The New York Police Department mentioned Saturday it took 34 people into custody after responding to a pro-Palestinian protest in Brooklyn, New York, that ended in stories of broken art work and personnel harassment at the Brooklyn Museum.
Within Our Lifetime, a New York-based, Palestinian-led neighborhood group, referred to as for the protest on Friday to “de-occupy” the museum till the establishment discloses and divests from any investments connected to Israel’s monthslong army attack on the Gaza Strip.
The protest started at the Barclays Center at 3 p.m. Friday and arrived at the Brooklyn Museum through 4:30 p.m. Protesters occupied the public plaza in entrance of the museum, in addition to entered the building.
Individuals blocked entrances and displayed banners each inside of and on the façade of the museum, in line with museum spokesperson Taylor Maatman.
“Unfortunately, there was damage to existing and newly installed artwork on our plaza, and some members of our public safety staff were physically and verbally assaulted and harassed,” Maatman mentioned.
Videos shared with and vetted through NBC News confirmed police seeking to protected the museum in opposition to the crowd.
Within Our Lifetime posted on social media that its chair, Nerdeen Kiswani, used to be “targeted and violently arrested,” and claimed that the police ripped off her hijab.
The museum closed an hour early out of outrage for the building, collections and personnel, Maatman mentioned.
The protest is the newest in a chain of pro-Palestinian movements that experience taken position in New York and round the nation over the previous a number of months, together with ones led through scholars at Columbia University, New York University and different schools.
At least 80 people had been arrested Friday at the University of California, Santa Cruz, after the college asked help to transparent a pro-Palestinian encampment, Abby Butler, director of strategic communications and media members of the family, mentioned.
The protests on U.S. faculty and college campuses by myself have already ended in greater than 3,000 arrests, in line with an NBC News tally.
Chancellor Cynthia Larive addressed the scholar frame in a letter Friday, pronouncing the college tried to keep away from involving regulation enforcement however that the disruptions skilled all through the encampment had been “harmful” to others in the neighborhood.
“I believe that many who have engaged in these protests over these many weeks are well-intentioned and attempting to make change through their spheres of influence,” Larive wrote. “This decision was not made because individuals demonstrated; it was because they have chosen to do so through unlawful actions.”
She added that scholars’ calls for for the college to divest and boycott firms affiliated with Israel had been already “deemed unacceptable” through the University of California’s Office of the President.
Meriam Bouarrouj and TJ Swigart contributed.
