Anti-Israel protesters arrested after occupying University of Minnesota building
Demonstrators demanding the school divest from Israel barricade doors, damage property, and block staff from exiting during brief takeover, school says; at least 11 arrested
Police arrested around a dozen anti-Israel protesters who briefly occupied a University of Minnesota administrative building and blocked staff from being able to leave, the school said Monday.
Demonstrators demanding the school divest from Israel entered Morrill Hall on Monday afternoon, using furniture to barricade doors and causing other damage before police were called in to remove them, the university said in a statement.
“Once inside the building, protesters began spray painting, including covering lenses of all internal security cameras, breaking interior windows, and barricading the building’s entrance and exit points,” the school said. “A number of staff were working in the building at the time, and several people were not able to exit, with some being unable to exit the building for an extended period of time.”
Authorities said 11 people were arrested inside the building, though the Minnesota Daily student newspaper put the number of arrests at 13, citing police. A reporter for the paper was also briefly detained, it said.
Merlin Van Alstein, an activist with Students for a Democratic Society, said about 30 protesters had occupied Morrill Hall, with a larger group gathered outside. Demonstrators demanded that the university divest from Israel and repeal its political neutrality agreement.
During the takeover, the group symbolically renamed the building “Halimy Hall,” in remembrance of 19-year-old Palestinian TikTok creator Medo Halimy who died in August in an apparent Israeli airstrike. The Israeli military said it was not aware of the strike that killed Halimy.
The renaming was redolent of Columbia University protesters who dubbed that school’s Hamilton Hall in honor of Gazan Hind Rajab during a 22-hour takeover of the building in April.
Protesters at the University of Minnesota were in the building for less than two hours when police were called in, but had shown up with tents and supplies, vowing to remain until their demands were met.
Students with @DivestUMN @UMNSDS at the University of Minnesota have occupied Morill Hall and locked the doors, demanding the University divest from Israel’s genocide ????
Get to the U of M to support if you are in the area! pic.twitter.com/YTxKDqDkme
— charles (@deephousegibbon) October 21, 2024
“We plan to stay until they forcibly remove us,” Van Alstein said before the arrests. “The people inside aren’t going to leave until they meet our demands or they are forced to leave.”
The group earlier shared a video to Facebook of a speaker announcing that its members were occupying the building but not restricting anyone from exiting or entering.
The speaker appeared in front of a large sign reading, “Money for education, not for bombs & occupation.”
Protests against Israel have roiled campuses across the US for over a year in response to the war in Gaza against Hamas, prompted by the terror group’s October 7, 2023 onslaught of southern Israel, in which some 1,200 people were killed and 251 abducted.
SUPPORT STUDENTS OCCUPYING MORRILL HALL
Morrill Hall – 100 Church St SE.
Join the Telegram – https://t.co/4l0zgilCyC pic.twitter.com/I9NSzaCH8d— UMN SDS (@UMNSDS) October 21, 2024
The protests, including earlier this year at University of Minnesota campuses, have raised issues of free speech and antisemitism as students demanded that their universities cease doing business with Israel or companies they said supported the war in Gaza.
Several schools have agreed to mull divestment resolutions in response to protest encampments, but in some cases the announcements have failed to quell student demonstrations.
In August, University of Minnesota regents rejected a divestment resolution and instead backed a policy basing investment decisions on financial considerations alone.
The university had previously been embroiled in controversy regarding statements made by faculty groups.
In January, the US Department of Education said it was looking into a series of University of Minnesota faculty statements condemning Israel, following a complaint by a prominent Republican on the law school faculty. The university told The Minnesota Daily it will be “fully responsive” to the investigation.
In June, it “paused” the search for a new director of its Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies after initially tapping an Israeli who had accused Israel of genocide.
