spoke out against “dead children” and “child martyrs” in Gaza. And on that memorial bench was written in black marker “Abu obaida was Here”. Abu Obaida (أبو عبيدة) is the nom de guerre of (allegedly) Hudayfa Samir Abdallah al-Kahlout (حذيفة سمير عبدالله الكحلوت) who is the spokesman for the Izz ad-Din al-Wassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas. When I asked several encampers how vandalizing a memorial of Do Young (Sung Min) Ahn with a joke about a Hamas spokesperson furthered their cause, I never got an answer that didn’t try to justify it as a sort of “voice of the oppressed” lashing out in anger. When I asked, Whose support does it rally? often it was swept under the “collective” rug of expressing the just anger of the protest. When I asked protesters, Is this something you yourself support? I would receive answers that would not affirm support and instead excused “individual” autonomous action as something the encampment itself supported. Contortions to not acknowledge what was obvious to everyone else (i.e., those not associated with the encampment) –– that this was a callous thing to do, utterly devoid of respect for another person’s memory –– led me to understand that the encampers felt a united front was more important than a brave one. It convinced me that much of that “front” was a brittle shellac without a solid core. It showed me that this protest was willing to tolerate the intolerable in an effort to achieve its ends.

But if you have to bend over backward, you will have a hard time going forward. The means one uses to an end matter. And there is no scenario where that sort of vandalism helped the protesters’ causes. It merely briefly desecrated the memory of a human soul and tarnished the veneer of the protest’s image.

Hypocrites of course have two bites at the apple: you can either agree with what they say or you can agree with what they do. But that hypocrisy invariably hollows out the message being conveyed. To be effective a protest cannot tolerate its hypocrites. It corrupts the whole effort as hypocritical.^[209] And the hypocrisy makes it easy for those not already supportive to disagree with at least some portion of what is being said or done. Virtue will outlive conniving deceit and cant.

If I had seen even one protester try to wash away the vandalism on that memorial bench it would have been the single most powerful moment I could have observed. Instead I saw day after day, encamper after encamper walk by that vandalization and try to justify it, which, despite all the many other virtuous and noble moments I saw, left an indelible mark on what the encampment ultimately was to me.

4. Signaling virtue is great, being virtuous is greater still

As a continuation of the previous point, I emphasize here the importance of virtue. The strength of moral character can carry a movement far (as the Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s demonstrated), while milquetoast moral caricature saps a movement of momentum (as several “occupied” protests have done in the 2010s and 2020s).

Two antipodal examples showing moral failing and moral force will suffice to make my point.

I heard more than one encamper speak of “unhoused” participants lending credence to what was being done at the encampment, especially with respect to the protesters trying not to be seen as wholly “performative” in their activism by “role-playing” as those who experience homelessness, such as the destitute poor in this country and the bombed masses in Gaza. By claiming that some unhoused folks benefitted from the encampment’s mutual aid, many encampers were content with their virtuousness. And yet I saw many do a practiced “unseeing” often reserved for those beneath one’s contempt. One may observe many such unfocused, straight-ahead-yet-off-to-the-side gazes by those walking around the impoverished of Pioneer Square asking for spare change and extra cigarettes. Those “unseeing” the impoverishment are able to look at their acquaintances in nearby cafes and feel no compunction of the disservice to another human being they have done by not even attempting to see them for who they are through their very own eyes.^[210] That banal odium all too easily facilitates direct and indirect brutality toward those despised, such as when Davis, a homeless man residing on and around campus near the encampment, was sprayed with a chemical irritant after he told encampers not to vandalize the area.^[211] So while some encampers were using the “right” words to refer to him, some encampers were treating the man “wrongly”.

Contrast this with the rectitude of the Muslim Students Association on multiple occasions such as by providing food to The Preacher and working with him to recover his tent when it had been stolen. They disagreed with The Preacher’s message and they disagreed with how he went about conveying it and many personally did not like him, yet they saw to his needs when they saw he was needful. They treated him “rightly” even when they viewed him as “wrong”.

I present these two contrasting examples of virtue to pose the question thus: Would you rather have someone who signals their virtuousness in words or in deeds? Indeed, the doer does right and is a credit to a cause, while the chatterer can expend the debit on the promissory note of righteous action by their pious inaction.

5. Just cause you’re breaking a law doesn’t mean you need to be a jerk about it

Acts of civil disobedience are meant to show the injustice of the system. Contrary to now-popular opinion, “civil” here does not mean that one needs to be polite or nonconfrontational or courteous, but rather that one’s “disobedience” is directed toward a particular authority over a particular citizenry. This can range from lawful protest –– such as a gathering of individuals who seek a permit for their public demonstration –– to violent insurrection –– such as John Brown’s raid at Harper’s Ferry. What is of paramount importance to the efficacy of the civil disobedience is the righteousness of the protester because it has the effect of holding up to a (purportedly unjust) system the light of virtue.

The farther the civilly disobedient is from virtuous, the more dimly the light shines on the unjust system. Yes, it is unfair that one must be “better than” the system one opposes, but one must to be effective.^[212] Anybody can break a law and say they did so for a “good” reason. Fewer can do so and claim to have done so for a “moral” reason. A protest of the civilly disobedient variety shows its moral reason in its actions and through its actors. And much like the hypocrite can undermine the foundation of a protest, so too can the “bad actor” dim the virtuous light.

Recall when an encamper hurled verbal abuse at campus security guards protecting a bricklayer trying to fix a walkway. In what way did this contribute meaningfully to the cause of helping Palestinians in Gaza? The encamper’s shouts were heard by many, dispiriting passersby, angering at least one of the security guards, and caused the bricklayer to momentarily stop his work. I saw no one convinced by these actions and in fact noticed several put off by them.^[213] Instead of highlighting an unjust institution, a shadow fell across the protest.

When a Muslim student saw me watching the encamper’s callow shouts, she made a point of going on record to tell me “This is not our voice”. Her repudiation was light cast against the darkness. She showed what was right by condemning that which was wrong. She believed as much as anyone at the protest in the demands of encampment and the right of Palestine to be free, and by comporting herself with decency more effectively contrasted the indecency of that which she was against.

6. Scorn is short-term sustenance, a movement needs (and deserves) soulful nourishment

The encampment was a hundreds of hours long protest of Israel’s actions in Gaza and the University of Washington’s alleged (at least tacit) support thereof. The encampers seized on the University’s relationship with Boeing in making their demands for a more just campus and more just world, by extricating arms manufacturers from the finances of the institution, curtailing “Zionist” influences, and protecting Palestinian students, faculty, and staff. Through mass action and communal support, they amplified their message and negotiated with University administrators with leverage that no protesters had alone.

At its best, the protest’s collective power was used for societal (and global) improvement. At its worst, the protest’s indignation was expressed as fatuous outrage.

If at one end of the spectrum lies impassioned speeches, teach-in sessions, protected prayer times, good-faith negotiation sessions, and mutual-aid supported community meals and at the other lies Ⓐ symbols painted on walls and walkways, memorial benches defaced, using a bullhorn to deride someone trying to fix a walkway, the address of a journalist shown and known to angry participants, and graffiti saying to “KILL” to “SAVE”, I ask the reasonable reader, Which end of the spectrum do you think contributes more to the long term viability of a protest movement?^[214] From my perspective, one end builds up and creates more and bridges divides and the other burns and breaks and hurts.

Martin Luther King, Jr. in his speech “Where Do We Go From Here?” put the point thus: “Now, we got to get this thing right. What is needed is a realization that power without love is reckless and abusive, and that love without power is sentimental and anemic. Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice, and justice at its best is power correcting everything that stands against love. And this is what we must see as we move on.”^[215]

Watch any child during their development and you will see the innate joy that can be sparked by mere destruction. Topple a tower of bricks, drop rocks to splash into water, light a fire and see the gaze transfixed on the flame. This temporary joy is a sugar-high, a dopamine-hit, a fleeting feeling of satisfaction at causing the world to change. And with maturity comes the realization of the power of its opposite: in the long term, construction sustains, destruction wanes. The same is true of any movement with a hope to last and the strength to do so. Nutrients beyond the immediately sweet are necessary. Iron and fiber and vitamins grow the body, just as fortitude and character and principles grow the soul.

Therefore, consider the lasting impact of one’s words and deeds beyond the immediate alter(c)ation they elicit. Adding graffiti to bricks may express true anger, tearing up a walkway may feel exciting, and harassing a bricklayer undoing your destruction may momentarily exhilarate, but likely none of those actions will contribute to building up the better world nor bring down the worser one. Resentment will only get one so far. For justice, love must accompany power.

7. More stability, less volatility

I again note that this form of protest lasted hundreds of hours and likely could have lasted hundreds more. The encampment relied on longer-term strategies to erect and sustain a disparate collection of human souls. Amongst the encampers were varied stable and volatile elements, together forming a collective that had shifting dynamics of both. Each served a purpose. Stable elements established logistical supply chains for supplies and food. Volatile elements graffitied the buildings that surrounded them. Stable elements patrolled the boundaries of the encampment night after night to ensure those within could rest. Volatile elements fought against “outside instigators” during counterprotests. Stable elements negotiated with the University to meet the protest’s demands. Volatile elements yelled at police.

Certainly there are times when volatility can be an effective form of protest. But if establishing a foundation for long-term action, would you rather construct it on rock or dynamite? Instability is not often a potent means toward sustainability.

8. Put women in charge

At the risk of sounding sexist, I believe women should be in more positions of leadership and power. And here I must commend the encampment protest for demonstrating the excellence of this prescription having seen many women (and nonbinary folks) leading the protest thoughtfully and with resolve.

When I think back on the worst aspects of the encampment — physical confrontations with “outsiders”, destruction of The Preacher’s tent, tearing apart, burning, and shitting on Israeli flags — most were done by men. When I think of the best –– thoughtful conversations, the creation of beautiful and meaningful works of art, staffing the Information Booth, food liaisons — more often than not it was women responsible. Watch four people at the corners folding up a tent to pack it away, and three will be women.

Many moments of courage and level-headedness were made possible by women. Many moments of short-sighted ugliness were done by men.

Obviously “not all men” at the encampment acted poorly, in point of fact most acted reasonably and conscientiously, contributing positively to the protest. But when poor actions were undertaken it was most likely done by a man and likelier still by a group of men. Similarly, not all acts of upstanding moral character were done by women, but certainly a significant portion of them were.

I think back to Juno patiently reasoning with The Preacher upon his entrance into the encampment to move while Eayiq obstructed and provoked. I think of Trampoline telling the men who wanted to beat a fallen drone to bits not to do so in public. I think of the journalist Jackie Kent being berated by a man and cannot help but picture her tough as a coffin nail and him craven and feckless.

Unfortunately, in our (ahem, patriarchal and misogynistic) society, women have to be tougher, more prudent, and accommodating than their male counterparts as they learn to navigate hostile environments without recourse. This sad reality gives rise to a beautiful truth: women are conditioned to be strong leaders, able to handle difficult situations and balance interests. It is this kind of leadership that can and should drive forward future positive enactments of change.

