The Trump administration announced it would investigate anti-Israel protests at the University of Washington on Monday, with students occupying a engineering building and catching two bins on fire before police officers in riot gear moved in and arresting 30 people.
The multi-agency task force for combating anti-Semitism, which Donald Trump set up in February, said it was reviewing “an eruption of anti-Semitism and violence” on its Seattle campus, although it praised the university’s swift response and strongly verbally proclaimed the protesters’ actions.
The task force said universities must do more to stop future violence and ensure Jewish students have a safe and productive learning environment. The task force said it hopes UW will follow up on law enforcement actions and policy changes, which are necessary to prevent any duplication of chaos.
The Trump administration announced it would investigate anti-Israel protests at the University of Washington, students occupied a construction building and set two bins on fire before police officers with riot equipment moved in and arrested 30 people. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty, left, X/@Choeshow, right.)
Anti-Israel protesters occupy Washington University building, 30 arrests
Education Secretary Linda McMahon said in a statement that the protesters’ “destructive behavior” was “unacceptable.”
“The subsequent violence and chaos on the University of Washington campus is another terror manifestation of anti-Semitic harassment and violations, which has been shown in many of our country’s elite campuses over the past few years,” McMahon said. “The task force does not allow these so-called 'protesters' to undermine campus life and deprive Jewish students who live on campus fears, their equal protection and civil rights.”
Protesters occupied an engineering building on campus for hours and asked the school to withdraw from Boeing, a large aerospace and defense manufacturer that has a long history at the university. Videos at the scene showed that after demonstrators locked themselves inside, police moved in and regained control of several bins in the building.
The university said protesters mostly covered their faces, blocking access to two streets outside the building, blocking entrances and exiting to the building.
The University of Western Australia student group Palestine Equality and Return Student Union said it helped organize the protests and said Boeing funded the building, reaching $10 million. The money was given in 2022.
Education Secretary Linda McMahon said in a statement that the protesters’ “destructive behavior” was “unacceptable.” (Noam Galai/Getty Images)
The group accused UW of being "a direct companion to the genocide of the Palestinian people" through allegiance with Boeing. The group said Boeing made F-15 fighters, Apache helicopters, Hellfire missiles and bombs that Israel used to "murder the entire Palestinian family and destroy Palestinian families, schools, hospitals and mosques."
University of Wisconsin President Ana Mari Cauce strongly opposed the protesters, calling it "illegal building occupation" rather than peace.
Dave Portnoy says Auschwitz
She also condemned the group's statement to celebrate the terrorist attacks on Israeli civilians on October 7, 2023.
“The university will not be intimidated by this horrible and destructive behavior, nor will it have conversations with any group that uses or condones such destructive strategies,” Cauce said in a statement. “We will continue to act against anti-Semitism, racism and all forms of bias so that all our students, faculty, staff, and visitors can feel safe and welcome on our campus.”
The task force is now investigating more than 60 universities and has reportedly failed to address anti-Semitism on campus. The results of these surveys are that seven institutions – Harvard, Brown, Cornell, Northwest, Columbia, Princeton and the University of Pennsylvania – have reduced funding.
Harvard faces more than $2 billion in federal grants for handling campus protests. (Getty Images | Istock)
“No institution that can tolerate violence, harassment or public intimidation of Jewish students should not expect billions of dollars in taxpayer support,” HHS secretary Robert F. Kennedy said in a statement. “It has nothing to do with politics, but about whether a federally funded university upholds the law, protects civil rights and sets up a safe environment for all students.”
Click here to get the Fox News app
After occupying the building on Monday, protesters erected a banner with the words “Sha'ban al-Dalou Building” symbolically renamed after a 19-year-old Palestinian man from Gaza was killed while bombing the Al-Aqsa hospital on October 14, 2024.
The group plans to hold another protest in front of Gerberding Hall on campus at 1 p.m. on Thursday in support of the arrested.