Thirteen people were arrested at Princeton University on Monday after occupying a campus building, an incident the university president called “completely unacceptable.”

The “Princeton Gaza Solidarity Encampment” began on Thursday when roughly 50 people set up tents in McCosh Courtyard. After immediately receiving a warning that the tents violated school policies, the protesters disassembled the tents and transitioned to holding a sit-in with singing, chants, and drums. National Review previously reported that at least three Princeton professors held class within the demonstration. Since the university policies do not permit sleeping outdoors, the protesters have taken shifts staying awake in the courtyard during the night.

The demonstration escalated Monday afternoon, when the activist group Princeton Israeli Apartheid Divest announced on social media that students would “take over Clio Hall,” specifically Dean of the Graduate School Rodney Priestley’s office. 

“Princeton has refused to bargain over our demands through any channels of communication since October,” the group wrote on social media. “We are taking our demands directly to administration to force Princeton to the table NOW!”

Roughly 100 people gathered outside Clio Hall and chanted things like “disclose, divest, we will not stop, we will not rest” while beating drums. Princeton professor Max Weiss led a chant announcing that students and a faculty member had occupied the building. 

“Fourteen students have occupied this building in solidarity with the Palestinian people of Gaza,” Max Weiss said, leading a chant. “One faculty member has occupied this building in solidarity with the Palestinian people of Gaza. Her name is Ruha Benjamin.”

“We are here to support those 14 students and Professor Benjamin, and we will stay here until the student demands are met,” Weiss added. As he was speaking, undergraduate student Maximillian Meyer yelled, “You’re an antisemite, Max Weiss!”

The group is demanding that Princeton 1) divest its endowment of all holdings in companies that “profit from or engage in Israel’s ongoing military campaign, occupation, and apartheid policies,” 2) disclose and end research on weapons of war funded by the Department of Defense, 3) refrain from any academic or cultural associations with Israeli institutions and businesses, in particular by ending study abroad trips at Tel Aviv University and Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and ceasing to facilitate programs like Birthright Israel trips, 4) “Cultivate affiliations” with Palestinian institutions, and 5) Release a statement calling for a permanent ceasefire and condemning “Israel’s genocidal campaign.”

The police said arrests would begin at 5:30 PM if the protesters had not evacuated Clio Hall. Protesters inside the building hung the Palestinian flag and a keffiyeh out the windows, and the crowd outside the building grew to roughly 200. 

“We are here today to demand that Princeton University divest in all forms of financial and cultural ties to the apartheid regime of Israel,” the protester Aditi Rao, a graduate student, said with a megaphone from within Clio Hall to address the crowd outside. “The university has refused time and time again to negotiate with us, to meet with us, to bargain in good faith with us.”

Professor Ruha Benjamin said with a megaphone from inside Clio Hall, “Our students are here simply to gain a hearing.” Benjamin was one of the more than 1,400 academics who signed an open letter committing to “boycott” events “held at or officially sponsored by Columbia University and Barnard College” until the university expunged the offenses from protesting students’ records and the presidents of both institutions resign. 

Video footage obtained by National Review shows Benjamin, alongside Classics professor Dan-el Padilla Peralta, leaving Clio Hall before 5:30 to avoid arrest, while students remained inside. 

“We just received our final warning before they arrest us, before they ban us from campus. But we told them, ‘have you met with our bargaining team?’ They said no,” Rao said, leading a chant from within Clio Hall. “So how can we leave? Why would we leave? We already told you, ‘there’s no rest until divest.’ They’re so confused!”

The crowd outside the building chanted “globalize the intifada,” “ceasefire now,” and “disclose, divest, we will not stop we will not rest” while beating drums. 

“They’re arresting us!” a student protester in Clio Hall yelled out to the crowd. Portions of the crowd moved to the building entrances and interlocked arms to prevent the university’s police officers from exiting; the protesters eventually moved aside, and the officers exited with two protesters— identified as graduate student Ariel Munczek Edelman and post-doc researcher Sam Nastase by the Princeton Alumni Weekly— and brought them inside a bus nearby. 

The crowd surrounded the bus and began banging on it while chanting things like “let them go,” and “the more you try to silence us, the louder we will be.” The bus was unable to move. 

“Everyone must clear the road in order to allow the following to occur: All of the students, those on the bus and inside of Clio Hall, will be issued a summons and released,” Max Weiss told the crowd surrounding the bus. “If you do not disperse, the Princeton Police Department is here and will begin arresting people.” In response, some students yelled “f*** the police.”

“They will be issued a summons and released, if you give us the space to do so,” an affiliate of the Princeton University Department of Public Safety told the protesters.“The longer that you surround the bus, the longer it will take for us to process this. I need you to get out of the road immediately and away from the bus.”

The protesters were released gradually from Clio Hall, where a crowd of roughly 100 people outside chanted things like “we made history” and “Whose campus? Our campus.” Some of the students waved their summonses in the air. 

University president Christopher Eisgruber said in a statement that thirteen people — five undergraduates, six graduate students, one postdoctoral researcher, and one person unaffiliated with the University — were arrested.

“All those arrested received summonses for trespassing and have been barred from campus,” Eisgruber wrote. “The students will also face University discipline, which may extend to suspension or expulsion.” 

The Daily Princetonian identified four students arrested for occupying Clio Hall were Aditi Rao, Christian Bischoff, Khari Franklin, and Sara Ryave, in addition to Edelman and Nastase. 

Protesters later established a sit-in demonstration on Cannon Green, the lawn behind the historic Nassau Hall building.