Police arrest 13 pro-Palestine protesters at US university Protesters oppose the university’s anti-protest stance and investments in Israel and armaments industries, claiming that these support Israel’s year-long war on Gaza.
Updated on October 22, 2024 by Muhammad Enes Calli
Istanbul
Police arrest 13 pro-Palestine protesters at US university According to accounts, 13 pro-Palestine demonstrators were taken into custody by police after they blocked an administration building at a US Midwest university late Monday.
The University of Minnesota Police Department entered the building with “necessary support” from the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office, according to a statement from the university.
According to the Minnesota Daily, a number of demonstrators gathered outside the building’s west door close to Northrop Mall.
Following a march from a rally outside Coffman Union, protesters used metal tables, chairs, bike racks, and wooden pallets to surround the facility, securing the doors with bike locks.
When demonstrators led the staff to the unblocked entrance, the employees who were inside throughout the barricading left the building.
The demonstration was organized by members of the university’s Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) chapter to protest the university’s protest policy and investments in Israel and arms companies, which they claimed support Israel’s year-long offensive on Gaza, which has killed over 42,700 people and is still going strong, as well as the continued oppression of Palestinians.
In memory of Medo Halimy, a 19-year-old Palestinian TikTok creator who perished in an Israeli bombing in August, the demonstrators renamed the structure Halimy Hall.
SDS demonstrator Sasmit Rahman claimed that the group’s battle was “just” and that the outcomes of their demonstrations were “incomparable to the situation in Gaza.”
He stated that the demonstrators are willing to stay till their demands are fulfilled.
Rahman added that 11 demonstrators are still missing as of right now.