The pro-Palestinian camp at Penn was demolished by police and protesters arrested after Gov. Josh Shapiro called on the university to close it

Police broke up the 16-day-old pro-Palestinian camp at the University of Pennsylvania on Friday, less than 24 hours after Gov. Josh Shapiro called for its removal, ignoring objections from free speech advocates. At times, the scene on College Green in the heart of the Ivy League campus seemed like a game of cat and mouse, but it escalated over 48 hours and led to a full-scale police raid, similar to what has happened at some campuses across the country is. such as Columbia University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The move at Penn had been discussed as a possibility for at least nine days, as Penn officials tried unsuccessfully to reach agreement with student protesters over activists’ demands and asked city police for help in preparing to evacuate the camp and its residents and when they do so considered it necessary.

By the time they had finished implementing their plan, 33 people had been arrested without incident – seven of them Penn University students – and charged with criminal trespassing, a university spokesman said. Penn did not say who the other 26 were, but noted that none were affiliated with Penn. Two faculty members originally detained, one handcuffed, were released.

According to Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner, those arrested received a civil or statutory violation, which is the equivalent of a traffic ticket that does not result in a criminal record but may include a fine.

” READ MORE: Live Updates: Police Break Up Penn Protest Site; Students and teachers arrested

Penn police began the process at 5:30 a.m. with assistance from the Philadelphia Police Department and repeatedly warned those present to leave the camp and avoid arrest, the university said.

“Our community has been threatened and our campus has been disrupted for too long,” Penn leaders said in an email to campus Friday morning. “Passion for a cause cannot replace the safety and operations of our university.”

In the email, President J. Larry Jameson, Provost John L. Jackson Jr. and Craig R. Carnaroli, senior executive vice president, said access to College Green, where the camp of about 35 tents had been set up, would be closed until then is restricted further.

The action was immediately praised by some leaders, including Gov. Shapiro and Sen. Bob Casey (D., Pa.), as well as the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia, which said, “Over the last two weeks, it has become increasingly clear” that the camp fostered an atmosphere of intimidation and harassment, particularly toward Jews on campus.”

But it sparked disappointment and condemnation from other leaders, including Councilman Jamie Gauthier and state Rep. Rick Krajewski (D., Philadelphia), as well as faculty groups including the Penn chapter of the American Association of University Professors, the Penn Faculty for Justice in Palestine and the chair of Penn’s Faculty Senate, who resigned Friday.

“One word, abhorrent,” said Dagmawi Woubshet, an associate professor of English and a member of Penn’s Justice Department in Palestine.

Mayor Cherelle L. Parker said city police agreed to help after it became clear it was a student protest and school administrators couldn’t reach an agreement. She said her government worked closely with Krasner and that various officials tried in vain to mediate the situation to facilitate an end to the camp.

The university first asked the city for help on May 1, and Philadelphia police offered Penn police three days of civil unrest training this week, Parker and other city officials said in a statement.

“We are grateful that the eviction took place without violence,” they said.

On Thursday, at an event in Westmoreland County, Shapiro called on Penn to disband the camp, noting that the situation had become more volatile in the last 24 hours.

However, Penn had made his decision before Shapiro’s comments. Such a large tactical effort would be difficult to organize in less than 24 hours. The university’s decision came shortly after the camp’s expansion on Wednesday.

An early morning entry

Philadelphia police in riot gear with zip ties and riot shields stood alongside Penn police as dozens of protesters chanted and wrapped their arms around the base of the university’s famous Benjamin Franklin statue as the dismantling began.

Traffic on Walnut Street was blocked by police cars at 33rd and 34th streets and lined with several police cars.

Nada, who asked not to use her last name for fear of retaliation, was sleeping in the camp when a voice said: “You have two minutes to leave the property or you will be arrested.”

The Drexel University student said everything happened quickly after that.

“We didn’t even have time to collect the artworks we have been working on for the past 15 days, including hand-sewn flags,” Nada said.

Shortly before 7 a.m., police attempted to control a van carrying arrested students, but a group of seven faculty members formed a human chain to prevent the crossing.

The students shouted: “Faculty with students, free Palestine.”

But by 8:30 a.m., most of the Gaza solidarity camp signs were gone. University staff had piled all the tents, lawn chairs, cushions, Palestinian flags and signs supporting Gaza into a pile.

