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University of Connecticut police make an arrest as they begin clearing an encampment where more than 150 students rallied to protest UConn’s role in funding the attacks on Gaza through investments in military contractors on the university campus in Storrs, Connecticut April 25, 2024.
Students at UConn were the latest to protest over the Israel-Hamas war.
Scores of students gathered on the Storrs campus starting late Thursday afternoon. Police at the scene took down tents.
One person was arrested, but the protest was "was largely peaceful," a university spokesperson said. UConn Police received no reports of any injuries.
The protesters are calling on the university to divest from companies they say are playing a role in the war.
“We will not rest until you divest!” students chanted.
A social media post from organizers said they were planning an “indefinite encampment.”
As the death toll mounts in the war in Gaza and the humanitarian crisis worsens, protesters at universities across the country are demanding schools cut financial ties to Israel and divest from companies they say are enabling the conflict.
Some Jewish students say the protests have veered into antisemitism and made them afraid to set foot on campus, partly prompting the calls for police intervention.
UConn students join growing nationwide protest movement
1 of 8 — April 25, 2024 - UConn Protest
Protesters at the University of Connecticut set up tents during a rally calling for the university to divest from companies they say are playing a role in the Israel-Hamas war. Police took down the tents a short while later and arrested one student. More than 150 people attended the event April 25, 2024. (Mark Mirko/Connecticut Public)
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2 of 8 — April 25, 2024 - UConn Protest
University of Connecticut police stand inside a group of students linking arms around tens the students set up on campus during a rally calling for the university to divest from companies they say are playing a role in the Israel-Hamas war. Police took down the tents a short while later and arrested one student. More than 150 people attended the event April 25, 2024. (Mark Mirko/Connecticut Public)
Mark Mirko / C
3 of 8 — April 25, 2024 - UConn Protest
University of Connecticut begin to take down tents set up by protestors calling on the university to divest from companies they say are playing a role in the Israel-Hamas war. More than 150 people attended the event April 25, 2024. (Mark Mirko/Connecticut Public)
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4 of 8 — April 25, 2024 - UConn Protest
Protestor at the University of Connecticut link arms in a circle during a rally on campus calling for the university to divest from companies they say are playing a role in the Israel-Hamas war. One person was arrested as more than 150 people attended the event April 25, 2024. (Mark Mirko/Connecticut Public)
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5 of 8 — April 25, 2024 - UConn Protest
A protestor at the University of Connecticut speaks during a rally on campus calling for the university to divest from companies they say are playing a role in the Israel-Hamas war. One person was arrested as more than 150 people attended the event April 25, 2024. (Mark Mirko/Connecticut Public)
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6 of 8 — April 25, 2024 - UConn Protest
University of Connecticut police attempt to break through a circle of protestors linking arms during a rally on campus calling for the university to divest from companies they say are playing a role in the Israel-Hamas war. The students were protecting a tent inside the circle after police took down a number of tents set up by the demonstrators. One person was arrested as more than 150 people attended the event April 25, 2024. (Mark Mirko/Connecticut Public)
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7 of 8 — April 25, 2024 - UConn Protest
A tent is rebuilt inside a circle of protestors after police took down nearly a dozen tents inside a circle of protestors during a rally on campus calling for the university to divest from companies they say are playing a role in the Israel-Hamas war. One person was arrested as several hundred people attended the event April 25, 2024. (Mark Mirko/Connecticut Public)
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8 of 8 — April 25, 2024 - UConn Protest
Surrounded by protestors people sit inside a tent rebuilt after University of Connecticut police took down nearly a dozen tents inside a circle of protestors during a rally on campus calling for the university to divest from companies they say are playing a role in the Israel-Hamas war. One person was arrested as several hundred people attended the event April 25, 2024. (Mark Mirko/Connecticut Public)
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Officials at Columbia University and some other schools have been negotiating with student protesters who have rebuffed police and doubled down. Other schools have quickly turned to law enforcement to douse demonstrations before they can take hold.
UConn senior Muhammed Elsabbal said many of his fellow classmates support the protests, even after the police took down the tents.
"Clearly, it must be doing something — for the police to want to disperse us immediately," he said. "We will not disperse until we sit down on that table and get a written commitment from the university."
Elsabbal said he and other classmates want the university to make four changes.
"One is close and divest from occupation and genocide," he said. "Number two: To sever ties to the war industry." Other changes include stopping student-exchange programs to Israel and "to end the repression of the Palestinian students on campus, including pro-Palestinian activists," he said.
Elsabbal said his classmates, inspired by similar protests occurring at Yale University and at colleges around the country, will not stop until their demands are met.
"I don't think they understand the determination from our end that what we're going through is nothing compared to what people in Gaza are going through," Elsabbal said.
The UConn protest is one of many pro-Palestinian protests being held on college campuses across the country. Recent protests at Yale University led to the arrest of about 45 students on Monday. Other protests have been happening at Columbia in New York City, Emerson College in Boston and the University of Texas at Austin.
Since the Israel-Hamas war began, the U.S. Education Department has launched civil rights investigations into dozens of universities and schools in response to complaints of antisemitism or Islamophobia. Among those under investigation are many colleges facing protests, including Harvard and Columbia.
Mark Mirko
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Connecticut Public
Evening prayers for protesters who are Muslim after most of the tents were removed from an encampment where more than 150 students rallied to protest UConn’s role in funding the attacks on Gaza through investments in military contractors in the center of the UConn campus in Storrs, Connecticut April 25, 2024.
This is a developing story. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Mark Mirko is Deputy Director of Visuals at Connecticut Public and his photography has been a fixture of Connecticut’s photojournalism landscape for the past two decades. Mark led the photography department at Prognosis, an English language newspaper in Prague, Czech Republic, and was a staff-photographer at two internationally-awarded newspaper photography departments, The Palm Beach Post and The Hartford Courant. Mark holds a Masters degree in Visual Communication from Ohio University, where he served as a Knight Fellow, and he has taught at Trinity College and Southern Connecticut State University. A California native, Mark now lives in Connecticut’s quiet-corner with his family, three dogs and a not-so-quiet flock of chickens.
