Fight Back News Service is circulating the following statement from the University of Minnesota Students for a Democratic Society (SDS).
Since last fall, SDS and the UMN Divest Coalition have been demanding the UMN administration divest from Israel. After months of protests, die-ins, a campus-wide resolution that won by 75 percent, and continued silence on the genocide from UMN administration, an encampment was set up to pressure the administration to meet our demands. During the encampment that occurred last spring, students banded together to demand:
1. Divestment from Israel and all companies complicit in their crimes
2. Ban these companies from hosting workshops and job fairs where they poach our best and brightest to run their war machine
3. Sever all ties with Israeli universities
4. Disclose all University investments and spending
5. Release a statement supporting the Thawabit
6. Ensure amnesty for all students and staff involved in the Palestinian liberation at the University of Minnesota.
These demands were agreed to by Interim President Ettinger. It has been six months since then, and Ettinger did not follow through on his promises when he left our campus in the hands of Rebecca Cunningham.
Shortly after President Cunningham started working at our university, she and the Board of Regents held an emergency meeting, a week before students returned to campus, where they passed a policy of neutrality for the UMN endowment. Regent Janie Meyeron introduced the institutional neutrality policy declaring the University’s endowment funds “politically neutral”, effectively making it impossible for students to campaign for the University to divest from certain companies. In this same meeting, they resurrected restrictive protest policies, including banning unpermitted protests of more than 100 people, the use of more than one sound amplification device and put size limits on signs and banners. To enforce these rules, administrators have followed any pro-Palestine protest around with clipboards, taken pictures of protesters without their consent and repeatedly threatened students with suspension.
While any sort of speech about Palestine has been repressed on campus, Cunningham and the board of regents have been preaching about how our university is a beacon of inclusivity in public while saying heinous things in private, supporting the genocide of the Palestinian people to appease Zionist shareholders and ultimately increase their bottom lines. SDS could not in good conscience let this continue and after months of attempted negotiations, our only choice was to escalate our actions. As we had promised during the encampment negotiations with Interim President Ettinger, we would be back.
This lack of urgency shown by the administration shows both a disregard of student voices as well as a disregard of the rapidly worsening conditions in Gaza. While we attend classes and debate policy, horrific images and stories have been coming out of Northern Gaza. Israel is now believed to be carrying out the “General’s Plan” to forcefully starve the remaining population of north Gaza, according to a former Israeli National Security Council deputy director. For the first two weeks of October, the entirety of North Gaza was cut off from any aid by Israel. Aid continues to be severely restricted. As of Oct. 25, the last remaining hospital in Northern Gaza was raided by IDF soldiers, leaving the entire population of north Gaza without access to any medical treatment.
On Oct. 21, student protesters entered Morrill Hall and occupied it as a form of protest. When entering the building, protesters made it abundantly clear to all those inside, they were free to leave and were in no form of danger. Our people explicitly left the central door on the west end of the building open for those who wished to leave. All others stayed willingly. Additionally, our protesters did not vandalize any property, and any damage was done either by police or in self-defense.
Once students took the building, they hung a banner renaming it in honor of Medo Halimy. Medo Halimy was a 19-year-old Gazan student who was brutally murdered by Israel; he posted on social media about his ‘tent life’ and the lives of thousands of other people during the ongoing genocide. Halimy deserved an education and life just as much as the students at the University of Minnesota.
About two hours into the occupation of Halimy Hall, SAFE-U notifications were sent out causing fear and confusion around campus. This in combination with an exponentially heightened police presence – over 30 UMPD, MPD, State Patrol, and SWAT cars along with a helicopter – made the wider population of students uneasy, but nonetheless our protest persisted.
UMPD, in conjunction with the Minneapolis Police Department, and Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office, forcibly entered Halimy Hall through the tunnels, using a battering ram to break through barricades, yelling, and pointing guns at protesters. They demanded them to get on the ground, and even after this order was complied with, multiple people were still physically restrained and dog-piled by police. They went from door to door until they had arrested 11 protesters and detained a member of the press who had been reporting, despite them wearing a vest clearly dictating their role; when press started taking photos of their colleague being detained, cops tried blocking the camera. Everyone was held in the basement, including members of the press, until 7:35 p.m.; two hours after the police had entered the building. During this time, we were unable to determine the location of the protestors and were concerned for their safety. The belongings of the protestors inside, including those of the press, were subsequently confiscated. The press member was eventually able to collect their belongings on Wednesday, but the arrestees have not yet received their belongings and have not been given a concrete timeline of when they will get them back. This is despite the fact that some of the belongings collected are essential to their safety, including glasses, prescription medications, and house keys.
The arrestees were then brought to Hennepin County Jail. It wasn’t until 4 a.m. that they all were processed. They were held under a probable cause hold, which has a maximum limit of 36 hours. Protestors were held under this supposed “36-hour” hold from late Monday night until 5:30 a.m. on Wednesday, when the last protestor was processed to be released. While they could have been released anytime within the 36 hours – we were hopeful they would be – the University Police did not send over the charges. There was no transparency for us or the arrestees on how long they would be kept. During this time, protesters had to endure insults from law enforcement, inadequate food, the release of dead names to the public, and were separated and put in blocks despite their gender identities. Trans women were put together in a men’s cell and kept in there for 23 hours a day without knowing what time of day it was. During the 36-hour hold, arrestees were interrogated by UMPD, as well as the FBI. One arrestee’s processing was delayed by 5 hours, meaning that they stayed in custody hours after they should have been released despite not being charged. Protestors had to continually remind officers and guards that they were being kept past the 36-hour hold they were supposed to be held for. Our students dealt with these dehumanizing conditions with grace and bravery, but this suffering could have been far shorter if the University police had sent through complete charges sooner. Instead, they dragged their feet and let their students suffer for merely exercising their constitutional right.
While all 11 arrestees were released without bail and without charges, as of yesterday one arrestee, Robyn Harbinson, received word that they were charged with fourth-degree assault. Robyn’s first court date is on Nov. 7, look out for a court rally for our brave protestor. Additionally, all students who were detained received an email that they had been placed under immediate interim suspension. Not only does this mean that they can no longer attend classes, but students who relied on student housing and food plans were left scrambling to find new accommodations for the foreseeable future. These emails also included blatant misinformation, citing incorrect dates of arrest, stating people were arrested on Sept. 21 instead of October, and stating that protestors had prevented staff from leaving Halimy Hall, a point that has been disproven by staff members themselves.
While our students were in jail, President Cunningham sent out an email to the student body claiming our protesters caused intentional property damage and held staff in the building against their wills, statements which are factually incorrect and actively defame our brave protesters.
That leads us to our current situation where all 11 of our arrestees may still be unjustly charged for their heroic actions. We at SDS need the support of our community now more than ever to bring our brave students back to campus to receive the education they deserve. More importantly, the people of Palestine, Lebanon, and Yemen need your support more than ever as they are bombed, starved, dehumanized, and burnt alive.
They may arrest us, jail us, suspend us, and evict us but we will never stop fighting for our university to divest from Israel and we won’t stop fighting until there is a free and liberated Palestine.
