Pro-Palestinian protesters arrested after disrupting Board of Regents meeting

Around seven pro-Palestinian demonstrators were stopped Thursday morning after interrupting a University of Wisconsin Board of Trustees meeting to demand that the UW System disclose and divest from Israel.

Shortly after the start of the 10:30 a.m. session of the Regents' Business and Finance Committee meetingheld at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee student union, a dozen protesters stood up waving signs and chanting against “Israel’s apartheid colonial regime,” according to videos posted by protesters.

“More than 40,000 people have been killed by weapons supplied by the United States and purchased in American dollars,” said one protester. chanted.

“Not another nickel!” Not a cent more! More money for Israeli crime,” she added as she was expelled by police.

Officers arrested and cited seven people for disorderly conduct, UW-Milwaukee spokeswoman Angelica Duria told the Daily Cardinal. Non-students were banned from the student union for the remainder of June.

“UWM respects and supports citizens’ rights to freedom of expression and to participate in peaceful protests,” Duria said. “However, participants were advised that disruptions risked violating state law and could result in arrests.”

Duria said the dean of students' office and student union staff asked individuals to allow the meeting to continue without further interruption, but those requests were ignored.

Duria did not say whether the protesters were students or whether they had made specific demands.

The protest was led by the UWM People's University for Palestinewhich has spearheaded previous protests, including the camps on the UW-Milwaukee campus. The Thursday protest aimed to “put student voices on the agenda and move[ing] those in power to address the UW system's complicity in genocide,” the group said in an Instagram post from Thursday.

“In countless actions and meetings with administration on campus, students have been asked to focus their efforts elsewhere in the UW systems,” UWM People’s University of Palestine said. “We in the student movement find it imperative to take the struggle straight to the top, where we cannot be moved. »

Thursday's protest at the UW-Milwaukee student union was just one a few hundred meters far from the site where pro-Palestinian protesters set up a two-week encampment last month. UW-Milwaukee Administration made an agreement in May with protesters to remove their encampment with the promise that the UW-Milwaukee Foundation would discuss divestment with them.

Kayla Patterson, a protester from UW-Milwaukee, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel On Thursday, the foundation offered few answers and gave protesters a “hands-on-deck” by scheduling a second meeting.