Law enforcement officers descended on Stanford University on Wednesday morning after pro-Palestinian activists occupied President Richard Saller’s office on the last day of spring classes, vowing they would not leave until administrators met their demands to divest.
At around 6 a.m., a small group of students and alumni entered Saller’s office on the main quad. After barricading themselves inside, they named the building “Dr. Adnan’s office” in honor of Dr. Adnan al-Bursh, a leading Palestinian surgeon who died in April in an Israeli detention facility.
“Free, Free Palestine,” protesters chanted, as law enforcement officers broke open a door with a crowbar and entered the building.
“THE STUDENT INT1FADA IS GROWING,” Liberate Stanford wrote in a statement on Instagram. “We refuse to leave until Stanford Administration and the Stanford Board of Trustees meet our demands and take action to address their role in enabling and profiting from the ongoing genocide in Gaza.”
About 50 students — most wearing black with their faces wrapped in kaffiyehs — linked arms and surrounded the building in solidarity with the occupying students. Some held a banner that read: “While Gaza bleeds Stanford stalls. Divest. Disclose. Amnesty.”
“A group of individuals this morning unlawfully entered Building 10, which houses the offices of the president and provost,” the university said in a statement. “The Stanford Department of Public Safety has responded to the scene and is assessing the situation. Other campus operations have not been affected at this time.”
The protesters — who call themselves an autonomous group of students unaffiliated with any official student group — are calling on Stanford to add the divestment bill submitted by Stanford Against Apartheid in Palestine to the next Board of Trustees meeting, with a recommendation by Saller to support the bill, disclose finances from fiscal year 2022, and drop all disciplinary and criminal charges against pro-Palestinian students.
The occupation comes after months of protests and negotiations between Stanford officials and pro-Palestinian activists. Last year, protesters set up a sprawling encampment, Sit-in to Stop Genocide, in White Plaza, which became the longest sit-in in Stanford history, until administrators enforced a camping ban in February “out of concern for the health and safety of our students.”
In April, activists set up another encampment in White Plaza. On May 20, a small group of demonstrators attempted to occupy a mechanical engineering building, blocking entryways with barricades and furniture. Saller told the faculty senate that students involved in that occupation faced “immediate suspension and the inability to participate in commencement” and may be subject to criminal charges.
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