Smashed windows, blocked exits: 11 arrested after anti-Israel protesters hijack UMinn building

Protesters demanding divestment from Israel occupied and damaged Morrill Hall, resulting in multiple arrests and a university-wide safety alert

Pro-Palestinian protesters took over a University of Minnesota building Monday, leading to 11 arrests.

Protesters “occupied and barricaded” Morrill Hall before the University of Minnesota Police Department began making arrests around 5:40 PM, The Minnesota Daily reported.

The university sent out a SAFE-U EMERGENCY alert around 4:40 p.m. stating, “Protestors have entered Morrill Hall on the East Bank, causing property damage and restricting entrance and exit from the building.”

“If you are currently in Morrill Hall and able to safely exit the building, please do so immediately. Others are advised to avoid this area until further notice,” the alert read.

Protesters blocked entry to the building with chairs, tables, filing cabinets, and bike racks. They locked the doors with bike locks and damaged the administrative building by spray painting and smashing windows, the Minnesota Daily reported.

The demonstrators demanded that the employees in the building leave. However, “several people were not able to exit, with some being unable to exit the building for an extended period of time,” a statement from the school read, according to CBS News.

Students for a Democratic Society, which organized the protest, stated in a post on Instagram that they also hung a banner to rename the building “after the Palestinian martyr Medo Halimy.”

“Today, after a year of genocide and our university’s complicity in it, students have occupied Morrill Hall to demand that the University of Minnesota DIVEST from the genocidal Israel and all weapon companies complicit,” SDS wrote in another post.

Protesters were also shown outside the building, holding signs and yelling “free Palestine” through megaphones in another Instagram video.

Eleven protesters were “held overnight at the Hennepin County Jail on probable cause charges,” SDS stated.

The group held a rally outside the jail Tuesday, demanding authorities “let [their] people go.”

Prior to the arrests, one protest organizer said the group planned to stay until the school met their demands or they were arrested, CBS reported.

University of Pennsylvania graduate and columnist Eyal Yakoby posted a video of the arrests on X.

Breaking: Police are currently making arrests at the University of Minnesota after SJP anarchists took over a building.

It is not enough for them to be arrested, the school must expel them. pic.twitter.com/MZGmbR5Yu5

— Eyal Yakoby (@EYakoby) October 21, 2024