logo
Dozens arrested after pro-Palestinian protesters occupy University of Washington building

Dozens arrested after pro-Palestinian protesters occupy University of Washington building

Yahoo06-05-2025

More than two dozen pro-Palestinian protesters were arrested Monday after occupying an engineering building at the University of Washington, where they demanded the university sever ties with Boeing over the aerospace giant's military contracts and its role in supplying weapons used in the war in Gaza.
The occupation of the Interdisciplinary Engineering Building began shortly before the building closed at 5 p.m. Monday, according to Victor Balta, a spokesperson for the university. The engineering building was partially funded by a $10 million donation from Boeing, according to the university's website.
'Individuals who mostly covered their faces blocked access to two streets outside the building, blocked entrances and exits to the building and ignited fires in two dumpsters on a street outside,' Balta said in a statement to CNN.
The university spokesperson said 'about 30 individuals' inside the building were arrested. Charges including trespassing, property destruction, disorderly conduct and conspiracy will be referred to county prosecutors, Balta said, noting any students among them will also be referred to the Student Conduct Office.
Protesters called for the building to be renamed after a teenage engineering student who they say was killed in an airstrike in Gaza. A banner was hung from a second-floor window of the building during the occupation, CNN affiliate KOMO reported.
Officers with Washington State Patrol's Rapid Deployment Teams entered the building along with campus police and Seattle police, Washington State Patrol spokesperson Chris Loftis told CNN. Local firefighters responded to the fires outside, Lotis noted.
Authorities began clearing the area outside the building at around 10:30 p.m. and started removing the protesters inside about half an hour later, Balta said.
Officers were seen escorting multiple detained people from the building, according to footage from KOMO. Crowds outside could be heard continuing to chant.
Police respond to pro-Palestinian protests at the University of Washington's Interdisciplinary Engineering Building on Monday evening. - KOMO
It's unclear whether those arrested were students. Earlier the university spokesperson said anyone remaining in the building after it closed would be considered trespassing and will 'face legal and student conduct actions.'
The demonstration appears to have been organized by Students United for Palestinian Equality and Return (SUPER) UW, a student group advocating for Palestinian rights, according to the group's social media pages.
Posts on the group's page claimed 'UW students are occupying the Boeing-funded Engineering Building on campus to protest the university's ties to Boeing.'
CNN reached out to campus and Seattle police, the fire department, the Washington State Patrol and Boeing for comment.
The group's post on the rally urged supporters to 'wear a mask and cover (identifiable) features' and directed readers to the group's manifesto published online.
Besides laying out demands for the university to cut ties with Boeing, the manifesto ties the group's actions to the wider student movement in support of Palestinian rights and praises the terror attacks on Israel carried out by Hamas on October 7, 2023, using language similar to how Hamas describes the attacks.
Super UW is a 'suspended student group' at the university, according to Balta, who denounced the group's statement about the occupation as 'antisemitic.'
'The University will not be intimidated by this sort of offensive and destructive behavior and will continue to oppose antisemitism in all its forms,' Balta said.
For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com

Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Why Biden's health cover-up is worse than Watergate
Why Biden's health cover-up is worse than Watergate