9. Take on the mantle of the oppressed, not the guise

The protest chose as its form of expression an encampment of tents on University grounds to leverage their presence into action by the administration. The logic of the method tracks: university administrators do not wish to allow for overnight camping, protesters wish to exert influence on university administrators in a practical way, entrenchment on campus until demands are met forces administrators to consider how to resolve the situation by either acquiescence or force, the former risking further demonstrations of the sort and the latter risking overstepping authority prompting further community backlash. Insofar as it is a mode of compelling action, I can understand why the campus encampment protests became a chosen vehicle of opposition.

What I find harder to justify is some encampers viewing their decision to briefly live in a tent as akin to those in Gaza who have been forced to live in tents as they run from war. There is an important distinction between the sufferer and the witness, the victim and the advocate.

“Victims” play a singular role in a moral calculus. A victim cannot reasonably be blamed for the harm that befalls them. And a victim of an attack can justify attacking back in self-defense (or justify others coming to their defense). Such a shield and cudgel dynamic was seen throughout the protest to rationalize all sorts of unsavory (and largely ineffective) actions. Protesters could camp on campus because the University was responsible for the local housing crisis. The President of the University could be said to “KILL[] BABIES” because she did not immediately “divest” from Boeing. A journalist could be doxxed because he was going to dox the encampers. Buildings could be graffitied because they are not as important as the “Dead in GAZA”. One could “MUG ZIONISTS” because they enable the existence of Israel which enables the Israeli military which causes Palestinian deaths. Because the protesters were acting on behalf of the victims of genocide, they felt anything and everything they did was justified since nothing they did was that bad. What could be worse than ethnic cleansing and the mass death of children? And because nothing could be worse, no matter what the protesters did it was not worse and therefore better than what was being done to the victims.^[216]

But a complete moral calculus is more nuanced than that. For example, self-defense and defense of others is usually predicated on imminent harm and the possibility of prevention or alleviation of that harm. If one is attacked by a man, one has every right to fight back as do witnesses to the assault. But after an attack, as time has passed and distance is established, one has less right to assault “back” their assailant without risking their right to just retribution, and third parties taking matters into their own hands morphs from fair-minded and valid into “mob justice”, a justice that risks becoming mere vengeance.

Witnesses and advocates afford victims a different type of protection than mere retaliation and revenge. Unable to undo the wrong done, they can still ensure that right is seen through. This responsibility is no less sanctioned because one has not themselves been harmed. In fact, because an advocate has not suffered the harm of the victim (who has no duty to make known the harm they have experienced), their province becomes all the more important as they protect the very ideals of justice by their testament of wrongs seen and rights deserved.

One can be an advocate for victims without the pretense of being a victim oneself. A simulacrum of victimhood does a disservice both to the sufferer and the witness and dirties the path toward justice for all.

10. For the love of all that is good and holy, don’t talk about Rick and Morty

It is a constant struggle for a protest to maintain its legitimacy. Those opposed will look for any reason to dismiss and disparage and despise the message and those ambivalent need to be convinced to lend their support. A protest unable to rally popular support will not long endure. And a protest which spoils the support it already has through bad acts or bad faith will last even less. The enduring effects of which will be no more apparent that a brief gust of hot air.

If you want to be taken seriously it helps to be serious.

One of the most widely seen moments of the encampment protest was when Addam and Shirt (and others) went up to a photographer and started talking nonsensically. They mocked and harassed the cameraman, they joked about “Deez nuts”, they complimented the hair of a weatherman, they shined a laser and a flashlight into a camera lens, and they prattled on at length about an animated television show, Rick and Morty, repeating the name of the show dozens of times over the span of a few minutes. If the mass graffiti event had the effect of demonstrating an aggressive posture from the encampment, this moment showcased a fundamental unseriousness. Both deconstructed the protest in their own ways. One justified fear, the other revealed puerility. Why should anyone indulge the demands of vandals and nitwits?

Advocating on behalf of the victims of colonial violence and documented war crimes is a noble use of one’s time. Protesting directly to the power structures that surround you is an act of bravery. Establishing a mutual aid commune even if but briefly is the kind of flourishing beauty this world is in much need of.

Rambling on about a cartoon is immature and unproductive. Future protests would be well advised to keep serious when at the Sisyphean effort for legitimacy rather than cackle as they watch the boulder fall.

In summary

Transfiguring these unsolicited betterment prescriptions into their positive equivalents leads to the following (and hopefully not too saccharine) set of instructions:

Be genuine,
Be receptive,
Be just,
Be virtuous,
Be kind,
Be aware,
Be stable,
Be led by women,
Be responsible, and
Be serious.

In so doing, I believe one’s efforts will be better directed toward achieving the (just) ends desired. And while these prescriptions are not necessarily curative of all that ails collective action, I hope they help a few who help the many.

The Right Side of History

In an earlier draft of this essay, one of my Unsolicited Prescriptions for Betterment was to suggest that “the right side of history” is the wrong argument to make. I was convinced to remove this Prescription by a protester (and previous encamper) who volunteered to sit on a bridge under the summer sun to ensure a sign reading “STOP ALL U.S. AID TO ISRAEL!” remained visible during UW’s Commencement ceremony. She made the compelling case that by claiming “the right side of history” in an argument a listener was forced to situate themselves in history and decide how they want their (in)actions to be viewed in the fullness of time. Listening to her speak, I was convinced by her position and persuaded that arguing for “the right side of history” itself could be an effective means of lodging a protest and as such, I could no longer justify to myself the benefit the prescription would confer and decided to cut it out.

However, “the right side of history” is too important to leave unmentioned.

Many righteous people and ideas have made it to their graves without affecting change. And conversely, many despicable people (mostly men) have done horrific things to others and known nothing but a life of luxury. Entire peoples innocent save the crime of existence have been eradicated by disease and hunger while those spreading that disease and introducing that hunger inherit the world left behind.

History does not care about moral righteousness. People do.

If the moral arc of the universe bends toward justice^[217] it is because people have put their back into it. As they have from Selma to Montgomery, from Earthrise to Seneca Falls, in DC at times. Justice is not always timely nor guaranteed. But it can be worked very hard for. And as a nation great in liberty – or to such heights we should climb, from such vantages view – I think we ought to work very hard for the ever greater justice, the ever minimized injustice, the steady pursuit of truth and reconciliation. This will be a struggle. But again and again, I see people (such as the encampers) ready to resume that struggle. Ready to put their back into it. And the noble life of the good citizen of The Great Society is bettered by the continued, honest, and plain pursuit of justice for all. The ever greater world requires people pushing toward ever greater mercy, understanding, and peace.

While presumptive to consider ourselves on “the right side of history”^[218], it is nevertheless a true north star to be strived for.

On the third day

As daybreaks on the third day after the encampment protest, police surround The Preacher’s tent which at this point is little more than a ground tarp slunk over a few broken poles leaning against a cherry tree. A police officer opens the front flap with his blue gloved hands and tells The Preacher to exit the tent.

“Can I get your badge number”, says The Preacher under his tent’s cover.
“It’s 197”, says LT Doug Schulz. “Come on out for me.”
“So, what’s going on?”
“I have a search warrant to search the tent and seize it and arrest you. So come on out.”
“What am I being arrested for?”
“Criminal trespass.”
“‘kay.”
“So come on out.”
The Preacher tells the LT “I’m not going to resist arrest”.
“Perfect. Come on out.”
The Preacher tells the LT he is going to hand his phone to his friend, Derek, who’s sleeping in the other tent. The LT tells a subordinate to get Derek out. The Preacher shouts to Derek, “Get up, brother.”
The LT asks for The Preacher’s full name with middle initial and his date of birth.
“You understand you’re under arrest for criminal trespass?” the LT asks him.
“Yes, sir.”
“Okay, when you get out, I’ll Mirandize you.”
“Absolutely, and I’m not gonna resist arrest. I just want to get my phone to Derek so I’m all protected here. That’s all it is.”
The Preacher asks if his sound system can not be seized. The LT says “I don’t want to leave anything here. It’s all coming in for safe keeping.”
“Keep your other hand visible” the LT says.
“I don’t have any weapons” The Preacher says.
“Why don’t you come out here and sit down right here.”

The Preacher crawls out of his tent and stands barefooted in the dirt at the base of the tree. He hands his phone to a police officer who hands it to Derek to record the interaction. The Preacher is read his Miranda warning by the LT:

“You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can be used against you in a court of law. You have the right at this time to talk to a lawyer and have him/her present with you while you are being questioned. If you cannot afford to hire a lawyer, one will be appointed to represent you before any questioning, if you wish. You can decide at any time to exercise these rights and not answer any questions or make any statements.”

After being patted down by the police officer, Derek inadvertently switches to the front-facing camera of the phone while recording. “Oops, I’m filming me” Derek says, “I don’t know how to use phones.”

The LT asks The Preacher “Do you understand each of these rights I have explained to you?”
“Yes” he says.
“Having these rights in mind, do you wish to talk to me if I have any questions?”
“It’s not being pointed the right way”, The Preacher says to Derek who has flipped the phone around to record. “Is it?” Derek confirms that it is and holds the phone out in front of him, capturing The Preacher being put into handcuffs with himself in the lower lefthand corner in a surreal “selfie” of the scene.
“If I have any questions, are you willing to talk to me?” the LT asks.
“Yeah”, The Preacher says. “I don’t have any weapons on me. I’m not here to fight.”
The police confer amongst each other briefly.
“We’re gonna walk you over” a police officer tells The Preacher.

Of the five officers present, Rich alone wears a mask. He tells his fellow officers, “I’ll take him” and then grabs The Preacher by the cuffs and walks him east toward the dawning sun to exit the Quad.

It is a two minute walk to the police vehicle.^[219]

Five minutes later, Rich shouts to his fellow officers, “Keys, wallet, phone.” “What?” one responds. “Keys, wallet, phone.” “Phone”, the officer says to Derek. “He does want his phone?” Derek asks. “Yes” the officer tells him. Derek leaves a short message^[220], then turns off the recording and gives the officer the phone.

An hour after his arrest, The Preacher is booked into King County Correctional Facility in downtown Seattle two blocks away from where Joe Biden gave a speech to his donors. His bail is set at $500.^[221]

The Preacher has his day in court

The next morning, I sit alone in the second row of the public gallery of the King County Correctional Facility’s Courtroom 1. The wooden rows of benches remind me of pews without a place to kneel. A pane of glass separates me from the courtroom. A sign over my shoulder reads “QUIET WHILE COURT IS IN SESSION”. All is silence until the court’s microphone and speaker systems are enabled. Judge Jill A. Klinge presides.

A black man with bleached blonde dreads enters wearing a red jumpsuit and stands by his attorney to address the Court. He was arrested for failure to appear on a previous warrant.

“What would you like me to know?” the Judge asks the man’s attorney.
“He is juggling a lot” the attorney says. He is 24 years old, his son turns three this week, and his girlfriend is pregnant. He was trying to quash his warrants before his arrest, but was unable to and thus was put in jail and brought before the Judge.
“I will reduce bond to $5,000” the Judge says and the man is excused.

As one prisoner is exchanged for another, my focus shifts and I see myself dimly lit against the bright lights of the courtroom in the glass separating me from the trial. From the periphery, I see The Preacher enter.

“This is [The Preacher]” the Judge is told. The Preacher, wearing the same red jumpsuit and orange rubber slippers as the man who came before him and as the man who will follow him, walks from the side of the room to stand by his court appointed public defender.

“Hello, your Honor” he says to the Judge.

