40 arrested as pro-Palestinian protesters force their way into University of Michigan building

Forty people are arrested and two police officers injured after a group of pro-Palestinian protesters force their way into a building on the University of Michigan campus in Ann Arbor, police say.

Video posted on social media shows protesters pushing past police into the Ruthven Administration Building, which houses offices for school President Santa Ono. An estimated 200 people then entered the building, university Deputy Police Chief Melissa Overton says.

Once inside, protesters chanted, called for the university to divest from Israel and waved Palestinian flags, as seen on the video. About 10 police agencies, including state police, assisted campus officers.

Around 7:30 p.m., officers began warning protesters to leave or be subject to arrest, Overton says, adding that those arrested were processed at the scene and then released.

No details are given on the injuries to the two officers.

BREAKING:

Anti-Israel protesters are clashing with police at the University of Michigan as they break their way into the office of the school’s president

Are they trying to punish him for allowing a Jewish man (@josh_hammer) to speak at the school y-day? pic.twitter.com/BZux6hKpak

— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) November 17, 2023