Pro-Palestinian protesters face off against police from multiple agencies on Haste Street and Bowditch Streets in Berkeley, Calif., on Thursday, May 16, 2024. Police arrested at least a dozen people who occupied UC Berkeley’s condemned Anna Head Alumnae Hall as part of a protest in support of Palestinians during the ongoing war in Gaza. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)
Two pro-Palestinian occupations in the East Bay ended on Thursday night, but while police moved into a vacant building and arrested a dozen people at one location, another was cleared peacefully and voluntarily after a meeting between protesters and their college’s leadership.
St. Mary’s College students ended their peaceful occupation of a chapel on campus and hunger strike late Thursday after a meeting between students and administrators.
At UC Berkeley, 12 people, including one enrolled student, were arrested after breaking into Anna Head Alumnae Hall. Between 10 and 20 protesters had occupied the fire-damaged historic building since Wednesday.
At San Jose State University, an encampment that appeared earlier this week remained in place, with some 20 tents and canopies set up. A faculty spokesperson for the protesters asked for a meeting similar to the meeting that led to peaceful resolutions at St. Mary’s, San Francisco State University and a camp set up last month at UC Berkeley’s Sproul Plaza.
Pro-Palestinian protesters face off against police from multiple agencies on Haste Street and Bowditch Streets in Berkeley, Calif., on Thursday, May 16, 2024. Police arrested at least a dozen people who occupied UC Berkeley’s condemned Anna Head Alumnae Hall as part of a protest in support of Palestinians during the ongoing war in Gaza. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)
In Berkeley, around 6:15 p.m. Thursday night, police from multiple agencies arrived on the scene and began setting up barricades outside the vacant building, which is on the site of a now-closed girls school near the main portion of the UC Berkeley campus. A campus spokesperson had described the building earlier as an “active crime scene” after protesters stormed the boarded-up building.
Police ordered the protesters to leave, saying they could be arrested and that force would be used, including potentially pepper spray and tear gas.
Around 7:45 p.m., police cleared people from the front yard and then raided the wooden building as protesters chanted “Free Palestine” and “We are all Palestinians”.
The 12 people apprehended on Thursday night at UC Berkeley were arrested on suspicion of burglary, vandalism and conspiracy, said UC Berkeley spokesman Dan Mogulof. Their custody status was not known Friday.
At St. Mary’s College in Moraga, the hunger strike and occupation of the Chapel of the Most Blessed Virgin, which began Wednesday night, came to an end after the school’s leadership team met with students Thursday night to “openly share and talk through the student group’s concerns,” said Christine Hutchins, a spokesperson for St. Mary’s College.
Pro-Palestine student protesters walk out of the chapel at Saint Mary’s College in Moraga, Calif., on Thursday, May 16, 2024. Twenty Saint Mary’s students began occupying a chapel Wednesday night, with eight of them beginning a hunger strike. (D. Ross Cameron for the Bay Area News Group)
“As an institution grounded in its Lasallian Catholic values, we are committed to working together to address this student group’s concerns as a shared responsibility, one step at a time, by creating awareness, education and positive change at Saint Mary’s,” Hutchins wrote in an email to the Bay Area News Group.
The chapel occupation and hunger strike was led by Students for Justice for Palestine, an unofficial student organization on the campus, and involved around 20 students and supportive faculty; eight students joined the hunger strike. The students set up a memorial for Palestinian children killed in Gaza since Oct. 7 at the St. John the Baptist De La Salle statue on campus, which they asked the college not to remove. Students involved in the protest said that it was peaceful on Thursday before the resolution.
Pro-Palestinian protesters face off against police from multiple agencies on Haste Street and Bowditch Streets in Berkeley, Calif., on Thursday, May 16, 2024. Police arrested at least a dozen people who occupied UC Berkeley’s condemned Anna Head Alumnae Hall as part of a protest in support of Palestinians during the ongoing war in Gaza. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)
Pro-Palestinian protesters face off against police from multiple agencies on Haste Street and Bowditch Streets in Berkeley, Calif., on Thursday, May 16, 2024. Police arrested at least a dozen people who occupied UC Berkeley’s condemned Anna Head Alumnae Hall as part of a protest in support of Palestinians during the ongoing war in Gaza. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)
Pro-Palestinian protesters face off against police from multiple agencies on Haste Street and Bowditch Streets in Berkeley, Calif., on Thursday, May 16, 2024. Police arrested at least a dozen people who occupied UC Berkeley’s condemned Anna Head Alumnae Hall as part of a protest in support of Palestinians during the ongoing war in Gaza. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)
Palestinian flags and banners remain after police arrested at least a dozen people who occupied UC Berkeley’s condemned Anna Head Alumnae Hall on Haste Street near Bowditch Streets in Berkeley, Calif., on Thursday, May 16, 2024. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)
Palestinian flags remain after police arrested at least a dozen people who occupied UC Berkeley’s condemned Anna Head Alumnae Hall on Haste Street near Bowditch Streets in Berkeley, Calif., on Thursday, May 16, 2024. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)
Pro-Palestinian protesters face off against police from multiple agencies on Haste Street and Bowditch Streets in Berkeley, Calif., on Thursday, May 16, 2024. Police arrested at least a dozen people who occupied UC Berkeley’s condemned Anna Head Alumnae Hall as part of a protest in support of Palestinians during the ongoing war in Gaza. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)
Barricades remain after police arrested at least a dozen people who occupied UC Berkeley’s condemned Anna Head Alumnae Hall on Haste Street near Bowditch Streets in Berkeley, Calif., on Thursday, May 16, 2024. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)