The State, via a Rule 9 Intern, makes the case that there was Probable Cause for the warrant and arrest of The Preacher for Criminal Trespass in the 2nd Degree. The State points to The Preacher’s previous arrest in Florida five years ago (for trespass within a school safety zone and disruption of school function) to demonstrate the extent of his criminal record. The State has no objection to his release from jail on his own recognizance.

“I’m going to release you”, Judge Klinge says as she outlines the conditions of his release, including that he is to have no contact with the University of Washington.^[222] “You are not allowed to go on University property” she tells him. The Judge schedules The Preacher for his next court appearance where he will be arraigned.

The Preacher tries to ask the Judge about the length of time before he can go back to the University^[223] and she says “Before you ask me, see if your attorney can answer.” He turns to the public defender at his side to ask her for help. She wears an olive green headdress and a black and white keffiyeh on her shoulders. And the question is answered.

Endnotes

[1] “UW’s ‘Popular University for Gaza’ Liberated Zone grows, remains peaceful” by Sofia Schwarzwalder, https://www.dailyuw.com/news/uw-s-popular-university-for-gaza-liberated-zone-grows-remains-peaceful/article_97c2dee0-0847-11ef-b64f-5f63e2e5b0cb.html

[2] “‘Screams Without Words’: How Hamas Weaponized Sexual Violence on Oct. 7” by Jeffrey Gettleman, Anat Schwartz and Adam Sella with photographs by Avishag Shaar-Yashuv, https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/28/world/middleeast/oct-7-attacks-hamas-israel-sexual-violence.html

[3] “The Ruined Landscape of Gaza After Nearly Three Months of Bombing” by Jared Malsin and Saeed Shah, https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/gaza-destruction-bombing-israel-aa528542

[4] “Behind Hamas’s Bloody Gambit to Create a ‘Permanent’ State of War” by Ben Hubbard and Maria Abi-Habib, https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/08/world/middleeast/hamas-israel-gaza-war.html

[5] “List of pro-Palestinian protests on university campuses in the United States in 2024”, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_pro-Palestinian_protests_on_university_campuses_in_the_United_States_in_2024

[6] This BDS approach is modeled after the Anti-Apartheid Movement which began in the 1960s as a British consumer boycott of South African goods until the nation’s racial separatist policies were dissolved. The boycott ended with Nelson Mandela’s release from prison and election to President in the early 1990s.

[7] Including but not limited to Arizona State University, City College of New York, Columbia University, Emory University, Indiana University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, New Mexico State University, Northeastern University, Purchase College, Tulane University, University of Arizona, University of California, Los Angeles, University of Georgia, University of Pennsylvania, University of Southern California, University of Texas at Austin, Washington University, and Yale University.

[8] Such as Evergreen State College, The™ Ohio State University, University of Wisconsin-Madison, and University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

[9] I observe varieties from Camel Crown, Coleman, Columbia, Core, Embark, Eureka, Glacier’s Edge, Golden Bear, Hi Gear, Hitorhike, Kelty, Kodiak Canvas, NEMO, NTK, Outbound, Ozark, Quest, REI Co-op, and UNP, from single occupancy to 10-person-wide, some with ground sheets, others with ultra high molecular weight polyethlene and coated cotton blend rain canopy, ranging in listed price from $29.99 to $599.00 and available at fine retailers like Amazon, Fred Meyer, REI, Target, and Walmart.

[10] Throughout the encampment, there is a spectrum of decency given with this command by those commanding it from “Would you mind” sympathetic appeal to “Thou shalt not” authoritarian declaration.

[11] To quibble, I mean by “respect” here a due regard for the wishes of participants and not necessarily an admiration of their choices.

[12] A note on coordinates: when I refer to the “north” side of the Quad I mean that axis which runs in a straight line from Red Square toward the Art Building and Music Building (i.e., along Pierce Ln), the HUB is to the “east”, Red Square is to the “south”, and Denny Yard is to the “west”. This is a rotation of about 45º clockwise from the cardinal orientation. I use this coordinate system because it is what most encampers, especially those speaking into walkie talkies, used.

[13] “PSU’s pro-Palestine encampment sees steady numbers in first hours” by Sofia Schwarzwalder, https://www.dailyuw.com/news/psu-s-pro-palestine-encampment-sees-steady-numbers-in-first-hours/article_9820add4-0678-11ef-9e97-bb0cb555a81d.html

[14] “PSU sets up pro-Palestine encampment on the Quad, draws initial crowd of 25” by Sofia Schwarzwalder, https://www.dailyuw.com/news/psu-sets-up-pro-palestine-encampment-on-the-quad-draws-initial-crowd-of-25/article_43a10092-063c-11ef-b459-93d752e83744.html

[15] “Second pro-Palestine encampment erected on the Quad” by Sofia Schwarzwalder, https://www.dailyuw.com/news/second-pro-palestine-encampment-erected-on-the-quad/article_f35234d6-07ed-11ef-b0d2-23306343a3d7.html

[16] Protesters used the term “unhoused” to describe the members who joined the encampment without a steady roof over their head. I use the term “homeless” here because that is how those I spoke with to whom the terms would apply referred to themselves. Each were men.

[17] “Progressive Student Union at UW”, https://huskylink.washington.edu/organization/psuuw

[18] “UW United Front for Palestinian Liberation”, https://www.instagram.com/unitedfront_uw/

[19] “Students United for Palestinian Equality & Return” https://huskylink.washington.edu/organization/superuw

[20] “United Students Against Sweatshops”, https://huskylink.washington.edu/organization/uwusas

[21] “Muslim Students Association at the University of Washington”, https://huskylink.washington.edu/organization/msauw

[22] “Jewish Voice for Peace Seattle”, https://www.instagram.com/jvpseattle/

[23] Next to the medic tent, for nearly the entirety of the encampment, is the address of Jonathan Choe, a person I did not know of until I asked the encampers. Jonathan Choe is a journalist that participants in the encampment have very negative feelings toward and about, claiming he has tried to “dox” several people, including many supportive of the protest.

[24] At the DR. HAMMAM ALLOH MEDICAL AID STATION there Tampax tampons and pads, travel sized tooth pastes, SPF lotions, tissues, Covid test kits, fig bars, hand warmers, band aids, First Aid kits, and hand sanitizer which a sign says is “FREE – FOR YOU! TAKE!”

[25] A whiteboard listed “MEDICAL TENT NEEDS” as including gauze pads (4 x 4), rolled gauze, KT tape, crates/bins, 3M 60926 olive/magenta cartridges, Mylar blankets, caffeine (drinks), sleeping pads, bright lights, NPA’s (airways), porta potties, non-gas generator, hot hands, folding tables, storage drawers, 3M Respirators, cat litter, Green Tape, Red Tape, Shower/shower tent, Cooler!, safety pins, toilet paper, para cord, Bike Locks, LAMPS – Headlamps + lanterns, Hair ties + clips.

[26] Not all “medics” helped others. Some acted more like a security force. Notably these medics do not subscribe to the Hippocratic Oath.

[27] One of the times I visited the waiting area for the “mental health check in” tent I observed “AMAZING SLIME! XL SPLITZ! GlitterPalooza!”, sound dampening headphones, a colorbook and colored pencils, a stuffed unicorn, “52 Lists Postcards FOR CONNECTING WITH LOVED OENS NEAR AND FAR”, hair ties, “O2cool USB RECHARGEABLE NECKLACE FAN”, “MARIO BADESCU SKIN CARE FACIAL SPRAY WITH ALOE, CHAMOMILE AND LAVENDER”, and a list for “STUDENT INTIFADA – PHYSICAL / SOMATIC / BODY-BASED PROCESSING IDEAS”. Another time I visited there was a poop emoji pillow on one of the chairs.

[28] At the “MUTUAL AID” tent a sign says “TAKE WHAT YOU NEED” and lists items such as “PPE, WATER, FOOD, HAND WARMERS”. Donations are suggested “VENMO @XX-XXXX”.

[29] Broken regularly in the northwest corner of the encampment, if you’re looking for a good time.

[30] This unacknowledged starless irony is accompanied by pointing out (also without any sense of irony) “the University of Washington’s complicity in the housing crisis and in perpetrating harm against our unhoused neighbors”.

[31] We are told “Such actions may make people uncomfortable, are unsafe for those with health conditions, and endanger those with increased risk of police targeting” and that “”partying” in such a space would be an offense to the cause that has brought us here”. “We don’t want to police each other or each other’s patterns of substance use,” the Guidelines tell us, “but want to ensure that people feel comfortable in the space.” See Footnote 29.

[32] Moreover, “everyone will be affected by decisions that community members make and Palestinians, Arabs, and Muslims will be unjustly held accountable.”

[33] I will say that during my time at the encampment, though I was sometimes treated with indecency, I was overwhelming treated with decency. Though I was sometimes harassed, excluded, and made to feel other-than, I was overwhelming talked to, welcomed, and made to feel part-of. Though some people were rude, the overwhelming majority were kind. If I were to offer only one suggestion to the encampers (and elsewhere in this essay, I offer several) it would be to not let uncertainty grow into fear that spirals up into paranoia and culminates in hate, but rather meet the unknown with a desire for understanding, scaffolded with respect and cultivating love.

[34] For example, at the Media Center tent, named after a brave Palestinian-American journalist, Shireen Abu Akleh, who was shot and killed by Israel Defense Forces while reporting on a Palestinian refugee camp, there hangs a sign that says “ALL COPS ARE BONKABLE” with a cartoon water cooler jug. I personally find the juxtaposition hard to reconcile as constructive in effect. However, a man wearing black spiked loafers later explained to me that for some “silliness can be a coping mechanism” and is “a way to deal with suffering”.

[35] “6-Person Dark Room™ Skydome™ Camping Tent”, https://www.coleman.com/tents-canopies/tents-by-style/6-person-dark-room-skydome-camping-tent/SAP_2000036529.html

[36] “Chabad Jewish Student Group”, https://huskylink.washington.edu/organization/chabad

[37] And a source for Jonathan Choe.

[38] A helpful mnemonic to remember the proper orientation of the Palestinian flag: green like grass is at the bottom.

[39] I see the pretense worse (morally and in effectiveness) than the obstruction itself.

[40] This woman, an encamper, then returned the scissors to the Information Booth.

[41] A man hoots and hollers and claps off-tempo to the music in a bid to disrupt The Preacher.

[42] At least one of these men is a source for both Jonathan Choe and Ari Hoffman.

[43] Honda EU2000i 2000W 120V Gasoline powered inverter generator, currently selling for $799.99 used on eBay.

[44] Noor chalked the word “شاورما” in rainbow colors.

[45] “Memorandum of Understanding Between The Evergreen State College and the Evergreen Gaza Solidarity Encampment”, https://www.evergreen.edu/sites/default/files/2024-05/2024-04-30-mou-scanned-with-signatures.pdf

[46] It is common to hear that some participants at these college encampment protests are not students and just as common to hear someone ask, How do you know they are not students? I deployed two main methods of determining this for people I encountered. The first was to ask. In this case, one of the men said he was faculty at the University and the other man said he was a supporter but not a student. The second method was to listen for and ask about things students at the University would know. If someone called it “the H-U-B” rather than “the hub”, if they did not know about tourists visiting for cherry blossom season, if they could not name any of the surrounding buildings (e.g., Savery, Raitt, Miller, Smith), if they could not point me in the direction of a nearby library (Suzzalo and Odegaard were less than five minute walks away), and/or did not associate with other students, I felt comfortable exercising skepticism about their attendance at the University. Throughout the duration of the encampment, the majority of encampers were students. During periods where community assistance was sought, such as for the days of the Charlie Kirk event and the March For Israel, a significant subset of participants were not students. That they were not students does not necessarily imply anything nefarious in their intentions or deeds. See for example the two men prompting this footnote, who were decent and kind to me and to others during their time at the encampment.