The Hill

time43 minutes ago

  • The Hill

Why Biden's health cover-up is worse than Watergate

Jake Tapper, one of the co-authors of 'Original Sin,' the inside account of President Joe Biden's decline, told Piers Morgan last month that the cover-up of Biden's health was 'maybe even worse than Watergate.' Except it's not 'maybe.' For more than four years, Biden perpetuated the biggest fraud on the American people in the history of the republic. And all the president's men and women were his co-conspirators. Every day, they told the public that Biden was not just physically and cognitively fine, but that he was in better shape than anyone in the White House. White House officials not only dismissed questions about Biden's age and acuity but claimed he was so fit that he was wearing his staff out. On one of the rare occasions when the liberal media gently inquired about Biden's health, Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, told CNN that 'I can't even keep up with him.' This is from the same woman who told the country that videos of Biden falling down and wandering off were 'cheap fakes.' She lied. They all did. All administrations bend the truth. But the Biden team went further than any other. When Special Counsel Robert Hur issued his report last February, in which he noted that Biden had broken the law but that a jury would likely not convict because they would find him to be 'well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory,' Biden responded with a tirade against Hur for asking in the interview about when his son Beau had passed away — which Biden could not remember. 'How in the hell dare he raise that?' Biden shouted indignantly. But Hur never asked about it. It was Biden who had brought up Beau's death in a meandering, nonsensical reply to a question about where in his house he had placed classified documents. The rest of the White House piled on Hur, with Kamala Harris leading the charge. She called Hur's description of Biden's faltering memory 'gratuitous, inaccurate and inappropriate.' It was none of those. Everything Hur stated was true. Hur showed enormous restraint and decency in dealing with Biden. How was he rewarded? According to Tapper and Alex Thompson, Hur was blackballed by the legal establishment and could not find a job for months. Even as they were smearing this honest public servant, White House officials continued to peddle the idea that Joe Biden was, at age 81, almost superhuman. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told Meet the Press that 'The most difficult part about a meeting with President Biden is preparing for it because he is sharp, intensely probing and detail-oriented and focused.' No, he wasn't. Biden was largely incapacitated, worked only a few hours a day and couldn't recognize long-term friends and staffers. It wasn't until June 2024, after Biden's debate, that the farce could no longer hold. But even in the wake of that disaster, Biden and company kept lying to everyone, insisting that Biden only had a cold and was still up to the task of running against Trump — and serving another four years. Only after intense pressure from his own party did Biden finally, and reluctantly, drop out. And we know now that Biden likely had cancer. According to a Biden spokesman, Biden last had a prostate specific antigen test 11 years ago. Having compassion for Biden at this time does not preclude asking why he wasn't tested, or if that is simply another lie. House Oversight Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) has announced his committee will ask members of the Biden administration to testify about what they knew and when they knew about Biden's health. The public deserves answers but more than that, those who engaged in the sham need to be held accountable. It's worth remembering that, as a first-term senator from Delaware, while Biden reportedly advocated for fairness and not rushing to judgment, he demanded accountability from President Nixon during the Watergate affair and ultimately called for Nixon's resignation. There is a key difference between Nixon and Watergate and Biden and his decline. While Nixon certainly tried to limit the fallout from the Watergate break-in, he did not know of, order, or approve the Watergate break-in. He only learned of it after the burglars were arrested. Biden, on the other hand, from the beginning of his presidency, orchestrated his administration's malfeasance. From the moment he announced his candidacy in 2019, Biden was deliberately lying to the country when he claimed he was in great health. He also insisted that all his aides repeat that canard. None of this was true, but thanks to a compliant media, which Nixon certainly did not have during Watergate, he was shielded from the public. By 2024, he was working a few days a day, a couple of days a week, and was clearly not in charge of the White House or the country. That was criminal. For at least a year, likely longer, the U.S. did not have a functioning president, and the president's men and women knew it. Yet they lied and covered it up. And that is far, far worse than Watergate. Justin Coffey is a professor of history at Quincy University.

Hamas-Qatari plot to scuttle Trump middle east peace plan uncovered by IDF in Gaza: report
Hamas-Qatari plot to scuttle Trump middle east peace plan uncovered by IDF in Gaza: report

New York Post

timean hour ago

  • New York Post

Hamas-Qatari plot to scuttle Trump middle east peace plan uncovered by IDF in Gaza: report

