Eighteen students from Pomona College in Claremont, Calif., were arrested Friday and charged with misdemeanor trespassing during a protest over the removal of pro-Palestinian art, and one student was arrested for obstruction of official business, according to Claremont police. It was done. on a university campus.
Students criticized the heavy police response to the protests, as police from Claremont, Pomona, Azusa and La Verne were on the scene in riot gear.
Pomona Divest Apartheid, the organizer of the protest, said demonstrators were protesting the removal of the “apartheid wall” made of pro-Palestinian students' artwork since March 28. said he entered Alexander Hall on campus.
Pomona College student Diana Truong told CBS News in police presence after spending the night in jail. “We believed we were doing the right thing in advocating for and supporting each other.”
Pomona College's student government voted in February 2024 to divest all school investments from Israeli apartheid, a move opposed by Pomona College President Gabriel Starr. More than 75% of student voters voted in favor of five proposals regarding divestment of the school, including ending all academic support to the state of Israel and divesting the university from all companies and all weapons manufacturers with ties to Israel. .
In a letter Friday in response to the protests, Starr wrote: “Any participant in today's event on the SCC lawn or in Alexander Hall who is identified as a Pomona student will be subject to immediate suspension. All other Claremont College students will be removed from the Pomona campus. You will be banned and will be subject to disciplinary action on your respective campuses. All individual participants who are not members of the Claremont University community are hereby banned from campus immediately.”
The arrest was the latest campus protest in which students have faced discipline and arrest over the Gaza conflict.
Meanwhile, at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, three students were expelled, one was suspended, and 20 others were arrested for participating in an anti-Palestinian sit-in protest held on March 27 in Kirkland Hall on the campus. He was given probation. The protest came in response to school officials removing a question about the divestment of Israel from students' ballots.
The students are currently appealing the school's disciplinary action.
Eli Motyka, a local reporter for Nashville Scene, was arrested during a sit-in protest and is disputing the school's claims about his arrest and demanding an apology.
Dozens of faculty members signed a letter criticizing the Vanderbilt city government's response to the protests and calling on the school to reverse all suspensions, expulsions, and arrests.
“We reject the implicit characterization of student protests as a threat to community or institutional safety,” the letter says. “We call on the administration to revoke all suspensions and criminal charges against students and immediately restore access to on-campus housing, meal plans, health care, and educational activities.”