Wisconsin students charge UW board of regents with genocide, 19 protesters arrested

Madison, WI – In a show of student power, nearly 50 protesters marched into the UW board of regents meeting Thursday, December 5, to put Palestine and divestment on the Finance Committee agenda.

This latest militant action comes after a large-scale administration failure to uphold the Madison and Milwaukee encampment agreements on disclosure and divestment from apartheid Israel.

Despite the freezing temperatures, the students opened with a rally outside the event hall. During the rally, SDS and Freedom Road Socialist Organization member Kayla Patterson told the crowd, “The simple truth is that the board of regents stands on the wrong side of history. 13% of the over $1 billion in ‘UW managed funds’ is hidden from the public, hidden from the students that make up these campuses. But the UW system’s investments in crooked companies like Palantir, Lockheed Martin and Mizrahi Tefahot Bank are no secret. Those in power at our universities choose to represent the ruling class and their bank accounts over real human lives under siege in Palestine.”

Shortly after the “Business and Finance” portion of the meeting began, protesters moved inside to occupy the room with signs and banners. After a few minutes, Gabo Samoff of Madison Young Democratic Socialists stood at the front of the room and confronted the board for its refusal to divest from genocide and its failure to deliver after promising transparency.

Once Samoff began speaking, the meeting facilitator, Regent Ashok Rai, turned off the meeting’s recording to prevent the student’s statement from being on file. Samoff said, “We will not accept this total lack of transparency and lack of willingness to even listen to students.” Campus administrators quickly tried to silence the students, calling in police reinforcements, but it was in vain. The students refused to allow business as usual and began chanting “Free free Palestine!” while police tried to shove and drag them out of the room.

UW-Madison police descended on the crowd to push and grab people indiscriminately. Many were simply holding signs when cops wrongfully detained them, with one student even being dragged out by their neck. The disruption continued throughout these police assaults, and students began chanting “We won’t leave!”, refusing to be silenced by the police. Once detained, protesters showed their resolve further during police processing, stomping and chanting “Palestine is our fight! Students of the world unite!”. Defiantly, the students disrupted the meeting for 30 minutes.

In total, 19 were arrested from both the Madison and Milwaukee campuses for showing solidarity with Palestine. Many students were released with bruises and even bleeding from the zip ties. The police repression couldn’t shake the students from their cause.

Organizations coordinating the action involved the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) and Young Democratic Socialists (YDSA) at UW-Milwaukee, Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and YDSA at UW-Madison, and Freedom Road Socialist Organization-Wisconsin.

After demanding the police release all the arrested activists, the crowd outside celebrated as each protester was released one by one. Milwaukee student organizer Cedar Lehman best summed up the energy post-action, stating, “Despite mounting political repression, we came to show the board of regents that no matter where in Wisconsin they hold their meetings, business as usual will not continue while they maintain their policy of ‘neutrality’ toward genocide. We refuse to be intimidated by the administration’s crooked cops that treat protest as justification for abusing and injuring their own students and community members.”

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