Protesters take down American flag at UNC — then chancellor personally restores it and makes courageous promise

The chancellor of the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill personally helped reinstall the American flag on Tuesday after student protesters took it down.

Anti-Israel protests at North Carolina's flagship state school began last Friday. The student group that organized the protests, UNC Students for Justice in Palestine, has made several demands of university administrators, including that UNC "divest from any companies connected to Israel," Axios Raleigh reported, and that UNC end its study abroad programs in Israel.

The protest reached a climax on Tuesday when police officers arrested multiple students for ignoring university rules about their encampment, called the "Triangle Gaza Solidarity Encampment."

Unfortunately, the arrests didn't end the shenanigans.

Later in the day, protesters began taking down barricades that officers had set up following the arrests. That's when protesters lowered the American flag in the Quad, known as Polk Place, and replaced it with a Palestinian flag.

As protesters reoccupied the Quad, they chanted "intifada," "revolution," and "from the river to the sea," a Hamas rallying cry that demands the annihilation of Israel, according to the Anti-Defamation League.

Not long after the protesters had removed the American flag, interim Chancellor Lee Roberts emerged with a crowd of police officers to restore the American flag.

"That flag will stand there as long as I’m chancellor," Roberts later told media.

"The flag represents all of us," he explained. "To take down that flag and put up another flag, no matter what flag it is, that's antithetical to who we are, what this university stands for, and what we have done for 229 years."

"This university doesn't belong to a small group of protesters," Roberts vowed.

Unfortunately, protesters took down the American flag a second time, but it was later restored. Police have since installed barricades around the flagpole to prevent future incidents, the News & Observer reported.

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