11 arrested after anti-Israel protesters take over University of Minnesota building

MINNEAPOLIS (TNND) — University of Minnesota students on Monday occupied the school's Morrill Hall and renamed it in honor of a “Palestinian martyr," with 11 people being arrested as a result.

The students were members of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), which describes itself as a collection of “students fighting for progressive change and a free Palestine.” Group leaders used the protest to issue several demands to the university, including the end of "institutional neutrality" and halting all academic programs linked to Israel.

“The people inside will not leave until our demands are met or they are forcibly removed,” SDS wrote. “As people who live in the belly of the beast, in the country who is aiding and abetting the genocide and occupation of Palestine, it is our duty to demand our institutions to stop their complicity in the genocide and occupation.”

Videos shared by SDS show a group of about 25 masked individuals gathering in front of Morrill Hall and chanting. A green sign placed there reads “money for education not for bombs and occupation.”

Other images show building doors barred by barricades, bungee cords and bicycle locks.

SDS later on Tuesday called for an “emergency protest,” claiming 11 individuals taken into police custody were “unjustly arrested.”

“On the afternoon of October 21, UMN students and community took over Morrill Hall and renamed it after the Palestinian martyr Medo Halimy,” it wrote. “At around 5:30 p.m., UMPD entered the building and started making arrests of the occupiers and detained 4+ press people.”

The group also called for an “emergency protest” Tuesday against the university’s “use of excessive force.”

The University of Minnesota confirmed Monday 11 were arrested after police entered Morrill Hall, adding that protesters spray painted the building and broke interior windows.

"The full extent of the damage is unknown," the university said. "A number of staff were working in the building at the time, and several people were not able to exit, with some being unable to exit the building for an extended period of time."

The University of Minnesota also condemned the demonstration in an email to the community, saying the occupation of Morrill Hall was "not a form of legitimate protest."

Threatening behavior and destruction of property have absolutely no place within our community," the email read. "These actions endanger safety, erode the fabric of our University community, and undermine the legitimacy of important causes that our students, faculty and staff care so deeply about."

Students at Columbia University in April occupied the campus’s Hamilton Hall, renaming it Hind’s Hall after a Palestinian child killed during fighting in Gaza. Protesters demanded the university provide them “humanitarian aid,” claiming the protest posed the threat of “dehydration and starvation.”

Rapper Macklemore later announced the release of a song seemingly inspired by the protest titled “Hind’s Hall.” He promised to donate all proceeds to the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East.

“The people they won’t leave / what is threatening about divesting and wanting peace?” the rapper asks to open the song. “Blood is on your hands, Biden, we can see it all / and f--- no I’m not voting for you in the fall.”

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