Pro-Palestinian protesters meet with DU leaders, plan to stay until demands met

Sunday night marked the fourth night of pro-Palestinian protesters staying in an encampment at the University of Denver (DU) campus. Protest organizers met with school leadership on Sunday afternoon, and said their demands were not met.

The protesters said they mainly discussed one of their primary goals — disclosure of any investments in Israel or associated companies that operate within Israel.

“In that meeting, our demands were not met to disclose those investments," JoJo Carranza, a student studying social work and a member of DU for Palestine, said. “What was given was a verbal agreement that they would continue meeting with DU for Palestine on these topics of disclosure. We're hoping to get that in writing within the next 48 hours.”

As of Sunday evening, a date for another meeting had not been set, according to Carranza.

A spokesperson for DU, Jon Stone, said the school does not ask companies to disclose their affiliations outside of the agreement with the university.

"From the beginning, we expressed an interest in listening to encampment participants and counter protest participants. On Friday, we met successfully with a contingency of Jewish students. Unfortunately, encampment participants declined our original invitation, but we were glad to be able to meet with them today,"
Stone continued.

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The protesters said they plan to stay until their demands are met.

“This lack of urgency is a strategy being employed to defer this conversation past a point in time when our nation and universities around the country, including this community itself, are talking about this issue," Carranza said.

Denver7 asked Stone about any potential sweeps of the encampment, and received the following response:

We have not threatened "sweeps" and have not used that term. Our goal is to verify, through checking IDs, that the individuals within the encampment are DU students, as is required by the University. We reminded the students of their responsibility to follow policy for the safety and well-being of all students participating in the encampment and across the University. Unfortunately, encampments across the country have taught us that this practice is sound in terms of maintaining safety and the ability of the encampment students to continue to use their voices productively and respectfully. Students are required by the honor code to comply with a "reasonable request" and showing an ID on a regular basis to help support a safe environment is a reasonable request.

Jon Stone, DU spokesperson

Stone said the encampment is being evaluated on an hourly basis.

DU is on the quarter system, so the school year concludes the second week of June.

Pro-Palestinian protesters meet with DU leaders, plan to stay until demands met

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