The Trump administration announced on Tuesday that it is investigating “recent incidents of antisemitic violence” on the Seattle campus of the public University of Washington.
The Task Force to Combat Antisemitism, which includes the U.S. Departments of Education and Health and Human Services, and the U.S. General Services Administration, stated that it appreciates the school’s “strong statement” denouncing the violence and “applauds the quick action by law-enforcement officers to remove violent criminals from the university campus.”
“While these are good first steps, the university must do more to deter future violence and guarantee that Jewish students have a safe and productive learning environment,” the group stated. “The Task Force expects the institution to follow up with enforcement actions and policy changes that are clearly necessary to prevent these uprisings moving forward.”
On May 5, antisemitic “harassment and violence” erupted on the school’s campus, and “pro-terror protesters demanded that the university divest from Boeing due to the company’s military contracts linked to the Gaza conflict,” the task force said.
“The ‘protesters’ actions included barricading and occupying an engineering building on campus for hours, setting property on fire and shouting death threats to law enforcement,” it continued.
“The violence and chaos that ensued on the University of Washington’s campus is yet another horrifying display of the antisemitic harassment and lawlessness which has characterized many of our nation’s elite campuses over the last several years,” stated Linda McMahon, the U.S. education secretary. “This destructive behavior is unacceptable.”
Victor Balta, assistant vice president for communications at the University of Washington, told JNS that the “incident involved immediate threats to safety for those inside and around the building and was resolved within a few hours.”
“More than 30 arrests were made and there were no known injuries,” Balta told JNS. The school “takes safety and security seriously,” and its “response demonstrated that,” he added.
Balta stated on Tuesday that the “number of individuals” who occupied the building “created a dangerous environment in and around the building.”
“As law enforcement from several agencies assembled to respond, individuals, who mostly covered their faces, blocked access to two streets outside the building, blocked entrances and exits to the building, and ignited fires in two dumpsters on a street outside,” Balta said.
The roughly 30 people arrested were charged with “trespassing, property destruction and disorderly conduct, and conspiracy to commit all three,” and “will be referred to the King County Prosecutor’s Office,” Balta said. “Any students identified as being involved will also be referred to the Student Conduct Office.”
The school is “committed to maintaining a secure learning and research environment and strongly condemns this illegal building occupation and the antisemitic statement that was issued by a suspended student group Monday,” he added. “The University will not be intimidated by this sort of offensive and destructive behavior and will continue to oppose antisemitism in all its forms.”
Balta didn’t specify the nature of the antisemitic statement.
The student group in question, Students United for Palestinian Equality and Return (SUPER) UW, is suspended, according to Balta. Per the student group’s public posts, it renamed the Interdisciplinary Engineering Building, which it occupied, after Shaban al-Dalou, who it said was a Palestinian engineering student killed in an Israeli airstrike.
The group, which hung a Palestinian flag from the building, damaged “four new manufacturing machines, valued at $35,000 to $120,000,” The Seattle Times reported.
Ana Mari Cauce, president of the University of Washington, stated that “this was no peaceful protest in support of Palestinian rights or against the war in Gaza.”
“I condemn this dangerous, violent and illegal building occupation and related vandalism. I also condemn in the strongest terms the group’s statement celebrating the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians,” Cauce said. “The university will not be intimidated by this sort of horrific and destructive behavior and will not engage in dialogue with any group using or condoning such destructive tactics.”