ST. LOUIS — More than 80 pro-Palestine protesters were arrested by Washington University police Saturday evening after refusing to leave the campus during a demonstration, the university confirmed.
A group of demonstrators decrying the university's response amid the Israel-Hamas War established an encampment on campus Saturday afternoon, calling on the university to cut ties with Boeing Co., among other demands.
The university said everyone who was arrested will be charged with trespassing. It also said that some may be charged with resisting arrest and assault for injuries to Washington University officers.
The university did not say how many officers were injured or the nature of their injuries.
Among those arrested was presidential candidate Jill Stein, who was in town for her campaign.
"As Dr. Stein said, it's shameful that university administrations are condoning the use of force against their own students who are simply calling for peace, human rights and an end to a genocide that the American people abhor," a spokesperson for Stein's campaign said in a statement.
Stein's team said late Saturday night that at last update they heard she was being held at the St. Louis County Jail in Clayton. Stein was released around 1:30 a.m. Sunday morning.
St. Louis Board of Aldermen President Megan Green was also at the protest with Stein.
"Out of nowhere police come and threaten to arrest all people in attendance. Students were literally sitting around eating snacks before this," Green said in a post on X.
A short time later, Green said mass arrests were taking place, calling the number of police present "excessive."
The campus had mostly cleared of both protestors and police by 9 p.m.
A large crowd gathered outside the St. Louis County Jail late Saturday night, rallying for the release of protesters who were being held there. Dozens of protesters had been released prior to midnight.
The St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department said in a news release that none of the arrests were made by St. Louis officers, who were positioned in Forest Park "to ensure the safety of protestors expressing their First Amendment right to peacefully protest."
St. Louis officers remained present once the protest moved onto campus at the request of the Washington University Police Department.
Earlier in the day, the demonstrators, consisting of Washington University students and community members, marched through campus holding signs and Palestinian flags before establishing the encampment outside the John M. Olin Library. Organizers later relocated the encampment to Tisch Park on the east end of campus.
The protest comes after students were arrested and suspended last weekend during a sit-in protest at a university event for potential students. Resist WashU, the collective leading the demonstration, said last weekend's protest was an attempt to hold Washington University accountable to a resolution passed by the student union demanding WashU cut ties with Boeing Co. The company has supplied military weapons to Israel during the war, according to published reports citing congressional aides and a U.S. official.
Resist WashU claimed that last weekend's protest was met with "an outsized police presence and explicit threats of violence and mass arrest by the Washington University Police Department."
In a statement prior to Saturday's arrests, the group said it planned to keep the encampment in place until the university met five demands: to cut ties with Boeing; to boycott Israel educational institutions; to drop charges and suspensions against protestors and defund university police; to stop buying land and to return all land to indigenous communities; and to release a statement condemning Palestinian genocide and calling for a ceasefire.
"Students and St. Louis residents are outraged by the university's continued disregard for their demands against genocide and repression of protestors," Resist WashU said in the statement. "Following the massive successes of the Columbia University encampment over the past 10 days, we have seen an inspiring wave of university occupations across the U.S., alongside a draconian escalation of violent police repression. The people of St. Louis know that now especially is a crucial moment to take a stand against the large-scale state violence we are witnessing, as well as to double down on our demands that U.S. institutions and the U.S. government immediately divest from Israel's genocide of Palestinians."
Washington University said in a statement late Saturday that it "quickly became clear through the words and actions of this group that they did not have good intentions on our campus and that this demonstration had the potential to get out of control and become dangerous."
The university said it then made a decision to tell everyone they needed to leave, eventually arresting 80 people who refused to leave after several warnings.
"We are firmly committed to free expression and allow ample opportunity for voices to be heard on our campus. However, we expect everyone to respect our policies and we will take swift action to enforce them to their fullest extent," the university said.
The Jewish Federation of St. Louis provided the following statement Saturday:
“Our Statement on Current St. Louis Protests & Washington University
We stand with Washington University as it works to maintain the principles of cultural and religious diversity that universities cherish and that we expect from this esteemed institution.
Peaceful protests are one thing but anything that creates a hostile environment that threatens the safety of any student or calls for harm to Israel and the Jewish people cannot be tolerated.
Hamas attacked Israel, brutalized thousands of people and still holds many of them hostage. Our focus should not be taken from the victims of Hamas terrorism, including the people of Gaza who suffer under their control. Twisting facts to threaten Jewish students in the United States does a disservice to the truth and perpetuates a culture of antisemitism that we will not abide.”