Documents found by the Israeli Defense Forces in Gaza show Qatari officials and leaders of Hamas plotting to scuttle Donald Trump's 'deal of the century' to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict during the president's first administration, according to a report. The documents apparently show leaders of Qatar and the terror group discussing ways to thwart the peace plan as well as efforts to have Arab countries, such as Saudi Arabia, normalize relations with Israel, according to Israel's Channel 12. The documents cite an emergency meeting in June 2019 between Qatar's Emir Tamim bin Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani and Hamas leaders including Khaled Mashal, former chair of the Hamas Political Bureau. 5 A screenshot from Israel's Channel 12 report claiming Qatari and Hamas leaders (Yahya Sinwa, on right) tried to scuttle peace negotiations brokered by President Trump during his first term in office. Israel Channel 12 5 Trump's 'deal of the century' was supposed to end the conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians when it was announced in January 2020, but according to leaked documents found by IDF soldiers in Gaza the plan was nixed by Hamas working through Qatari mediators. EPA 'We must work together to oppose and eliminate the 'deal of the century,' ' Mashal said, according to the documents. Six months later Qatar's then-foreign minister Mahammed bin Hamad al Thani, speaking to a Hamas leader, Ismail Haniyeh, noted 'the Qatari grants are Hamas's main artery,' referring to cash doled out to the terror group — whose members killed 1,200 Israelis during the October 7, 2023, attack on Israel. Haniyeh, head of the Hamas Political Bureau, was assassinated last year in Tehran where he was attending the inauguration of Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian. His remains were taken to Qatar where they were buried in Lusail, the country's second largest city. In addition, the documents reportedly include correspondence showing Hamas worked to sideline Egypt's diplomatic efforts in Gaza, and replace it with Qatar. 'The Egyptians were attempting to restrain the escalation and we caused them to leave the picture with empty hands,' said Yahya Sinwar in May 2021, when he was the leader of Hamas in Gaza. 'In their place, the Qataris came, and we gave them an opportunity to dictate the fruits of diplomacy.' Sinwar was killed in October 2024 during fighting by the IDF. 5 Former Hamas Prime Minster Ismail Haniyeh called cash grants from Qatar 'the main artery' of the Hamas terrorism network in documents that were leaked to Israel's Channel 12. AP The documents also reportedly reveal messages from Mashal thanking the Qataris for sending the Hamas leadership to Iran for the funeral of terrorist Qasem Soleimani, on January 7, 2020. Soleimani was killed in a US drone strike near Baghdad International Airport on January 3. 'Thank you to Qatari brothers who agreed to fly us,' reads the note from Haniyeh to the Qatari leadership. In a press release, the Qatari government called the documents, which The Post has not been able to independently verify, 'fabricated.' 5 Hamas leader Khaled Mashal (left) allegedly thanked his 'Qatari brothers' for flying Hamas terrorists to Tehran for the funeral of of terrorist Qasem Soleimani, on January 7, 2020. EPA They claimed they had been circulated in the Israeli media 'in an attempt to sow tension and division between Qatar and the United States at a crucial stage in our efforts to mediate a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.' The country's International Media Office said in a June 10 press release the tactic had previously been used 'by those who want diplomacy to fail.' The White House did not return an email seeking comment. A spokesman for Hamas refused comment. 5 Qatar's Emir, Tamim bin Hamad al Thani (left) was allegedly cited in documents found by the IDF in Gaza in which Hamas leaders discuss how to thwart a Trump peace plan for the region. Getty Images In January 2020, Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu unveiled a deal for a two-state peace plan between Israel and the Palestinians. The plan, 'Peace to Prosperity: A Vision to Improve the Lives of the Palestinian and Israeli People,' called for the creation of a State of Palestine with its capital in East Jerusalem. As part of the deal, Sinwar was offered $10 billion and for Gaza to be recognized as Palestine and Hamas-led in exchange for 'forgetting about' the West Bank and other territory. Sinwar rejected the offer, according to the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI). The deal ceded major settlements in the West Bank to Israeli sovereignty and called for a four-year freeze on new Israeli settlement construction. Qatar has had a long association with Hamas, who were designated a terror group by the US in 1997. Qatar's current defense minister, Sa'oud Aal Thani, posted tweets in 2014 backing the group during a round of fighting between Israel and Hamas in the summer of 2014. 'We are all Hamas,' he posted, according to Middle East Media Research Institute. A spokesman for the IDF declined to say when the trove of documents was found in Gaza.

