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Police in Washington have arrested more than 30 pro-Palestinian protesters at the University of Washington after they occupied and damaged an engineering building.
Getting into it: Last night, a group of pro-Palestinian protesters calling themselves Super UW occupied the Interdisciplinary Engineering Building at the University of Washington in Seattle. The group entered the building in the evening, blocked entrances with furniture, and set two dumpsters on fire outside, creating what the university later described as a “dangerous environment in and around the building.” Protesters wore black masks, covered identifiable features, and locked themselves inside for multiple hours before law enforcement—including UW Police, Seattle Police, and Washington State Patrol—moved in to end the occupation around 11:00 p.m. Roughly 30 individuals were arrested and face charges of trespassing, property destruction, disorderly conduct, and conspiracy to commit those offenses, according to university spokesperson Victor Balta.
The protest was organized in opposition to the university’s financial ties to Boeing, which donated $10 million to fund the building the group occupied. Protesters accused Boeing of supplying weapons used in the Israeli military campaign in Gaza, stating that “Boeing manufactures the F-15 fighter jets, Apache helicopters, Hellfire missiles, and 500-pound bombs which Israel uses to murder entire Palestinian families,” according to a post by Students United for Palestinian Equality & Return.
A banner brought by the protesters renamed the building the “Sha’ban Al-Dalou Building,” in honor of a 19-year-old engineering student from Gaza who was killed in an Israeli airstrike on October 14. “We refuse to be complicit while our education is directly funded and controlled by a corporation whose business leads to a mass genocide of Palestinian people,” the group said on social media.
In an official statement, the University of Washington said it “strongly condemns this illegal building occupation and the antisemitic statement that was issued by a suspended student group Monday.” They added, “The University will not be intimidated by this sort of offensive and destructive behavior and will continue to oppose antisemitism in all its forms.”
