The protesters’ demands include an end to what they call institutional “neutrality” as well as economic and academic divestment from Israel.
At least 11 pro-Palestine protesters who barricaded an administration building at the University of Minnesota in the US on Monday have been detained.
“UMN students and community took over the Morrill Hall and renamed it after the Palestinian martyr Medo Halimy. After the building was cleared of people, the doors were barricade and a banner hung to rename the building,” the group UMN SDS (Students for a Democratic Society) said in a statement on X.
UPDATES ON HALIMY HALL! JOIN US TODAY AND KEEP CALLING IN! pic.twitter.com/Pv1RFvqQfK
— UMN SDS (@UMNSDS) October 22, 2024
The UM Police Department later entered the building and began arresting “the occupiers” as well as “4+ press people,” the group said.
The detainees were “taken out through the tunnels and outside protesters were unable to find them until they were taken to jail.”
University’s ‘Complicity’
The protesters said that they occupied Morrill Hall because after a year of the genocide in Palestine, “the continuation of our universities complicity in it, and administration continuation to ignore our demands this is the only way forward.”
Students with @DivestUMN @UMNSDS at the University of Minnesota have occupied Morill Hall and locked the doors, demanding the University divest from Israel’s genocide 🔥
Get to the U of M to support if you are in the area! pic.twitter.com/YTxKDqDkme
— charles (@deephousegibbon) October 21, 2024
They are demanding an end to what they call “institutional neutrality,” economic divestment from Israel and “all companies that are complicit in war crimes,” and “academic divestment from Israel, including study abroad programs.”
They are also protesting for “first amendment rights, amnesty and academic freedoms for all students, faculty, staff and community members to protest on campus,” as well as an end to US aid to Israel.
University Statement
A statement from UM said that “a number of staff” working in the building at the time were not able to exit “for an extended period of time.”
SUPPORT STUDENTS OCCUPYING MORRILL HALL
Morrill Hall – 100 Church St SE.
Join the Telegram – https://t.co/4l0zgilCyC pic.twitter.com/I9NSzaCH8d— UMN SDS (@UMNSDS) October 21, 2024
“To ensure the safety of U of M employees in the building who were unable to exit, and in light of property damage sustained to the building, University of Minnesota Police Department was called to the scene to address the situation,” the statement said.”
According to a university statement, the University of Minnesota Police Department entered the building with “necessary support” from the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office.
The university confirmed that with “necessary support from the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office,” 11 people were arrested.
Medo Halimy
The protesters renamed the building Halimy Hall in honor of Medo Halimy, a 19-year-old Palestinian well-known for his documentation on social media of life under war in Gaza, who died due to injuries sustained in an Israeli airstrike in August.
This is the final video from 19-year-old Palestinian vlogger Medo Halimy who was injured by shrapnel while with friends on the beach in Gaza during an Israeli airstrike on 26 August, causing him to fall into a coma and later die from his injuries.
FOLLOW OUR LIVE BLOG… pic.twitter.com/xYD8jIEtjo
— The Palestine Chronicle (@PalestineChron) August 30, 2024
In April, Columbia University student protesters took over Hamilton Hall and renamed it Hind’s Hall, in honor of the six-year-old girl who was killed by Israeli forces in Gaza, along with several members of her family.
Over 42,000 Killed
Flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire, Israel has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza.
Currently on trial before the International Court of Justice for genocide against Palestinians, Israel has been waging a devastating war on Gaza since October 7.
According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 42,603 Palestinians have, to date, been killed, and 99,795 wounded.
Moreover, at least 11,000 people are unaccounted for, presumed dead under the rubble of their homes throughout the Strip.
Israel says that 1,200 soldiers and civilians were killed during the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation on October 7. Israeli media published reports suggesting that many Israelis were killed on that day by ‘friendly fire’.
Palestinian and international organizations say that the majority of those killed and wounded are women and children.
Millions Displaced
The Israeli war has resulted in an acute famine, mostly in northern Gaza, resulting in the death of many Palestinians, mostly children.
‘Exiled in My Own Land’ – Enduring Displacement and War in Gaza
The Israeli aggression has also resulted in the forceful displacement of nearly two million people from all over the Gaza Strip, with the vast majority of the displaced forced into the densely crowded southern city of Rafah near the border with Egypt – in what has become Palestine’s largest mass exodus since the 1948 Nakba.
Later in the war, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians began moving from the south to central Gaza in a constant search for safety.
(The Palestine Chronicle)
