Trump administration condemns destructive pro-Palestinian protest at University of Washington
The demonstrators praised Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel as they sought to seize an engineering building
Aerial photo of the University of Washington in Seattle. (Getty Images)
(JTA) — A pro-Palestinian protest at the University of Washington Monday night caused what school officials said was more than $1 million in damages to a new engineering building.
Around 30 protesters affiliated with a group that praised Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel were arrested in connection with the incident, according to local media reports.
The incident comes amid a flurry of pro-Palestinian demonstrations on college campuses aiming to channel the energy of last year’s national protest movement, which has spurred a backlash from the Trump administration.
On Tuesday, the Trump administration announced that it would initiate a review of the incident in Seattle.
“The violence and chaos that ensued on University of Washington’s campus is yet another horrifying display of the antisemitic harassment and lawlessness which has characterized many of our nation’s elite campuses over the last several years,” U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon in a statement. “This destructive behavior is unacceptable.”
During the protest, the group blocked two streets and barricaded the entrances and exits to the school’s Interdisciplinary Engineering Building. They also set fire to two dumpsters outside the building, according to the school’s account.
“The UW is committed to maintaining a secure learning and research environment, and strongly condemns this illegal building occupation and the antisemitic statement that was issued by a suspended student group Monday,” wrote the school in a statement. “The University will not be intimidated by this sort of offensive and destructive behavior and will continue to oppose antisemitism in all its forms.”
In their statement, the protest organizers, Students United for Palestinian Equality and Return UW, or SUPER UW, wrote that they were protesting the school’s partnership with Boeing, which donated $10 million to the engineering building, over its role in supplying weapons to Israel.
The group praised Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, which killed some 1,200 people and took 250 hostage, and began the ongoing war in Gaza. Hamas’ name for the attack was the Al-Aqsa Flood.
“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 group wrote.
UW President Ana Mari Cauce condemned the group’s actions and statement on Tuesday.
“This was no peaceful protest in support of Palestinian rights or against the war in Gaza. I condemn this dangerous, violent and illegal building occupation and related vandalism,” wrote Cauce in a statement. “I also condemn in the strongest terms the group’s statement celebrating the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians.”
During the occupation, the protesters pulled doors off their hinges, broke expensive manufacturing tools and defaced a Boeing mural, according to local news channel KOMO.
The group also hung a banner from the building renaming it “Shaban al-Dalou Building,” the name of a Palestinian engineering student killed by airstrikes in Gaza, according to the Seattle Times.
Roughly 30 protesters were arrested by law enforcement, but it is not yet known if the individuals arrested were UW students, according to the statements from the school.
The school year at UW has been bookended by turmoil connected to Israel, the war in Gaza and the status of Jewish students on campus.
In early September, an Israeli soldier killed a UW graduate protesting in the West Bank in an incident the military said was unintentional. Weeks later, protesters at a meeting of the school’s regents shouted down a series of Jewish speakers decrying antisemitism.
The following month saw the publication of a report by the school’s antisemitism task force that split the campus Jewish community, with more than 150 Jewish faculty, staff, students and alumni signing onto an open letter criticizing it.
Following Monday’s protest, in a post on X, the UW campus Chabad posted a photo of a Jewish student laying tefillin, the ritual prayer item, outside of the engineering building after the protest.
