20 Jewish Students at Brown Arrested at Sit-in

Brown University's Department of Public Safety officers arrested 20 Jewish students who participated in a sit-in at the school's University Hall building Wednesday night, the campus' independent newspaper reported.

The Brown Daily Herald said the students refused to leave the building after entering Wednesday until the university's President Chistina Paxson agreed to schedule and "support a divestment resolution in the next meeting of the Brown Corporation," the university's highest governing body.

"After offering students every opportunity for a different outcome, Brown issued multiple trespass warnings and ultimately moved forward in arresting approximately 20 (students) who refused to leave a campus building where their presence after operating hours posed security concerns," university spokesman Brian Clark said in an email to the publication.

According to the report, police officers arrested and escorted the students from the building Wednesday afternoon and transported them in Providence Police Department vans to the department where they were later released with a pending Nov. 28 court date for trespassing.

The sit-in was organized by a new student group called the BrownU Jews for Ceasefire during a day of protests that included the Brown Students for Justice in Palestine organizing a walkout.

The group arrested posted on social media that they would "not leave University Hall until President Christina Paxson publicly commits to include and support a divestment resolution in the next meeting of the Brown Corporation."

The Daily Herald reported in an earlier story Wednesday that the group delivered its demands to Paxson's office, and that she refused to comment during a faculty meeting after more than 160 staff signed a letter to her requesting campus and state officials to call for a ceasefire and vow to protect the speech rights of pro-Palestinian students at the school.

"At this pivotal historical juncture, we respectfully call on our University president to: (1) Urge Rhode Island's senators to support legislation demanding a ceasefire, an end to Israel's siege and a political resolution to this conflict based on justice and equality; (2) issue a public-facing letter decrying the recent threats to freedom of expression and inquiry on American campuses, which have sought to intimidate those addressing the context and root causes of ongoing violence in Israel-Palestine and (3) issue a letter to our University community affirming that — as with any other subject — the University administration will not tolerate efforts to intimidate, censor or punish Brown students, staff and faculty for exercising their Constitutional right to free speech, activism and scholarship when it comes to Israel-Palestine," the letter said. "There must be no 'Palestine exception' to free speech at Brown."

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