[47] “Money” has been crossed out and under it has been written “Zionist”.

[48] Originally spelled “CAUSE”. This comment refers to the President of the University of Washington, Ana Mari Cauce.

[49] I will here note one of the challenges of capturing “the truth” in the encampment. Throughout my three weeks speaking with people at the encampment I heard this story several times, each with slight variations due to different storytelling styles, safeguarding information from “outsiders”, and knowledge based on word-of-mouth and hearsay. In one telling, one person ate from an anonymously donated batch of cookies, felt sick and nauseous, and self-induced vomiting. In another telling, three students consumed the cookies, each threw up in response, and then recovered. In another, secretly donated cookies were deemed suspicious and did not pass a literal sniff test and were thrown out on suspicions of bleach.

[50] A sure sign of bullshit is when information being offered could not possibly be verified by the one offering it. Another tell is what the information provider does with their eyes as they say their bullshit. For example, if typically the person conveying information to you regularly looks you in the eye, they may look away during critical details — “only comes out when” — or they may stare more intently at you without blinking to emphasize the “truth” they’re selling. I knew they were lying when they said it because I had seen and photographed the sign several times during my hours at the encampment in which he was not present (including this very rainy night). They knew they were lying because either they knew what I knew and were trying to deconvince me or did not know what I knew and said something they did not know to be true.

[51] “The Live Free Tour at the University of Washington”, https://events2022.tpusa.com/events/the-live-free-tour-at-the-university-of-washington

[52] A bodyguard with journalist Jonathan Choe stood in front of a man dressed all in black. The man in black opened an umbrella in the bodyguard’s direction. Another bodyguard associated with Jonathan Choe pushed the man in black away. Two other men grabbed the second bodyguard, one around his neck. The first bodyguard threw the neck grabber to the ground. The second bodyguard took the man in black’s umbrella. The man in black threw a punch at the second bodyguard. Another man in black with another umbrella comes up behind the second bodyguard and begins hitting him with fists along the side of his face and the back of his head. “Okay, now we got a real fight on our hands” says The Preacher through his speaker as he stands fifteen feet away. One of the men who had gabbed the second bodyguard joins the other two men in black in punching the bodyguard in the face and head. The bodyguard extricates himself. “You fucking hit my man with a fucking umbrella” the second bodyguard says to those he was fighting. “Hey Jonathan” The Preacher says, “Go go go go go. Get in there” gesturing toward the north entrance to the Quad. “Let him enter” The Preacher tells those standing at the barricades. “Let him in.” Choe runs toward the entrance where he is stopped by one man, punched by another, and chased by a third. After ten seconds of running without being caught by his pursuer, Choe says to him, “Come on fat boy.”

[53] “UW SUPPORTS WHITE SUPREMACY” by @unitedfront_uw, https://www.instagram.com/p/C6rnchTyjJn/

[54] The feelings of (at least some of) the protesters have been made abundantly manifest with “ACAB” having been spray painted in red on bricks, black on blue tarp, and across the name of “JESUS CHRIST” on one of The Preacher’s signs.

[55] I note two exceptions to this statement. The first, I observed two UW police approximately 100 feet from the northwest entrance to the Quad for about five minutes observing the scene after they took today’s third “Assault in the fourth degree” report about half an hour after the event began. The second, about thirty minutes later, a safety officer briefly walked through a crowd of about fifty people assembled outside the eastern barricade to assess the situation as a couple short skirmishes had flared up by that time. At no time immediately preceding, during or immediately after the event did police enter the encampment or man the barricades.

[56] “A Resolution to Divest from Companies Profiting from Violations of International Law and Human Rights in the Violence against Palestine”, R-30-24, sponsored by Yoseph Ghazal and co-sponsored by Jacob Anderson, Henry Hess, and Joseph Temes, https://docs.google.com/document/d/1uDZ650OZ4-3t2EgzSTwxwqGB4m5_ArHBLiIUAXbFSck/edit

[57] The Tet Offensive began in late January 1968 and continued in phases until September 1968. The start of the Vietnam War is a hazier date to specify with initial skirmishes starting in 1945 with Japan’s surrender of World War II while occupying French Indochina, the violent accompaniment to the partitioning of Vietnam in 1954, an escalation in 1963 with the assassination of Ngô Đình Diệm and John F. Kennedy, and a major escalation with the Gulf of Tonkin incident in 1964. The Vietnam War officially ended with the Fall of Saigon on April 30, 1975.

[58] Many encampers cite the ‘student protests’ of the Vietnam War as a direct parallel of their efforts with the encampment, specifically in terms of the effectiveness of their strategy of “occupying” their universities to pressure their administrations. A few initial protests began in late 1963 and early 1964. With changes to the Selective Service Systems’ draft policy in 1966, more student protests grew. In 1970, members of the U.S. National Guard shot and killed four people at a student protest at Kent State University in Ohio. The Vietnam War ended in 1975.

[59] This is the entrance of the Quad with a direct path to the HUB.

[60] This person later has their ankle looked at by Ramma and “medics” from the encampment at a nearby bench.

[61] A few hours earlier the U District light rail station shut down for a couple of hours due to a pro-Palestine demonstration done as a counter to the Charlie Kirk event (https://x.com/SoundTransit/status/1787998449704579163).

[62] Jerry tells me that the Charlie Kirk event caused a change in the dynamics among the individual groups in the encampment. Some want further escalation, others want further stability. For his part, Jerry says he no longer keeps any of his valuables in the encampment.

[63] I will here consider The Preacher’s “Grace Camp” a distinct enough protest to forgo its inclusion in these particular timeline calculations.

[64] Previously scheduled for the day before. https://www.washington.edu/regents/meetings/may-2024-board-regents-meeting/

[65] “Pro-Palestinian students protest UW’s Board of Regents meeting, address the board with demands” by Julie Calhoun, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pR8YarvL5hs

[66] Minimum ticket level was reported to be $500 and the maximum (for “Champions”) reported to be $50,000 (https://www.nwprogressive.org/weblog/2024/05/president-joe-biden-will-return-to-washington-state-at-the-end-of-filing-week.html). This would put attendees in either the top ten percent and/or top three percent of donors, depending on the data consulted. In his speech that Friday in Seattle, President Biden said, “90 percent of those contributions are under $200” (https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2024/05/12/remarks-by-president-biden-at-a-campaign-reception-seattle-wa/) while the next day in Medina he said “97 percent of those contributions are under $200” (https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2024/05/12/remarks-by-president-biden-at-a-campaign-reception-medina-wa/).

[67] “Biden Courts Wealthy Donors on West Coast Fund-Raising Trip” by Zach Montague, https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/10/us/politics/biden-west-coast-fund-raising.html

[68] Jonathan Choe, https://x.com/choeshow/status/1789116779916362038. The video garners tens of thousands of views within a few hours of its posting.

[69] I also visited the address the encampers’ provide for Jonathan Choe’s address. The corner home is nestled in a suburban neighborhood where lawns and gardens are neat and trim, planted trees have grown large, and bird songs echo down long empty streets. Neighbors have “SMILE YOU’RE ON CAMERA” and security company signs posted. Blocks away there are little league fields, a large green space park, and a recreation center. There are no sidewalks.

[70] I am certain that yesterday when the video was posted the encampment was not there based on my observations of the scene and the background in the video does not match Seattle’s recent weather (for example, light clouds were shown in the sky of the video and this weekend in Seattle has been cloudless after days of overcastness and rain) One may consult weather records for the dates and/or review 360º camera footage from the top of the Space Needle (https://www.spaceneedle.com/webcam).

At best, the video and its description are an attempt to juxtapose real disparities in our world using an intentionally obscured timeline: “Biden is in Seattle Friday and Saturday” and “On the opposite side of the tracks, there’s a guy who’s […] in his very own “homeless White House.””. At worse, it is an attempt by a journalist to use outrage to garner attention.

[71] “Biden raises millions on West Coast as he says his campaign is underestimated” by Seema Mehta, https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2024-05-10/president-biden-fundraisers-bay-area

[72] “Remarks by President Biden at a Campaign Reception | Medina, WA”, https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2024/05/12/remarks-by-president-biden-at-a-campaign-reception-medina-wa/

[73] “Brad Smith”, https://news.microsoft.com/exec/brad-smith/

[74] The transcript provided by the White House says “FoxComm” but I believe “Foxconn” is meant. Consider a contemporaneous article “Trump calls Foxconn “8th wonder of the world” despite cost” by Blair Guild, https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-gives-remarks-at-foxconn-live-stream/

[75] One officer directing traffic wears a wristband made with red, black, white, and green beads.

[76] I return a week later and no trace of paint remains. Rows of tables and chairs cover the grounds where the mural once was.

[77] The two men led crowds through the same call and response chants earlier this year when a pro-Palestine protest near Union Street Station caused the International District / Chinatown light rail station to be closed on the Lunar New Year.

[78] As I watch the protesters march by and see many of their signs blank backed, I am reminded of that dropped verse from Woody Guthrie’s song “This Land is Your Land”:

“There was a big high wall there that tried to stop me
A sign was painted, said: Private Property,
But on the back side it didn’t say nothing:
This land was made for you and me.”

[79] The protest march was endorsed by Act Now to Stop War and End Racism, Anakbayan South Seattle, Anakbayan UW, Arab Student Association at The University of Washington, BAYAN Seattle, Bellevue Students League, Bengali Students Association at UW, Black and Pink Seattle Tacoma Chapter, Black Star Farmers, Block Corporate Salmon, Capybara Colectiva, Cherry Street Mosque, Cherry Street Village, Communist Party USA Seattle, Council on American-Islamic Relations Washington, Dunya Productions, Faculty & Staff for Justice in Palestine Chapter at UW Seattle, Bothell, Tacoma, Freedom Road Socialist Organization, Freedom Socialist Party, GABRIELA Seattle, Healthcare Workers for Palestine Seattle, Institutional Climate Action at UW, International League of Peoples’ Struggle Seattle-Tacoma, International Migrants Alliance, Issaquah Students League, Jafra Dabke Team, Jewish Voice for Peace at UW, Jewish Voice for Peace Seattle, Kabataan Alliance, Kaibigan, La Resistencia, Pakistani Students Association of the UW, Palestine Action South Sound, Palestinian Youth Movement, Party for Socialism and Liberation, Rachel Corrie Foundation for Peace and Justice, Resist US-Led War Seattle, Seattle Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador, Seattle Democratic Socialists of America, Seattle Student Union, Sông2Sea, South Asians Resisting Imperialism, Stop the Sweeps Seattle, Students for a Democratic Society at UW, Students for Justice in Palestine at Redmond High School, Subvert UD, Support the Palestinian Voice, UAW 4121, Washington for Peace and Justice, Washington Students United for Palestine, and Water Warrior.

