Pro-Palestine protesters attempt to occupy government buildings – The Minnesota Daily

About 20 pro-Palestinian protesters occupied and barricaded a University of Minnesota administration building late Monday afternoon.

A SAFE-U emergency alarm At 4:40 p.m., protesters said they had restricted access to the building and damaged university property and advised those still in Morrill Hall to safely exit the building if possible.

Protesters barricaded the building with metal tables and chairs, bike racks and wooden pallets and locked the doors with bike locks around 4 p.m. after marching from a rally in front of the Coffman Memorial Union.

Inside the building, door windows were smashed with shards of glass on the floor, and protesters removed filing cabinets and chairs to place on top of the barricades.

Morrill Hall houses the office of university president Rebecca Cunningham and other administrative functions.

Members of the university's student group Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) organized the demonstration and protested against the university's protest policies and investments in Israel and defense companies.

The university reached an agreement with the University of Minnesota Divestment Coalition in Mayconsisting of SDS, Young Democratic-Socialists of America (YDSA) and Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) to disclose their investments in Israel. The university recently committed to this sponsor the tuition fees for three students from Gaza in the spring semester.

A post on the SDS Instagram page late last week described the protest as a “No Homecoming as Usual” march from Coffman Union to the McNamara Alumni Center.

The group shifted the focus of the protest to conditions in northern Gaza, writing: “As northern Gaza burns, (university) administration worries about chalk and megaphones.”

Before the fall semester, the university has consolidated its guidelines for protestsincluding The number of participants is limited to 100 people and no more than one megaphone is allowed.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.