Police from multiple agencies form a line to push back pro-Palestinian protesters near Haste Street in Berkeley, Calif., on Thursday, May 16, 2024. Police arrested at least a dozen people who occupied UC Berkeley’s condemned Anna Head Alumnae Hall as part of a protest in support of Palestinians during the ongoing war in Gaza. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)
Palestinian flags remain after police arrested at least a dozen people who occupied UC Berkeley’s condemned Anna Head Alumnae Hall on Haste Street near Bowditch Streets in Berkeley, Calif., on Thursday, May 16, 2024. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)
Pro-Palestinian protesters face off against police from multiple agencies on Haste Street and Bowditch Streets in Berkeley, Calif., on Thursday, May 16, 2024. Police arrested at least a dozen people who occupied UC Berkeley’s condemned Anna Head Alumnae Hall as part of a protest in support of Palestinians during the ongoing war in Gaza. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)
Police from multiple agencies form a line on Bowditch Street and Haste Street to push back pro-Palestinian protesters in Berkeley, Calif., on Thursday, May 16, 2024. Police arrested at least a dozen people who occupied UC Berkeley’s condemned Anna Head Alumnae Hall as part of a protest in support of Palestinians during the ongoing war in Gaza. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)
Pro-Palestinian protesters face off against police from multiple agencies on Haste Street and Bowditch Streets in Berkeley, Calif., on Thursday, May 16, 2024. Police arrested at least a dozen people who occupied UC Berkeley’s condemned Anna Head Alumnae Hall as part of a protest in support of Palestinians during the ongoing war in Gaza. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)
Tape and barricades remain after police arrested at least a dozen people who occupied UC Berkeley’s condemned Anna Head Alumnae Hall on Haste Street near Bowditch Streets in Berkeley, Calif., on Thursday, May 16, 2024. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)
Pro-Palestine student protesters stand at one the exit of the chapel at Saint Mary’s College in Moraga, Calif., on Thursday, May 16, 2024. Twenty Saint Mary’s students began occupying a chapel Wednesday night, with eight of them beginning a hunger strike. (D. Ross Cameron for the Bay Area News Group)
Pro-Palestine student protesters hang a keffiyeh scarf on the statue of De La Salle in front of the chapel at Saint Mary’s College in Moraga, Calif., on Thursday, May 16, 2024. Twenty Saint Mary’s students began occupying a chapel Wednesday night, with eight of them beginning a hunger strike. (D. Ross Cameron for the Bay Area News Group)
Pro-Palestine student protesters hang a keffiyeh scarf on the statue of De La Salle in front of the chapel at Saint Mary’s College in Moraga, Calif., on Thursday, May 16, 2024. Twenty Saint Mary’s students began occupying a chapel Wednesday night, with eight of them beginning a hunger strike. (D. Ross Cameron for the Bay Area News Group)
A pro-Palestine student protester hangs a keffiyeh scarf on the statue of De La Salle in front of the chapel at Saint Mary’s College in Moraga, Calif., on Thursday, May 16, 2024. Twenty Saint Mary’s students began occupying a chapel Wednesday night, with eight of them beginning a hunger strike. (D. Ross Cameron for the Bay Area News Group)
Pro-Palestine student protesters hang a keffiyeh scarf on the statue of De La Salle in front of the chapel at Saint Mary’s College in Moraga, Calif., on Thursday, May 16, 2024. Twenty Saint Mary’s students began occupying a chapel Wednesday night, with eight of them beginning a hunger strike. (D. Ross Cameron for the Bay Area News Group)
Pro-Palestine student protesters hang a keffiyeh scarf on the statue of De La Salle in front of the chapel at Saint Mary’s College in Moraga, Calif., on Thursday, May 16, 2024. Twenty Saint Mary’s students began occupying a chapel Wednesday night, with eight of them beginning a hunger strike. (D. Ross Cameron for the Bay Area News Group)
St. Mary's College students occupying the chapel talked with some supportive faculty about potentially meeting with the university's president to discuss their demands in Moraga, Calif., on Thursday, May 16, 2024. (Photo by Isa Muniz Simunovic)
Kylie Gutierrez, a fourth-year digital media student and co-organizer with the organization, said that they participated in the hunger strike after students’ calls for change were met with little to no response from the college.
The protesters in the vacant building in Berkeley did not release a list of demands, but students and faculty have been protesting Israel and its military response in Gaza for months. An encampment on campus that had been established April 22 was voluntarily cleared on Tuesday and Wednesday following negotiations between a pro-Palestine coalition and administrators.
In a statement Tuesday, UC Berkeley Chancellor Carol Christ said that she personally supports “government officials’ efforts to secure an immediate and permanent cease-fire.” She added that “such support for the plight of Palestinians, including protest, should not be conflated with hatred or antisemitism.”
Some of the major demands from the protesters, Christ did not deliver, however, including the university divesting from Israel, which she said is up to the UC Board of Regents, or an academic boycott of Israel, which she said she did not endorse.
The students at San Jose State’s encampment requested to meet with university administrators at the concrete circle between the encampment and Clark Hall, according to an email by Sang Kil, justice studies professor and liaison between the students and staff. Kil restated the group’s demands, including a public acknowledgment of genocide in Gaza, full disclosure of university investments and any academic or research ties to Israel, full divestment and more.
In a statement Friday, SJSU Interim Vice President of Student Affairs Mari Fuentes-Martin said the school is working toward a “successful resolution” with students.
“At SJSU, students come first,” Fuentes-Martin said. “We are actively engaged with our students because it is the right thing to do.”
The students and administrators at St. Mary’s College agreed on Thursday night that they would work together to find another way to memorialize children killed in the conflict and create awareness, Hutchins said.
The school also agreed to work with students to establish a task force examining more financial disclosure of school investments and “address” the question of divestment from companies supporting Israel and its war effort.
Bay Area News Group staff writers Paul Rogers, Sierra Lopez and Jason Green contributed to this report.