[80] “NAKBA 76 RALLY & MARCH”, https://www.instagram.com/super_uw/p/C6tntvHLJiK/

[81] “University statement on encampment and counter-protest on Sunday”, https://www.washington.edu/news/2024/05/10/university-statement-on-encampment-and-counter-protest-on-sunday/

[82] Moonie and Clay, their father, keep tally of how people pass through the water bottle barricade. By the time I leave that night, 2 have jumped over, 17 have stepped over, 2 have knocked the bottles over, 15 have followed orders, 1 did not follow orders, 1 has played for awhile and carried their bike over, 39 have gone around the path, 2 have chosen a different path, and 1 has biked around.

[83] “The Pursuit” describes itself as “a non-denominational church across multiple campuses, including Seattle, Kirkland, Snohomish, and an online presence. The church’s mission centers on glorifying Jesus and bringing people into an encounter with the presence of God.”

[84] “Pursuit Church Announces ‘United for Israel’ Rally at the University of Washington”, https://www.newswire.com/news/pursuit-church-announces-united-for-israel-rally-at-the-university-of-22326601. In closing the press release says “It’s no coincidence that their Seattle Campus is on the University of Washington’s Frat Row” given the church’s mission.

[85] The route would then have marchers turn left onto Clallam Pl NE heading northwest, turn right onto NE Klickitat Ln heading northeast, turn left onto E Stevens Way NE heading west, turn right onto Memorial Way Northeast heading north which becomes 17th Ave NE after crossing NE 45th St and continue until reaching the intsection at NE 50th St where Pursuit Seattle church is located. https://maps.app.goo.gl/6XR5LYnrcLiwN9pp7

[86] I choose to use the terms “graffiti” and “added” to describe what has taken place here given discussions I had with several protesters regarding the acts. Tay said he did not view it as “vandalism” because nothing was being “destroyed” but conceded it would cross that line if windows started getting broken or doors smashed. Clay made the case that “artistic expression” of outrage was being “contributed” and that “society” would be better if it did not try to “deny” it, such as through its removal or its covering up. Probably the acts are sufficiently described by RCW 9A.48.090.1B regarding “Malicious mischief in the third degree” which states that a person is guilty thereof if he or she “Writes, paints, or draws any inscription, figure, or mark of any type on any public or private building or other structure or any real or personal property owned by any other person unless the person has obtained the express permission of the owner or operator of the property”.

[87] The officers working together come from several different departments. Some are SPD, some are UWPD, some are private security, “Seattle’s Finest”.

[88] “I think it’s cause his boss man is pissed so he’s just like, Let’s get these set up” one officer remarks to another explaining why an officer keeps bringing steel barricades over. Five minutes later a sergeant orders the officers to create similar boundaries at the other entrances to the Quad.

[89] I attribute this relief arising from two distinct sets of feelings. The first is from a however briefly recognized impotence of that subset of protesters who have disrespect/distaste/dislike for police to do anything either against or to them. (At this encampment, these are the sorts of people who might hold a sign with a roasting pig that says “OINK OINK PIGGY PIGGY WE GONNA MAKE YOUR LIFE SHITTY” or another that says “HALAL ZONE NO PIGS” with a cartoon pig wearing a police cap that says “OINK OINK OINK” in a speech bubble.) The second is from that subset of protesters who appreciate the protection provided. The distinction between these two subsets of protesters is reflective of the “oil and water” mixture of personality and philosophy types amongst encampers I describe earlier and which I believe contributed to the stark difference in impression that accompanied the tactic of escalating more campus-wide graffiti two days later.

[90] An “!!URGENT!! CALL FOR MOBILIZATION” was posted by the MSA and UF on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/msauw/p/C62is0urE1y/) which said “We are expecting a large number of rightwing agitators due to a March lead by Russell B Johnson, a racist, zionist, fascist. In an abundance of caution, we are calling on our community to come out to deter any sort of actions against the encampment by these rightwing groups by showing out in large numbers.” It said further, “Please note — if you do come, we expect you to NOT engage with the Zionists and rightwing agitators. Our goal is solely to protect the encampment and show support for Gaza – it is not to pick fights or have arguments.”

[91] “Wop, wop, wop, wop, wop, Dot, fuck ’em up”.

[92] It was a “New Rule” regarding “From the River to the Sea” from his HBO show “Real Time with Bill Maher”, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KP-CRXROorw

[93] As a bit of foreshadowing, this would be the same officer to issue the first written trespass warning a week later when the encampment was disbanded.

[94] Hoffman also said “I know I only get five minutes but I want to take one of them to honor” Hayim Katsman’s memory. “Please bow your heads.” (His speech lasted seven and a half minutes. The minute of silence lasted 20 seconds.)

[95] I include in this footnote the ending of his speech in full to give a sense of how the Pastor’s talking points blend with repetition in his call for action (mirroring in its own way what some of the encampment’s protesters themselves do): “I’m not going to align with the narrative that I’ve been told that really the source of conflict on this campus is Christians and Jews. We don’t agree with that narrative. That’s not true. And we’re not gonna give anybody evidence of that being true. We are gathering together to support Israel. We’re gathering together to pray. We’re gathering together to stand Christians and Jews united on behalf of the Jewish people and the nation state of Israel. We are standing against the pro-Hamas, antisemitic rhetoric that has been allowed to be encamped on this University. And let me say very clearly: It should be an indictment on this campus leadership that they are willing to section off an entire corridor of this campus and not even allow Jewish students to walk through. The campus leadership knows exactly where the violence is coming from, they know exactly where the antisemitic rhetoric is coming from. So we are going to peacefully march. We are going to peacefully assemble. We are going to continue on our merry way. We are the party that respects police. We are the party that respects boundaries. We are not the party that sets up tents and chants all sorts of awful things and then refuses to leave and then the UW has to appoint a “negotiator” to negotiate with these types of foolish type activities. We are not that party. We are not those type of people. That behavior will not be tolerated here amongst Christians and Jews. So we have a team that is going to lead the march. We are gonna take a stand. We are gonna chant “Bring them home”. We are gonna take a stand for Israel and for common sense. We are not going to disrupt the police nor are we going to tear down barriers, boundaries, or any type of property damage. That is not who we are. And I refuse to give any evidence to those who are already against us to try to label this march as something it is not. So we’ve got folks who are getting ready to lead that march, we’ve got security, the police are there. We’re gonna follow orders, we’re gon’ march, we’re gonna take a stand for Israel and then we’re gon’ be loud in the streets all the way back to Pursuit Seattle campus. I want every frat to hear us. I want every sorority to hear us. I want the campus president to hear us. I want students to hear us. We stand united for Israel and I will not apologize for standing arm in arm with Jewish brothers and sisters. We want to thank you for being here, thank you for marching with us. In just a moment we’re gon’ begin this march. Wave those banners high, wave those signs high. Let’s take a stand for Israel. Let’s march, we’ll head back north towards the Seattle campus, we’ll rally for a service. God bless. God bless Israel. God bless the Jewish people. God bless all the Christian people who are here. Thank you for what you’re doing in this campus. Your voice is needed. Let’s not allow the national media to only hear antisemitic voices coming Seattle. Let us have loud pro-Israel voices coming from this place as well. Let’s begin the march.”

[96] The Daily of UW says ‘approximately 600 pro-Israel demonstrators gathered on Red Square’ for the March.[] While I have admired the coverage The Daily has provided for the encampment protest, appreciating its breaking news and record of facts, I feel compelled to call out this specific figure as inflated. I witnessed the event that day. I photographed the rally and the march from many angles. Overhead drone photographs and video are available.[B,C] One vlogger recorded the entire rally at Red Square, including the portion where the rallygoers walk to the southern barricade, mull about, then stream past his lens as they march north.[D] To get an estimate of the crowd one can count the number of people in photographs taken (I have), one can count the number of people from aerial drone footage (I have), and one can count the number of faces from on-the-ground video recordings (I have). In reviewing these pieces of documentary evidence there appear to have been approximately 350 people involved with the March for Israel at its peak (and not all were gathered at Red Square at once), with a higher estimate of a little over 400 people if one also includes photographers and interested community members.

[A] “Timeline: An inside look at the ‘March for Israel’ next to UW’s liberated zone encampment” by Sofia Schwarzwalder, Aspen Anderson, Morgan Bortnick, Anna Hull, Sophia Moran, Mary Murphy, Anikka Stanley, Cormac Wolf, https://www.dailyuw.com/news/timeline-an-inside-look-at-the-march-for-israel-next-to-uw-s-liberated-zone/article_5adcb402-1156-11ef-913c-abfea20ef362.html
[B] “Pursuit Seattle’s “March for Israel” 5/12/2024″, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYn2ZyIOGSs
[C] “Pursuit Seattle’s “March for Israel” 5/12/2024″, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-vXJWZspFM
[D] “Reporting live at the United Israel March at Red Square on the University of Washington campus that will conclude at the Pursuit Seattle campus” https://x.com/LynnwoodTimes/status/1789800955657265335. (This essay’s humble author can be seen captured in the broadcast from 16:10 to 16:34.) The video is also embedded at https://lynnwoodtimes.com/2024/05/13/antisemitism-240513/

[97] Bass Pro Shop can be seen waving his Palestinian flag upside down. Front and center, Martin waves the One Piece Monkey D. Luffy’s Straw Hat Palestinian flag he has brought to several protests.

[98] The MSA member would later say, “I mean, we’re the Pale––I’m Palestinian, we’re the Palestinians, this is for us.”

“Yeah” says The Preacher.

“We appreciate everybody who’s showing up. I mean this is a place of love, of justice. Not a place for kicking people out. I’m really sorry. I will see like whoever like said that [you have to leave]. I don’t know who is organizer. I’ll try to reach out and see. Take care man. I feel love to you. Can I give you hug?”

“Yeah. Thank you.”

The two of them hug.

“Thank you, brother. Thank you.”

Chants of “Shut it down! Shut it down! Shut it down!” echo through the encampment.

[99] Upon seeing the flag successfully burning, Bass Pro Shop throws a fist in the air with his index finger outstretched, which he then quickly turns around and switches to extend his middle finger. To emphasize the gesture, a moment later he raises his other fist with his other middle finger out.

[100] I think back to a handmade cardboard sign I saw the very first day I visited the encampment that said “FROM THE RIVER” and “TO THE SEA” with a Palestinian flag in between and with a burning and torn Israeli flag next to the phrase “BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY”.

[101] “At the UW Quad, Antifa member steals @thehoffather American flag off his neck and scurries away. This took place during the pro Israel counter protest today.” https://x.com/thehoffson/status/1789844110678917204

[102] “inside the camp”, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NkQeq5S4egM

[103] Portions of the “offer that administration offered the LZ” (purportedly on May 10) were posted on the United Front’s Instagram page on May 15 (https://www.instagram.com/unitedfront_uw/p/C7An66_x9F3/). The University’s offer included “funding to invest in strategies that will improve cultural competency and create meaningful, sustained change” based on the assessments of their active task forces on Antisemitism and Islamophobia, clarification that “The university’s investment portfolio contains no direct investments in Boeing, weapons manufacturers or companies domiciled in Israel”, an explanation that UW, “will not “cut all ties” with Boeing” since “It would be counter to academic freedom” but “recognize that some faculty and students do not welcome Boeing’s support” and “will be transparent about Boeing’s support for the University so anyone opposed to Boeing can decline this support”, a commitment to “welcome applications from displaced Gazan students and will develop similar financial support strategies to support their success”, proposed that it would “establish a faculty committee to review and recommend changes to study abroad programs that exclude (in any fashion) participation from students from specific countries or communities, including Palestinian or other Arab students”, and said “The University will review its policies and displays of international flags.”

