PHILADELPHIA — A half-dozen University of Pennsylvania students were among 19 pro-Palestinian protesters arrested while attempting to occupy a school building, university police said Saturday.
Their arrests came a week after authorities broke up a protest camp on campus and arrested nine students — and like other colleges across the country eager to prepare for commencement season, either negotiated deals with students or called in police to dismantle protest camps.
Members of Penn Students Against the Occupation of Palestine announced the action Friday in the school’s Fisher-Bennett Hall and urged supporters to bring “flags, pots, pans, noise makers, megaphones” and other items. said in a press release.
Officers could be seen closing in “within an hour,” The Philadelphia Inquirer reported. University police, supported by city police, then escorted the protesters out and secured the building, news media reported.
Police said after clearing the building they recovered “lock-picking tools and homemade metal shields made from oil barrels.”
The exit doors were secured with zip ties and razor wire and barricaded with metal chairs and desks, while windows were covered with newspapers and cardboard, and bicycle racks and metal chairs blocked the entrance, police said.
Seven of the students arrested Friday remained in custody Saturday pending misdemeanor charges, including one person who assaulted an officer, campus police said. A dozen were issued citations for failing to disperse and obey police orders. They have been released.
The attempted occupation of Fisher-Bennett Hall came a week after city and campus police broke up a two-week encampment on campus and arrested 33 people, nine of whom were students and two dozen of whom had “no Penn affiliation ” had, according to university officials.
Meanwhile, a group protesting the war in Gaza and demanding that the University of Chicago get rid of companies doing business with Israel temporarily took over a building on the school’s campus Friday afternoon.
Members of the group surrounded the Institute of Politics building around 5 p.m., while others went inside, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.
The protest in Chicago follows the May 7 eviction of a pro-Palestinian tent camp near the school by police. University of Chicago administrators had initially taken a tolerant approach but said earlier this month that the protest had crossed a line and raised growing safety concerns.
On Friday, campus police officers using riot shields gained access to the Institute of Politics building and confronted protesters. According to the Sun-Times, some protesters climbed out of a second-floor window.
The school said protesters tried to block the entrance, damaged university property and ignored guidelines to clear the way, and that those inside the building left when campus police officers entered.
“The University of Chicago is fundamentally committed to upholding the rights of protesters to express a wide range of views,” school spokesman Gerald McSwiggan said in a statement. “At the same time, University policy makes clear that protests cannot endanger public safety, disrupt University operations, or destroy property.”
No arrests or injuries have been reported.
Students and others have set up tent camps on campuses across the country to protest the war between Israel and Hamas, putting pressure on universities to cut financial ties with Israel. Tensions over the war have been high on campuses since the fall, but pro-Palestinian demonstrations quickly spread after an April 18 police crackdown on an encampment at Columbia University.
The demonstrations reached every corner of the United States, becoming the largest campus protest movement in decades, spreading to other countries, including many in Europe.
Lately, some protesters have taken down their tents, such as at Harvard, where student activists said this week that the encampment had “outlived its usefulness in relation to our demands.” Others packed up after striking deals with university administrators that offered amnesty to protesters, discussions about their investments and other concessions. On many other campuses, colleges have called in police to clear demonstrations.
Nearly 3,000 people have been arrested on American campuses in the past month. As the summer holidays approach, there have been fewer new arrests and the campuses are quieter. Still, colleges have been vigilant against disruptions to commencement ceremonies.
The latest war between Israel and Hamas began when Hamas and other militants stormed into southern Israel on October 7, killing about 1,200 people and taking another 250 hostage. Palestinian militants still hold about 100 prisoners, and the Israeli army has killed more than 35,000 people in Gaza, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and fighters.
On Thursday, police began dismantling a pro-Palestinian encampment at DePaul University in Chicago, hours after the school’s president ordered students to leave the area or face arrest.