Los Angeles anti-ICE rioters are launching the left's American intifada
Los Angeles anti-ICE rioters are launching the left's American intifada

New York Post

timean hour ago

  • New York Post

Los Angeles anti-ICE rioters are launching the left's American intifada

The riots that kicked off in Los Angeles last weekend aren't just about illegal immigration — they're part of a revolutionary movement. 'Anti-colonialism' is a term often heard in America's college classrooms, but off campus virtually no one takes it seriously. It's just another harebrained radical academic theory, right? Yes, the theory is mostly silly — but the practice is deadly serious. Most Americans and Europeans today feel ashamed of imperialism and racism, and they're glad to be rid of colonies and slavery. All that injustice is a thing of the past, however much its legacy haunts our present. But the ideology of anti-colonialism says otherwise: Imperialism and thoroughgoing racial exploitation never ended and never can end, not until 'settler' and 'colonizer' power is overthrown everywhere. Israel is the focus of the most vitriolic and violent anti-colonial rage, but the United States is just as guilty of being a 'settler-colonial state.' Mexico, and indeed all of Latin America, is America's Palestine, and when illegal immigrants cross the border, when they resist deportation, when they and their allies riot, this is justified resistance to colonialism. In Palestinian terms, it's an intifada, or at least the beginnings of one. Palestinians launched two intifadas against Israel, from 1989 to '93 and from 2000 to '05. These 'uprisings' involved rioting, throwing stones at police and soldiers, hurling Molotov cocktails, and violence up to and including suicide bombings, as well as boycotts, strikes and other forms of economic coercion and nonviolent protest. An American might recognize many of these tactics — though not suicide bombing, thank God — not only as scenes from Los Angeles in recent days but as familiar features from other left-wing protest movements, including those inspired by Black Lives Matter and the killing of George Floyd five years ago. There isn't some grand anti-colonialist conspiracy directing all of this, although there are links between one outburst and another: Usually the thugs who call themselves 'antifa,' for example, are in the vanguard of the provocations. But a conspiracy isn't necessary — the ideology is a franchise, teaching anyone who believes in it to immediately identify enemy groups and what slogans to chant when harassing or hurting them. No radical has to wait for orders to know what to say and do to police or Jews. On social media, conservatives have joked about the Mexican flags some LA rioters have been waving: After all, if you're proud of Mexico and its flag, why would you object to being sent back there? But those flags aren't being waved to make a point about Mexican territory — they're making a point about American territory, Los Angeles itself, which in anti-colonialist eyes belongs to illegal aliens at least as much as to any American. Never mind that Mexico was a product of settler colonization (by Spain) and practiced settler colonization itself in places occupied by indigenous peoples. Anti-colonialism is not about history or consistent philosophical principles; it's about power and acquiring it for those who are willing to take to the streets. That's one reason the Jan. 6 riot at the US Capitol four years ago was so shocking, when right-wing supporters of Donald Trump were willing to use a little of the force that left-wing protest movements routinely employ. The Jan. 6 rioters saw themselves as decolonizing the Capitol, viewing their enemies as a privileged elite who had somehow stolen the election and therefore the country. That riot didn't involve arson to the degree seen in Los Angeles these past few days, but it was frightening to the left, the political middle and most conservatives because it showed radicalism could expand into the right. Too many Americans who would never dream of rioting themselves have for too long simply accepted that left-wing protests are allowed, even expected, to be violent. They were unprepared for the activist right — not Nazi extremists, but a small subset of otherwise unremarkable Republican voters — to learn from what the anti-colonialist left was allowed to get away with. The lesson all Americans have to learn now, before it's too late, is this kind of violence will keep expanding as long as it's tolerated in the name of anti-colonialism and other progressive causes. There will be more riots, and then there will be more than riots: The premises of anti-colonialism call for intifada, not just in Palestine but right here in America. Law, and law enforcement, has to prevail in Los Angeles, but this is a battle that has to be won in the classroom, and the conscience, as well as in the streets. There will always be some violent extremists, but what sets fire to our cities again and again is the complacency of ordinary Americans who fail to recognize a radical premise when its consequences are broadcast on the nightly news — and world news, too. Daniel McCarthy is the editor of Modern Age: A Conservative Review.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into the world of global news and events? Download our app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store