[104] From Sofia Schwarzwalder, https://x.com/schwaarzy/status/1790798899047010525

[105] Other examples include “FREE” in black on Raitt Hall, “FRee gAZA” in red on a concrete bench, “FREE GAZA” in red on Raitt Hall (twice), “FREE PAL” in red, “Free Palestine” in red, “FREE PalestiNe” in black, “FRee PALesTINe” in red on concrete bench, “FREE PALESTINE” in red on Gerberding Hall, “FREE PALESTINE” in white and black on the glass side doors to a library, “FREE US” in black, green, and slate, and black on a building wall, and a graphic of a penis under which was written “Free”.

[106] We are told, after all, “Boeing kills kids”.

[107] One, echoing the May 1968 civil unrest in France, said “BE REALISITC DeMAND THE IMPOSSIBLE” behind a bush.

[108] Originally spelled “FASSIST”.

[109] Originally spelled “SEE”.

[110] As far as I can ascertain the former name is a reference to protesters at Columbia University christening Hamilton Hall on campus, “Hind’s Hall”, as a tribute to Hind Rajab, a 6-year-old Palestinian girl killed by Israel Defense Forces in Gaza (https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/30/nyregion/columbia-protesters-hind-rajab-hamilton-hall.html) and the latter is the name of the administration building at University of Washington. What the phrase is meant to imply, I am less certain.

[111] Possible future tactics are even implied in a porta potty: “OUT OF THE CAMPS INTO THE BUILDINGS”.

[112] A giant Palestinian flag was quickly painted over this by other encampers.

[113] This appears to be a reference to the role-playing video game, Disco Elysium. Toward the end of the game “You” have a conversation with a character called the “The Deserter” that goes as follows. (Emphasis added to highlight the referenced phrase.)

The Deserter: It was real. I’d seen it. I’d seen it in reality.

Half-Light: Some kind of great terror. Worse than what you’ve seen.

You: Seen what?

The Deserter: The mask of humanity fall from capital. It has to take it off to kill everyone — everything you love; all the hope and tenderness in the world. It has to take it off, just for one second. To do the deed. And then you see it. As it strangles and beats your friends to death… the sweetest, most courageous people in the world… (he’s silent for a second) You see the fear and power in its eyes. Then you *know*.

You: What?

The Deserter: That the bourgeois are not human.

[114] I am told by Joel later that they probably intended to point towards administration building. Knowing a few of the folks who participated in the vandalism, I suspect they did not know which building it was. See Footnote 46.

[115] See the first Unsolicited Prescription for Betterment.

[116] After all, “must not all things at last be swallowed up in death?” says Plato (Phaedo 72c).

[117] Some folks consider all the graffiti in poor taste, lawless, and wrong. Some folks consider all the graffiti fine, admirable, and right. Across this range are the rest of us. Going into our determinations of the “rightness” and “wrongness” for a given graffiti are myriad factors such as the content of the message, the context of the message, its prominence, its permanence, and its possible property damage. Most of us are likely okay with a child’s chalked message of “Happy Mother’s Day” on the sidewalk outside her house. Most of us are also likely not okay with “kill your mother” spray painted on the coffin of a little girl at her funeral. Along the spectrum there exists a boundary demarcating the region of the Clearly Objectionable Graffiti from the rest. Given the confluence of factors and the discussions I had with many regarding the graffiti on campus, I believe most people would agree that the four examples I cite here are at the very least able to justifiably be objected to.

[118] Most often the term was directed toward “those in power” such as corporations, politicians, police, and the military.

[119] “Iran and Israel: Taking on the “Zionist Enemy”” by Farhad Rezaei from Iran’s Foreign Policy After the Nuclear Agreement. Middle East Today. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-76789-5_9. Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini said that Shiite Islam would liberate Holy Land from Israel which he referred to as the “Zionist enemy” or “Little Satan” (with the United States of America being the “Great Satan”).

[120] Initially these acts were more symbolic than aggressive, such as Palestinian teenagers throwing rocks at Israeli tanks. In time, violence of both sides escalated via cycles of retaliation and just and unjust retribution.

[121] Consider an early documented case of this kind of implicit threat. On August 9, 1926 a banker was on his way to work when two men with revolvers pulled up in a car and addressed him by name and told him to come with them. While in the car with pistols drawn, the banker was asked a series of questions: “How are your children now? You think a lot of them, don’t you? You have a nice little family, haven’t you? Wouldn’t it be a pity if anything happened to break it up?” The words themselves may be innocuous, what they imply is not.

(From The Lansing State Journal,

https://www.newspapers.com/article/lansing-state-journal-paul-kreger-victi/93478213/)

[122] Not to snitch or anything but since the graffitied phrase “KILL YOUR LOCAL COLONIZER” likely did more than any other to turn sentiment against the encampment protest, I document here for the record two other instances I suspect the same hand wrote other phrases.

The script for “SAVE A LIFE… KILL YOUR LOCAL COLONIZER” is remarkably similar to the script of “FUCK COPS” spray painted in red along a northeast quadrant brick walkway before the Charlie Kirk event a week earlier. The horizontal slashes in “F” in “LIFE” and “FUCK” have curved inward bowing, a paired large “C” and smaller “O” is seen both in “COLONIZER” and in “COPS” and the curved bowl of the “P” in the latter matches that of the “R” in the former. Most damning to my eyes is the “K” in each with a distinctive downward curving leg and straight angled arm an exact match in both cases.

Going still further, the “SAVE A LIFE… KILL YOUR LOCAL COLONIZER” script also matches that of “CHILDREN ARE DYING AND YOU’RE JUST GOING TO CLASS?” written in white on a brick wall of Kane Hall’s southern terrace (between the border of Red Square and the Quad).

The “E” in “SAVE” has the same proportions as the “E” in “CHILDREN” with the middle tie much closer to the lower horizontal bar than the upper arm. The “I”s in “LIFE”, “KILL”, and “COLONIZER” are capitalized and serifed, qualities that were rare among encampment graffiti with many opting leave the letter lowercase (so as to diminish in their own small way the proper noun stature of “Israel” and any association to it) and if capitalized would usually be represented with one simple vertical line with no horizontal bars. What’s more, the vertical stem of the “I”s in “LIFE” and “COLONIZER” extend past their serif cross bars in the same manner and proportion as the “T”s in “JUST” and “TO”. The “N” in “COLONIZER” has the same bunched together proportions and slight italicization for its legs and cross bar as those seen in “CHILDREN”, “DYING”, “AND”, and “GOING”. The Rs of “YOUR” and “COLONIZER” an exact match to the Rs of “CHILDREN” “ARE” and “YOU’RE” where the writer begins at the bottom, proceeds through the bowl of the R and slightly loops upward before drawing the downward leg. The “Y” in “YOUR” has the same distinct doubling back from its ascender arm through its left slanting downward leg as in “DYING” and “YOU’RE”. The spacing between words in both cases is very tight with “SAVE A” showing the same proportion between words as “CHILDREN ARE”. Similarly a little extra space exists when the letter “Y” begins a word such as between “KILL YOUR” and “AND YOU’RE”. Another curious similarity between these two instances is their use of punctuation marks to express their message with one containing an ellipsis for effect and the other posing itself as a question. Aside from the occasional exclamation point, the protesters’ graffiti was almost exclusively devoid of punctuation.

[123] And the lives of children chief among them.

[124] Some encampers attempt to nuance the term by noting to whom the term does not apply in the countries. For example, in Israel, no Palestinian is a colonizer even if they hold Israeli citizenship since it was the creation of the nationstate of Israel in 1948 that was the colonization (with subsequent incursions into Gaza, the West Bank, and Golan Heights). Similarly, in the United States, black folks cannot be considered colonizers by and large since the importation of people in the African slave trade is responsible for many of their numbers, Native and Indigenous Americans are not and could not be colonizers, nor are Hispanic/Latino Americans, Asian Americans, and many other immigrant community members. In short, collectively, “BIPOC” folk are excluded from this categorization, and those left behind in the milky residue of citizenry are who many encampers mean by “colonizers” in America.

[125] “Update on the tent encampment in the Quad”, https://www.washington.edu/president/2024/05/15/update-on-tent-encampment/

[126] She is the first to reveal publicly that “the new graffiti is an intentional escalation to compel the University to agree to their demands.”

[127] The interaction described is pieced together from video provided by Katie Daviscourt published the night of the incident (https://x.com/KatieDaviscourt/status/1790945222970716203) and Mike Harvey published the next morning (https://x.com/Mike_the_Photog/status/1791130901281485292)

[128] Shirt did a similar bit to bother a professor who was walking around recording the encampment on the day of the Charlie Kirk event. “Oh, hey, excuse me, this is for the interview? Hey, excuse me this is for the interview, right? Hey, film me. Excuse me. Excuse me. Wait, excuse me, can you film me? Hey, excuse me, but this is for the Rick and Morty interview, right? Well, so, okay, so Rick and Morty the TV show, Justin Roiland––well, Justin Roiland, he was like this voice actor dude for the TV show and I guess that apparently he did some things or whatever so they kind of canceled the show, then they rebooted it with the new voice actors but they don’t really sound like how the main characters sounded and in my opinion that’s kind of fucked up because it’s like trying to replace the voice of SpongeBob, but––but––like––it’s not the Rick and Morty interview? Wait no, but like wait, bro, come back.” Thirty seconds prior to this interaction the professor says he was “struck by someone very hard in the head.” (https://www.facebook.com/JasonRantzShow/videos/it-was-inevitable-professor-stuart-reges-was-assaulted-at-the-autonomous-uw-libe/1569721920267532/) This was the first of the three “Assault in the fourth degree” reports made that day.

[129] He appears to mean co-anchor of Good Day Seattle on FOX13, Bill Wixey.

[130] Katie Daviscourt begins filming the interaction while circling the group.

[131] Indeed, this particular protester may have used ketamine recently within the encampment.

[132] “PUBLIC DISTURBANCE” from Washington State Legislature, https://app.leg.wa.gov/RCW/default.aspx?cite=9A.84

[133] Around 8:19 p.m. that night Katie Daviscourt posts her recordings of the interaction to X. Around 8:37 a.m. the next morning, Mike Harvey posted a more complete video of the interaction.

[134] I was told later that this was one group’s way of (at least symbolically, but also literally) “rebuilding” the university as a more just institution.

[135] The night of the graffiti escalation, a woman approached The Preacher and asked for him to pray with her. He closed his eyes and bowed his head and prayed with the woman. After his was finished, he opened his eyes and saw that in that moment his speaker had been stolen.

[136] “We have negotiations with the University” she tells me “but the University hasn’t offered us really anything that’s actually worth what we think is important”.

