13 pro-Palestinian protesters arrested at University of Minnesota

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On Monday, police arrested 13 pro-Palestinian protesters who had barricaded themselves inside an administration building at a university in the US Midwest. The demonstrators used metal tables, chairs, bike racks, and wooden pallets to block the doors, securing them with bike locks after marching from a rally at Coffman Union. While some employees were inside during the blockade, the protesters guided them out through an unblocked exit.

The protest was aimed at challenging the university’s policies on activism and its investments in Israel and arms companies, which the demonstrators claimed supported Israel’s ongoing offensive on Gaza, lasting over a year. The protesters sought to highlight the university’s financial involvement in actions contributing to the conflict and the continued oppression of Palestinians.

Organised by the university’s chapter of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), the protest also saw the building renamed ‘Halimy Hall’ in honour of Medo Halimy, a 19-year-old Palestinian TikTok creator killed in an Israeli airstrike in August. Sasmit Rahman, an SDS protester, described their cause as “just” and said that the consequences of their actions were “incomparable to the situation in Gaza.” Rahman also confirmed that 11 protesters remained unaccounted for.