After the last dump truck drove away, facility workers began dismantling the barricades that had surrounded the camp, leaving only the outline of the tent.

The protesters are part of a nationwide movement on college campuses across the U.S. calling on universities to disclose their funding sources and divest their endowments from institutions that benefit from the ongoing war in Gaza, where the death toll among Palestinians has risen following the Hamas attack Israel exceeded 34,000 in October, in which 1,200 people died and hostages were taken.

Criticism and support

At Penn, protesters are also calling on the university to grant amnesty to pro-Palestinian students who face disciplinary action over previous protests. Penn has placed at least six students on leave so far and expelled one of them, an international student, from on-campus housing because he attended the camp.

Announcing her resignation as chair, Penn Faculty Senate Chairwoman Tulia G. Falleti said she was “heartbroken” by the university’s decision to dismantle the encampment.

“I am … no longer confident that I can cooperate with our administration, which has sent police to arrest its own students, staff and faculty for participating in a nonviolent protest,” Klappeti said in a three-page letter.

Falleti, who will maintain her position as political science professor and director of the Center for Latin American and Latin American Studies, noted that the Faculty Senate Executive Committee agreed Thursday to encourage the administration and the camp negotiating team to “continue to negotiate in good faith.” . to de-escalate and strive for a peaceful solution.”

Woubshet, a Penn faculty member on Palestine Justice, said Penn should have followed the example of other universities, including Rutgers, that have reached peaceful agreements with their protesters.

Chi-ming Yang, a professor of English and also a member of the faculty group, said it was particularly disturbing that the takedown occurred amid negotiations between students and administration. Three meetings took place.

“This is completely immoral,” she said.

Woubshet, a Black man and one of the original faculty members arrested by police, said he was handcuffed for several minutes while his female colleagues, who were white and Asian, were not handcuffed.

“I started asking, ‘I’m a faculty member.’ Why am I being handcuffed?’ I heard another officer say in a muffled voice, ‘Take it off.'” Take it off.'”

But others in the Penn community also supported the move.

Benjamin Abella, a professor of emergency medicine, wished Penn had acted sooner but also said he “respects the fact that this is a delicate situation.”

Abella was one of the leaders of a petition with more than 3,000 signatures from faculty, students and alumni calling on Penn to dismantle the camp. He and others delivered the petition to Jameson last week.

“It’s sad that it’s come to this,” he said. “Ultimately, the administration and police acted professionally and calmly and certainly did the right thing.”

University leaders said they could not allow further disruption to Penn’s academic operations or risk students being prevented from taking exams or attending commencement sessions scheduled for May 20 at Franklin Field.

“Demonstrators repeatedly refused to disperse the encampment, provide identification, refrain from threatening, loud and discriminatory statements and behavior, and comply with orders from Penn administration and public safety,” they wrote. “Instead, they encouraged others to join them in escalating their unrest and expanding their camp. This required us to take action to protect the safety and rights of everyone in our community.”

They also failed to give in to protesters’ demands, including granting amnesty to camp participants or divesting stakes in companies that benefited from military efforts in Gaza.

“Penn continues to unequivocally oppose divestment and it is unlawful for institutions receiving funding from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania,” the university said.

As tensions escalated between protesters and the Penn administration, the encampment had expanded Wednesday evening as a large crowd gathered and the Benjamin Franklin statue was once again defaced. On the statue’s forehead, protesters drew an inverted red triangle, which has conflicting meanings as it is a reference to a Palestinian flag and the target markers used in Hamas’ tactics videos. The triangle appeared to have been washed off Franklin’s forehead Thursday morning.

But on Friday, two small red triangles reading “Intifada to Victory” appeared on gray tape at the base of the statue.

In recent days, other colleges, including Columbia, have used police to clear pro-Palestinian camps. According to The Intercept, more than 2,900 protesters were arrested at 100 campus locations nationwide.

Whether this will be the end of camps at Penn for the semester remains to be seen. At some other universities they were reinstated after arrests. Could this happen at Penn?

“Anything is possible,” said Yang, one of the professors at the Faculty of Justice in Palestine.

Staff writers Nate File, Anna Orso, Chris Palmer, Nick Vadala, Ariana Perez-Castells, Rob Tornoe, Gillian McGoldrick, Jesse Bunch, Beatrice Forman and Ellie Rushing contributed to this article.