[137] This is an example of “the right side of history” argument being used to dismiss questions rather than address them. From my perspective, the argument falters here for at least three reasons. The first is it assumes those later on will know more and/or be more reasonable than those now going through a set of circumstances. Who is to judge history but those who survive into the future? Why should we consider them better judges of our situations than ourselves? Details get lost with time, momentary clarity darkens, and nuance smoothes over. Those able to write histories are not on the “right side” simply because they are around to sit in judgment of those since perished. The second reason is that many that on the “wrong side of history” (such as the Ohio National Guard who killed student protesters at Kent State) continue to exist with their historical “wrongness” providing little viscous resistance to their progression into the future. Many current nations have horrific pasts and presents and many extinct nations were full of dignified people that “history” has forgotten. And the third reason, even accepting that history may in the fullness of time justly adjudicate our current actions, what corrective action does that provide that is not self-driven? Tell the addict that others will be disappointed with his actions and see the inadequacy of the argument. Human motivations and actions rarely comport with what the writers of history think they ought to. Actions are local, motivation personal. This use of the argument for being on “the right side of history” is a brittle dry fig leaf covering a richer nakedness: the desire to currently win a part of the future.

[138] “They have negotiations with us constantly” she tells me.

[139] Sofia Scharzwalder, News Editor for The Daily, reported that morning that “In an interview with United Front media liaisons Wednesday evening, the group confirmed that the vandalism was a coordinated escalation. Media liaisons expressed frustrations about the university’s heavy focus on the vandalism rather than their demands.” https://x.com/schwaarzy/status/1791171372359745746

[140] And with that, she says “And I do have to go.”

[141] On which has been scrawled “Your tuition funds genocide. Join the resistance Now!”

[142] Never to be erected again.

[143] Under the shade of its nearby tree I see a colored poster depicting the “Anatomy of President Cauce’s brain”. The orange frontal lobe says “cognitive dissonance”, the parietal lobe “academic freedom (only for zionists)”, the green occipital lobe “pinkwashing”, the purple temporal lobe “best friends Boeing”, and blue cerebellum “keeping that million dollar salary”.

[144] The Daily was first to publicly report the news at around 10:30 a.m. on May 17. “UW leadership and encampment organizers reach agreement to disband” by Sofia Schwarzawalder, https://www.dailyuw.com/news/uw-leadership-and-encampment-organizers-reach-agreement-to-disband/article_03e06372-1473-11ef-a88a-4f4a45f5f4f7.html

[145] I was told by a few encampers that the deal ultimately agreed to was offered late May 16 night and had to be accepted by 8:00 a.m. the next day.

[146] In their Instagram post regarding the agreement, the United Front says “We are committed to centering Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim voices in our spaces and their visions for the direction and tactics of this movement.” https://www.instagram.com/unitedfront_uw/p/C7FiKHyvQXg/

[147] Details of the agreement, https://uw-s3-cdn.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/17102808/Joint-commitments-05-17-2024.pdf

[148] “Board of Regents Governance: Standing Orders, Chapter 4” https://www.washington.edu/admin/rules/policies/BRG/SOCh4.html

[149] Such criteria include (a) “The actions or inactions of the company or companies are deemed “morally reprehensible in that its activities result in social, political, or environmental harms that outweigh any positive social or economic function””, (b) “Divestment is seen to be more viable and appropriate than ongoing shareholder engagement”, (c) “The requested action is not likely to impair the University’s capacity to carry out its educational mission (for example, by causing deep divisions within the University community)”, (d) “There is a broad and continuing base of support within the University community including students, faculty, alumni, and staff who believe that action is warranted”, and (e) “A specific company or list of companies based on measurable industry criteria may be targeted for divestiture”. (https://www.washington.edu/admin/rules/policies/BRG/SOCh4.html#1G)

[150] The agreement lists “Lockheed Martin, Raytheon Technologies, General Dynamics, Boeing, Northrup Grumman, HII Corp (Huntington Ingalls Industries), L3Harris Technologies, BAE Systems, Thales, and Airbus Group.”

[151] “The UW-Seattle Popular University for Gaza has concluded” @unitedfront_uw, https://www.instagram.com/unitedfront_uw/p/C7FiKHyvQXg/. They begin by saying, “We are under no illusions that this agreement is a win.”

[152] I noticed many of the first to leave were among the “rowdier” sorts. Bass Pro Shop and his neighbors departed the Northeast quadrant, several black clad “anarchists” left the Northwest quadrant, The Bouncer never returned.

[153] May this essay serve as a fuller examination.

[154] It is easier to stand against something than to stand alone. The motivation to stand up to a police force can be summoned easily, but standing around with nothing to do can lead to boredom and disaffectedness.

[155] Graduating with his bachelors this year, Beau intends to pursue a Master’s at UW’s College of Education, where Professor Taylor teaches, next semester.

[156] The active ingredient of which was listed as orthochlorobenzalmalononitrile.

[157] This last item I was not allowed to photograph and whose safe disposal I was never able to confirm.

[158] I did not see the tear gas spray there.

[159] Included in fewer stories still is the fact that a Bible taken from The Preacher can be seen among discarded “Fruit & Grain Cereal Bars” boxes, half drank bottles of water, an empty bag of dog treats, and a tarp wrapper piled on a blanket in the northwest quadrant of the Quad.

[160] Consider it a breach of journalist ethics if you must, dear reader, but when Beau and his fellow encampers had trouble loosening the base from one wall segment, I took hold of the pry bar and got it free.

[161] With less than 18 hours to go to the agreed upon deadline to disperse, a sign with Jonathan Choe’s address can still be seen near the medic tent.

[162] One of the signs –– or rather two of the signs –– he does not collect are those asking for help locating a bullet proof vest lost in the encampment.

[163] He tells me he’s only here to go dumpster diving for “come ups” which he explains to me are things that have value that other people miss.

[164] I include here as addendum my admiration for Jackie Kent’s composure and fortitude. The three men that came to her aid were impotent to stop the fourth spewing his low hatred of a woman he did not know. Her dignified response deserves more than the footnoted praise I can offer. Her nobility in that moment was the most powerful thing I saw during my time in the encampment.

[165] In pink he writes, “Install CaMeras at all NUDE Beaches Please, for Safety & as a deterent to Nudity & Sex Crime”.

[166] The Gordon Stuart Peek Foundation Carillon. “UW’s newest icon — a carillon of bells atop Kane Hall — to be dedicated Thursday” by Jackson Holtz, https://www.washington.edu/news/2018/04/04/uws-newest-icon-a-carillon-of-bells-atop-kane-hall-to-be-dedicated-thursday/

[167] In mathematical logic, this universal quantifier (“∀”) represents that a predicate is satisfied by every member of a set. It is a truth “for all”.

[168] On our way back, I ask Moonie what I should take pictures of. They point to colorful blankets. They point to historic buildings. They point to prayer rugs.

[169] I am told by multiple sources that the damage is likely permanent and there are no optimal solutions for its further removal. Moreover, masons have explained to me that much of the damage from the graffiti will not be seen for years since as the sandstone goes through cycles of hot and cold, wet and dry, moisture will make its way in, cracks may form, the facade may crumble. There are sealants that can be added to protect from further damage, but “it’ll look like repair” rather than have its unique patina characteristic of its history. “It will never look the same.”

[170] A la René Magritte’s La condition humaine, 1933.

[171] I counted. And recounted.

[172] Toward the end of her video recorded report the reporter says, “Now take a look here, there are two tents that popped up today here in the Quad. They’re not part of that encampment. It is a street preacher. So a new wrinkle in the story.”

[173] The penultimate last verse of Jackson Browne’s “The Load Out” ends with the lyrics “We got time to think of the ones we love / While the miles roll away / But the only time that seems too short / Is the time that we get to play”.

[174] Now referred to by its Iñupiaq name, Utqiagvik, it is the northernmost city in the United States.

[175] “Protesters clear UW encampment by deadline” by Catalina Gaitán, https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/education/protesters-clear-uw-encampment-by-deadline/

[176] Tay and I waved goodbye as he walked away with his partner. Roger gave me a fistbump as he departed with supplies to donate for the final time. Jerry and I saw each other a week later.

[177] “Six lessons from previous occupations”, https://x.com/chicago_commune/status/1784286818952687956

[178] The address listed on his driver’s license is a five minute walk from the address listed by the encampers for Jonathan Choe.

[179] In Arabic the term “ihsan” (“إحسان”) means “to do beautiful things”, “excellence”, “perfection” and it is one of the three dimensions of Islamic religion (“dīn”, “دين”). The first is “islam” (“إسلام”) itself –– submission to God –– the second is “iman” (“إِيمَان”) –– faith in the tenets of the religion –– and the third is “ihsan” –– manifesting one’s faith to do good things well.

[180] This recording is made public about an hour and a half later through Jonathan Choe’s X account: “It’s official. The Hamas encampment has been dismantled on the University of Washington campus. But the activists left behind tons of trash and damage to the lawn. With that said, Christian street preacher [The Preacher] has now established what he calls the “Grace Camp,” and is refusing to leave until @UW leaders offer an apology to Jewish students and the rest of the school community for holding the campus hostage for nearly a month.” https://x.com/choeshow/status/1792740119478440385

[181] The phrase (راجعين), recently popularized by a pro-Palestinian song of the same name that was played frequently over the loudspeakers at the encampment, comes from the second surah of the Quran (2:156) which suggests that it ought to be said to those whom calamity has befallen: “إِنَّا ِلِلَّٰهِ وَإِنَّا إِلَيْهِ رَاجِعُونَ” [Inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi raji’un], which translates approximately to “We belong to Allah and to Him we shall return”. A similar phrase appears in the Tanakh in the third chapter of Genesis (3:19): “עָפָ֣ר אַ֔תָּה וְאֶל־עָפָ֖ר תָּשֽׁוּב׃” [Ki afar atah v’el afar tashuv], which translates to “Because you are dust and to dust you will return”.

[182] Snippets of the interaction described were posted to Jonathan Choe’s X account with the statement: “Day 2 of “Grace Camp” at the University of Washington. Christian street preacher [The Preacher] is now the lone camper on the Quad and says he’s keeping his tent out in protest until @UW leaders issue a formal apology to all students, especially the Jewish community. For nearly a month, the Hamas encampment turned the Quad into an antisemitic cesspool and attracted outside agitators like Antifa. School leaders eventually caved to their demands and no one was arrested or charged for this illegal occupation. As for [The Preacher], he sent me his vlog for the day. Incredible interviews with VP of Community Safety Sally Clark and UW Police Chief Craig Wilson. And at the end of the day, the cops tried to remove [The Preacher’s] tent. But like the homeless in Seattle, he quickly ran in and zipped it up saying the officers needed a warrant since it’s now his home. 🤣 The cops eventually left. Unclear when they will return.” https://x.com/choeshow/status/1793139977334972622

[183] What is said at this exact moment is not entirely clear. Clark and The Preacher are talking at the same time and the audio of his voice is significantly louder than hers given his proximity to his phone. I hear “I have regrets” but could be convinced Clark is saying “I’m regretful” or “I’m very sorry”. The context makes it seem that Clark is expressing contrition “for what happened to” The Preacher. I have included the phrase in brackets because regardless of the exact words used, I believe Clark is sympathetic to what The Preacher has gone through and, though not directly responsible for any of it, is conveying regret that he went through it.

[184] On top is a copy of WAC 478-136-030, which describes the “Limitations on use” of University of Washington facilities, https://apps.leg.wa.gov/wac/default.aspx?cite=478-136-030.

