Protesters tagged Dune-inspired graffiti in an occupied library at Portland State University

Right now, students on many universities throughout the United States are protesting the Israel-Hamas war currently playing out in the Gaza Strip. Generally speaking, the protestors want their universities to divest from companies that supply equipment used by Israel in its military actions. In some cases, like at Brown University, protesters have come to agreements with administrators and agreed to cease their protests in return for further, formal discussions of their demands. At others, protesters have clashes with police.

Such was the case at Portland State University in Oregon, where protesters occupied a school library for a time. The protest is mostly over, with 30 arrests having been made as of the end of the day on Thursday, according to local outlet KGW8. Before that, images from within the library showed that the protesters had sometimes written things on the walls. Most of these are political slogans like "Disarm PSU," but journalist Robert Evans posted a slogan of another kind on X:

"May thy riot gear chip and shatter" is a reference to Dune, the sci-fi book series by Frank Herbert recently turned into a pair of hugely successful movies by director Denis Villeneuve. In the book, Fremen warriors say "May thy knife chip and shatter" to their opponent before a fight. In this case, the protesters, expecting a police raid in the near future, have changed "knife" to "riot gear." Next to it, the protesters have written "Jin, Jiyan, Azadî," which translates to "Woman, Life, Freedom." That was a rallying cry during 2022 protests in Iran and has since become associated with fights for women's rights in general. The Dune slogan, which references pop culture, seems a little odd next to more overtly political slogans. But it's a library; maybe someone picked up a copy of Dune and got inspired.

The library at Portland State University had been cleared out as of Thursday morning, but some protesters went back in sometime in the afternoon.

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