The DU4Palestine encampment lasted 20 days on the Carnegie Green, before protestors peacefully and thoughtfully disbanded the camp on the early morning of May 29. 

DU4Palestine, the student organization responsible for organizing and running the camp, released a statement on Instagram later that day, clarifying the purpose of the decampment and the timeline of administration communication with protestors. They thanked community members for the support in the movement and explained their reasoning for setting up camp in the first place. 

“The DU4Palestine Liberation Zone was created and maintained for 20 days and made serious progress towards the implementation of a divestment campaign,” read the statement. 

They also expressed their disappointment for the DU administration, stating that “DU has shown they would rather use subtle force, police intimidation tactics and repression than listen to their students a global movement calling for divestment from the terrorist and illegal state of Israel.” 

On May 27, two days before the camp chose to disband, ID surveillance picked up as all but one entrance/exit was made available to the protestors in and out of camp. Campus Safety officers stood at the entrance, and anyone who wished to enter or exit the camp had to show their DU ID. 

The statement also summarized what happened the previous Tuesday night, where “a vast coalition came out to defend the camp and it became clearer than ever just how strong the solidarity for Palestinian Liberation is.” 

The night of Tuesday, May 21 also brought about several counter-protestors and harassment, which both DU4Palestine and the emails from the administration have addressed in different ways. Due to the increased presence of non-DU community members on both sides of the protest, this raised concerns on the university side. The next day, the fence was put up “as an effective measure to increase their safety and reduce harm,” according to a joint statement made by encampment organizers and administration. 

The statement continues, “we the people stood fast for collective liberation of Palestinian and Jewish lives, knowing the actions of Israel not only hurt Palestinians but also put Jewish lives at greater risk too.” 

The statement also included information about the large orange fence put up around the camp, initially to ensure their safety, but ultimately to utilize the barricade as a way to block protestors from going in and out. 

“On May 27, the fence was closed at two entrances, leaving a single entrance and security officers monitoring identification,” the organization wrote.

On May 28, organizers met with administration once again for a seemingly unproductive meeting. According to the statement made on the @du_4Palestine Instagram, “Chancellor Haefner and administration declared that they would not move towards any of the demands and refused to call for a ceasefire.”

That night, protestors met as a whole and collectively decided to disband camp on their own terms. They began takedown before sunrise on May 29, in order to stay out of the eyes of counter-protestors and bystanders. 

The now-barren Carnegie Green with dead patches of grass resembling the shape of tents, left the DU community complexed. 

Rumors only grew after DU administration sent out an email, stating the following: “Yesterday, May 28, DU leadership met with representatives from the protesting group about our ongoing concerns about their and the wider community’s safety, as well as our call for the encampment’s immediate removal….We are grateful the protestors decided to ultimately comply with the University’s call for a safe and peaceful conclusion to the encampment.” 

Those not involved in the protest questioned who really made the call to disband the camp— the protestors or the administration. 

Marissa Casados, DU4Palestine organizer and first-year doctoral student in Counseling Psychology, spoke on the camp’s decision to disband and what is next for this movement.

“We decided that, after discussing it at length, our encampment was no longer the best way to get our demands met,” she said. “We are not stopping our fight for Palestine by ending our encampment, we are simply shifting our efforts to new ways.” 

Organizers and protestors want to make it clear that disbanding the camp was not a loss. “The encampment was an incredible place that fostered community and change around DU,” said Casados. 

The Israel-Palestine conflict has entered the forefront of many conversations at DU since the first tent was staked on the Carnegie Green May 9. 

“Before our encampment, nobody at DU was openly talking about the genocide. Different schools and departments at DU were not sending statements or offering support,” said Casados. The encampment disbanded before any of the central demands of disclosing and divesting were met. However, the education and awareness that the encampment brought to campus made it so the protest was still considered a win in the eyes of many. 

DU community support has been demonstrated through several solidarity statements issued by the DU Diversity Committee, Queer Student Alliance (QSA), Black Student Alliance (BSA), Asian Student Alliance (ASU), Latin American Indigenous Student Association (LAISA) and Ignite. 

Among many messages posted on public platforms and directed at DU administration, LAISA stated, “those of us with humanity in our hearts stand for the liberation of Palestine. The work the encampment has done has been incredibly important to exposing the University of Denver and its ties to the colonial state of Israel and its complicity in the violence of white supremacy…The university wants student protesters to protest by the University’s own terms and has used the Honor Code to punish multiple students, including our own LAISA members during the demonstrations we have participated in to push the school to disclose and divest on their investments in Israel.” 

Although DU4Palestine has plans to carry on its movement, the end of the encampment brought a broad range of emotions to the protestors.

“There were so many people at camp who found acceptance and solidarity with their own struggles that they had not found at DU before,” said Casados. Losing this home base led to a lot of grieving and sadness, but “also a lot of hope in moving forward with the relationships we have built.” 

Ash Reid, Graduate School of Social Work (GSSW) student and camp organizer expresses what the decampment intended to show the DU community. 

“While decampment is a loss of that physical space, it is not a loss of a movement. It is simply a transition to the next phase,” said Reid. 

With increased location restrictions imposed on many of the campers, the camp wasn’t sustainable enough to continue with the low number of people that could remain in the space. 

The leadership and communication surrounding the decampment made it so students were able to get out from under the risk of being in the physical space, while continuing the mission that they have created together. 

“Closing the camp was a community decision. I feel sad for those who did not take the time to understand what camp stood for. Collective liberation and community conversation is something that I would wish for everyone at this university to have,” said Reid. The camp’s stated goals have greatly broadened to incorporate a variety of different anti-colonial pursuits. 

Campers had several reactions to the email sent out by the administration on May 29. 

“Their incredibly biased emails brought dangers to the camp. The ‘rifts in the community’ are caused when the administration says that we were causing harm, because that is not what was happening,” said Reid. 

However, some Jewish students have expressed feeling othered and unsafe due to the encampment’s demands and presence. To combat these worries, students formed a group called “Jews for DU” to promote their safety because of claims of not feeling protected by Campus Safety at DU. 

Pro-Palestine protesters argue that the distinction between feeling uncomfortable and feeling unsafe needs to be recognized, particularly in the context of protests and activism.

“Even as this transition happens…those relationships and that sense of safety and belonging that we have established will continue on,” said Rachel Roberts, a GSSW student. 

It’s been made clear by the entirety of the pro-Palestine supporters that just because the tents are down, does not mean the fight is over.