Cops arrest 30 anti-Israel protesters who took over University of Washington facility, started fire and called Oct. 7 ‘heroic'
Seattle police broke up a chaotic anti-Israel protest at the University of Washington on Tuesday, arresting 30 as demonstrators started a blaze and took over a science building overnight.
The Super UW group seized the school's Interdisciplinary Engineering Building on Monday night, blocking access to the facility and setting two dumpsters on fire as they praised Hamas' Oct. 7 terrorist attack that killed more than 1,200 people and saw another 251 kidnapped.
'We are taking this building amidst the current and renewed wave of the student Intifada, following the uprising of student action for Palestine after the heroic victory of Al-Aqsa Flood on October 7th, which shattered the illusion of Zionist-imperialist domination and brought Palestine to the forefront for all justice-loving people of the world,' the protesters said in a manifesto.
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4 Anti-Israel protesters set fire to dumpsters outside the University of Washington's Interdisciplinary Engineering Building.
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4 About 30 protesters were arrested after occupying the building and demanding the school cut ties with Boeing.
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The group was specifically calling on the university to cut its ties with Boeing — which donated $10 million to the school in 2022 and has a facility nearby — due to the company's defense contracts with the US military and support of the Israel Defense Forces.
'We're hoping to remove the influence of Boeing and other manufacturing companies from our educational space, period, and we're hoping to expose the repressive tactics of the university,' Super UW spokesperson Eric Horford told KOMO.
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As part of the siege, the group also hung a banner on the second-floor of the building, renaming it after Shaban al-Dalou, an engineering student who was killed along with his mother after an Israeli airstrike ignited a fire outside a Gaza hospital.
The group made their way to the building just before it closed at 5 p.m., wearing masks as they stacked furniture near the entryways, university officials said.
4 The large blaze caused UW and Seattle police to move in and take the building back from protesters.
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4 Police surround the building as arrests carried on until early Tuesday.
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UW and Seattle police made their way into the building at around 11 p.m. after the dumpsters were set on fire, with the arrests continuing until 3 a.m. when the facility was cleared of its last protester.
'About 30 individuals who occupied the building were arrested and charges of trespassing, property destruction and disorderly conduct, and conspiracy to commit all three, will be referred to the King County Prosecutor's Office,' the university said in a statement.
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The school also slammed the entire demonstration and manifesto from the Super UW as a blatant show of antisemitism, with the university opting to suspend the group from campus.
'The University will not be intimidated by this sort of offensive and destructive behavior and will continue to oppose antisemitism in all its forms,' the school added.
With Post wires
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