[185] I highlight here one section of relevance: “(9)(a) No person may use university facilities to camp, except if permission to do so has been granted […]. “Camp” means to remain overnight, to erect a tent or other shelter, or to use sleeping equipment, a vehicle, or a trailer camper, for the purpose of or in such ways as will permit remaining overnight. Violators are subject to arrest and criminal prosecution under applicable state, county and city laws.”

[186] “The falsehoods widely spread by President Cauce have not gone without immense harm on members of her own community. Notably, labeling the pro-Palestinian movement as antisemitic without verifiable evidence has caused harmful rifts in the campus community, and put student activists in physical, academic, and social danger.”, https://www.instagram.com/p/C7o44A5xcVR/

[187] SUPER in sharing these emails blot out the words “kill”, “death”, and “swastika”. While they point out that the swastika imagery and phrase “Kill Jews” are not from the UW encampment, they do not deny that a phrase like “kill your local colonizer” was indeed spray painted as part of the UW protest.

[188] “Indeed,” she wrote “I can assure you that the people who are most angry about the vandalism are also extremely angry at me because they do not feel I was strong enough in my condemnation and they believe that by not punishing individuals who were in the encampment that I have rewarded that behavior.”

[189] We are told by Sofia Schwarzwalder that “The United Front declined to comment when asked about the new graffiti.” https://x.com/schwaarzy/status/1797688078242582967

[190] Where the word “SCHOLAR” appears was originally spelled the word “SCHORSHIPS”. Its red lettering was painted over in green and white.

[191] In the vein of Footnote 122, I note the remarkable similarities between the script of this graffiti with that of the “SAVE A LIFE… KILL YOUR LOCAL COLONIZER”. The distinctive “K” in “KILL” –– with its curved lower leg and straight upper arm –– makes an appearance in “Know”, “HUSKY-brew” and “KLanhoods”. The angled final “L” in “KILL” matches that seen in “KLanhoods”. The “U” in “YOUR” has the same tail as that seen in “HUSKY-brew”. And the doubled-back “Y” in “YOUR” is an identical match to that in “HUSKY-brew”.

[192] The phrase I have interpreted as “HUSKY-brew” could also be “HUSKY-brand” or “HUSKY-bred”. The letters after “br” are somewhat illegible. What is clear is that the author intends some “HUSKY”-association with “KLanhoods”.

[193] Many in the Class of 2024 graduated high school in the spring of 2020 when lockdowns were mandated nationwide to curb the spread of coronavirus. Some had “drive thru” graduations. Others “virtual” ceremonies. For most of the approximately 7,000 graduates, this was their first in-person community celebration of their academic achievements.

[194] To Nathan Loutsis, graduating summa cum laude with a B.A. in Political Science, International Security, who was elected to Kenmore City Council as the youngest public official in King County – “He tells us”, Cauce tells us, “that with his studies, he’s enhanced his skills to serve others and it’s made him more engaged and a better, more empathic citizen” – and to Tuan Trung Vu, graduating summa cum laude with a B.S. in Biology, Physiology with a minor in Microbiology and Human Rights, who has a “love of writing and he’s carried out anthropological research in Greece.”

[195] Before this a short speech was given by A.J. Balatico, President of the Graduate and Professionals Student Senate. He began by saying “Every community owes its existence and vitality to generations from around the world who contributed to making the history that led to this moment.” He had in mind folks like “captioners, translators, photographers, organizers, UW video production”, “faculty and staff marshals”, “the collective works of over fourteen thousand graduates” and generally those “working behind the scenes”. He did not mention the movements of history or colonists or genocide or Palestine or Israel, and thus his contribution remains “behind the scenes” of this particular essay.

[196] “The Boat to Lift All Tides” by Tim Egan, https://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/17/opinion/the-boat-to-lift-all-tides.html

[197] Dianne Harris (College of Arts and Sciences), Mia Tuan (College of Education), Andy Stergachis (School of Pharmacy), Tamara Lawson (School of Law), Daniel Ratner (College of Engineering), Maya Tolstoy (College of the Environment), Anind Dey (Information School), Frank Hodge (Foster School of Business), Allison Webel (School of Nursing), Andre Ritter (School of Dentistry), Tim Dellit (School of Medicine), Renee Cheng (College of Built Environments), Michael Spencer (School of Social Work), Grant Blume (Evans School of Public Policy and Governance), Jerry Cangelosi (School of Public Health), and Joy Williamson-Lott (Graduate School).

[198] This particular sign was handed off to three different students to hold up as they receive their honorary degree holders.

[199] At the risk of this sample being considered overly representative of the whole, bear in mind that while for the purposes of this essay I have highlighted those students’ messages which align most clearly with the protest encampment, these two dozen instances were vastly outnumbered by the thousands of students who did not use their momentary platform to echo the demands of the encampment.

[200] “The coming year will be my last as UW president”, https://www.washington.edu/president/2024/06/12/end-of-term-announcement/

[201] “Ana Mari Cauce announces her final year as UW’s president”, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JgGVqUbo7MM

[202] “UW President Ana Mari Cauce to step down in 2025” by Sofia Schwarzwalder, https://www.dailyuw.com/news/uw-president-ana-mari-cauce-to-step-down-in-2025/article_e9339662-288a-11ef-a8a2-cfae98254831.html

[203] As President Cauce said the University “will not engage in an academic boycott of Israel” as it “run[s] counter to academic freedom” and that the University has “no direct investments in Boeing or weapons manufacturers”, the first two of the three demands the encampers made would not and could not be done, respectively.

[204] For example, I myself personally would not participate in nor advocate for the use of graffiti to pressure others into actions. I think it is more destructive than convincing and corrodes more than it coheres the group engaging in it. That said, I understand and even agree with the case to be made that using coordinated graffiti across a campus can apply pressure to university administrators. I think in this particular instance the inclusion of Clearly Objectionable Graffiti had a role in undoing the protest. Had the four phrases I highlighted been left out and the content of the messages instead limited to more positive or neutral language (e.g., “Free Palestine”, “Divest from Boeing”), I believe similar pressure could have been exerted without fracturing the popular support on which the protest relied.

[205] The exception to this statement being the efforts by “Uplift Dawah” an organization that “believes that one of the most important forms of Dawah is getting out to the streets in our communities to directly engage the public and call to Islam and to help dispel misconceptions” and which had a booth for most of the encampment staffed to talk to passersby about Islam. (https://www.upliftdawah.org/)

[206] I would go so far as to venture that most are not. Some are wrong, some mistaken, some naive of full truths, but few are bad for their wrongness, their mistakes, their ignorance.

[207] A common analogy is the bar that does not kick out a nazi becoming a “nazi bar” because of its toleration of the intolerable. In 2020, Baltimore-based writer Michael B. Tager wrote up his experience at a “shitty crustpunk bar” where a bartender immediately kicked out a new patron who argued with being so disposed since “hey i’m not doing anything, i’m a paying customer” because the bartender saw him wearing a vest with “nazi shit. Iron crosses and stuff”. The bartender explained “you have to nip it in the bud immediately. These guys come in and it’s always a nice, polite one. And you serve them because you don’t want to cause a scene. And then they become a regular and after awhile they bring a friend. And that dude is cool too. And then THEY bring friends and the friends bring friends and they stop being cool and then you realize, oh shit, this is a Nazi bar now. And it’s too late because they’re entrenched and if you try to kick them out, they cause a PROBLEM. So you have to shut them down.” The bartender noted that “you have to ignore their reasonable arguments because their end goal is to be terrible, awful people.” https://x.com/IamRageSparkle/status/1280891537451343873 My point here being that even small volumes of poison can be fatal.

[208] “ControllerCampus Memorials & Trees of Distinction “, https://depts.washington.edu/ceogis/Public/CampusMemorials/. A picture of the plaque can be seen here: https://prod.portal.es.fs.washington.edu/federated/rest/services/Federated/PUBLIC/MapServer/25/14647/attachments/25649

[209] As some encampers would note, “all cops are bastards” because at least some of them are bastards and enough of the rest tolerate them to label the lot as such.

[210] As James Agee puts it in Let Us Now Praise Famous Men: “What is it, profound behind the outward windows of each one of you, beneath touch even of your own suspecting, drawn tightly back at bay against the backward wall and blackness of its prison cave, so that the eyes alone shine of their own angry glory, but the eyes of a trapped wild animal, or of a furious angel nailed to the ground by his wings, or however else one may faintly designate the human ‘soul,’ that which is angry, that which is wild, that which is untamable, that which is healthful and holy, that which is competent of all advantaging within hope of human dream, that which most marvelous and most precious to our knowledge and most extremely advanced upon futurity of all flowerings within the scope of creation is of all these the least destructible, the least corruptible, the most defenseless, the most easily and multitudinously wounded, frustrated, prisoned, and nailed into a cheating of itself”?

[211] I have been told he was “pepper sprayed” / “maced” for “asking” / “telling” people not to “graffiti” / “tag” a “tree” / “building”.

[212] It is, after all, an unfair world. If it were otherwise, there would be no need to protest it.

[213] I would go so far as to say that no (effective) protest would want to attract folks who admired this sort of action, as it would herald petty delinquency and superficial antics over genuine concerns and principled ambitions.

[214] To put it more bluntly, Which side of the spectrum would you rather trend toward?

[215] Given on August 16, 1967 in Atlanta, Georgia, I quote the intended text of the speech and not the spoken words which were periodically interrupted with affirmations from the audience and doubling back by Dr. King. (A transcript of the spoken speech can be read here: https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/where-do-we-go-here)

[216] One encamper even told me that when students would complain about the sound of the encampment disrupting their classes, they would argue, What’s worse, a genocide or hearing about it through a bullhorn?

[217] A notion popularized by Martin Luther King, Jr. in his speech “How Long, Not Long” (delivered March 25, 1965 in Montgomery, Alabama). King was inspired by a sermon from Theodore Parker called “Of Justice and Conscience” delivered in 1853, in which Parker said “Look at the facts of the world. You see a continual and progressive triumph of the right. I do not pretend to understand the moral universe, the arc is a long one, my eye reaches but little ways. I cannot calculate the curve and complete the figure by the experience of sight; I can divine it by conscience. But from what I see I am sure it bends towards justice. Things refuse to be mismanaged long. Jefferson trembled when he thought of slavery and remembered that God is just. Ere long all America will tremble.” https://archive.org/details/tensermonsofreli00inpark/page/84/

[218] Indeed my main concern with the argument from “the right side of history” as used by some encampers is that it was a if not cheap than certainly inexpensive way to dismiss criticisms of their actions. Since “genocide” is so bad and “the right side of history” is so good most anything could be swung between those poles.

[219] After submitting a public records request of the police officers’ body camera video for this interaction and police report of the arrest, I was told by the Program Operations Specialist of the University of Washington Office of Public Records and Open Public Meetings that “We estimate we will respond to your request by December 30, 2025.”

[220] “Alright, well, he took off, I lo––I love you, [The Preacher]. If you get this just––just, uh––just, uh, just know I’ll be praying for you. And, uh, thank you for everybody that prayed.”

[221] He spends the night on the 9th Floor, SUD.

[222] A document titled “CONDITIONS OF RELEASE” specifies “You shall have no contact with the location and/or premises described as University of Washington campus, Seattle, WA”.

[223] While he is not allowed to return to the University during the pendency of the case against him, he is still able to practice his form of evangelism elsewhere. Just a few hours after his release from jail he preaches outside the south entrance of T-Mobile Park before a Billy Joel concert.