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Update: The students were released at 6 p.m. Wednesday, according to a post on the student organization’s Instagram page.
Two University of Houston students were arrested Wednesday morning after the university’s police department cleared out tent encampments set up overnight by roughly 60 students protesting the latest Israel-Hamas war.
Students for Justice in Palestine at the University of Houston set up the encampments as early as 4 a.m. Wednesday at the university’s designated free-speech zone, Butler’s Plaza, joining other student movements across Texas and the U.S. that have demanded their administrations stand in solidarity with Gaza and divest funding from corporations that contribute to the ongoing war.
“We’re not asking the university to go broke. We’re asking them to stop funding war,” said Amna A., a Palestinian UH student who asked to omit her last name citing safety concerns.
Amna has family in the West Bank and has grown up feeling the “ripple effects” of bombings, resistance and a 75-year legacy of apartheid, she said..
“The university treats this issue as a trivial issue and a matter of freedom of speech, but to me it’s a matter of life and death,” she said.
UH officials said officers arrived at 7:45 a.m. and issued verbal warnings every 15 minutes to disperse, but students continued to protest. According to a spokesperson, by 9 a.m., the University of Houston Police Department and officers from surrounding areas dismantled the camp in accordance with state statutes that prohibit tents and encampments on campus.
Officers arrested two students – one for failing to identify herself, and another who was accused of assaulting a police officer and resisting arrest, a university spokesperson said in an email.
Lieutenant D. Cheek with Harris County Sheriff’s Office later confirmed that one male student was arrested and is facing a felony charge of assault on a police officer, and one female student was arrested on a misdemeanor charge of criminal trespassing.
The protest had been “very peaceful,” said Farah S., a protester with the Palestinian Youth Movement Houston. But she said it intensified when the police showed up, pushing students and destroying their encampments and belongings.
“They chose to escalate,” she said.
The group was allowed to continue its protest in accordance with UH policies, UH officials said.
“We support the constitutional rights of free speech and peaceful assembly and continue to encourage groups to engage in expressive activity safely, compliant with university policies and state laws, and respectful of the rights of others with differing views,” a UH spokesperson said in a statement to the Landing.
Students vacated Butler Plaza and marched throughout campus to the UHPD precinct at 4051 Wheeler Ave., where the two arrested students were taken before they were transported to the Harris County Joint Processing Center downtown.
Shortly after 11 a.m., more than 100 students and community advocates had gathered to protest in front of the processing center in support of the students who were arrested. The protesters plan to stay until the students are released.
Protesters chanted “Free Palestine” and “We want justice you say how? Free all our comrades now” among other rallying cries for hours as deputies continuously reminded protesters not to block the sidewalk and to maintain an open space for those passing by.
Students periodically took short breaks to hydrate and eat snacks and slices of pizza from Pepperoni’s, which were all donated by community members, organizers said. But within minutes, it was right back to work.
“We’ll be here until our comrades are free,” said Reyna Valdez, a senior student organizer with SJP on Wednesday afternoon.
The mother of the male student who was arrested asked to remain anonymous, but said she discussed the encampment with her son this morning before she went to work and advised him to be cooperative.
She didn’t expect anything to happen, but said she specifically told him not to resist arrest, just in case things escalated.
She then went to work and got a call from a friend saying that he was arrested.
“I tried to call him and he wouldn’t answer,” the mother said from the entrance of the Harris County Processing Center. “And then I located him on Life 360 and I saw him in the police department.”
After an hourlong drive to downtown, she tried to get answers but authorities weren’t immediately aware of the charges her son was facing, she said. After talking with lawyers for the group, her concerns were alleviated, she said.
“I know my son,” she said. “He doesn’t do anything wrong, so hopefully all will be good.”
Wednesday’s chain of events are an escalation of previous demands dating back to March 23, 2022, when the UH Student Government Association passed a “Divest from Death” resolution urging the UH Board of Regents to strip its monetary support from Boeing, Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, General Electric, and Northrop Grumman –— which are the top five aerospace and defense companies in the world.
“Despite pressure and calls from the student body, the UH Board of Regents have repeatedly failed to divest UH’s endowment funds from weapons manufacturers that perpetrate occupation, apartheid, and genocide in Palestine,” SJP organizers said in a release.
The UH Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions campaign, a student-led formation of registered student organizations, are demanding that the Board of Regents vote on divestment during their upcoming meeting on May 15 and implement a Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) policy that prohibits investment in occupation, apartheid, and militarism, and that UH remove McDonald’s, Sabra, and Starbucks from campus due to their financial support for Israel.
“We don’t want our universities to be complicit in genocide,” Valdez said.
Many students got up early Wednesday after staying up late to study for their final exams, Valdez said, braving the heat and preparing for a long day of protesting to show the university that they’re politically conscious and willing to act on it.
“Seeing men, women, children being bombed indiscriminately, seeing them crammed into spaces that are extremely tight with no access to water, no access to aid is extremely horrifying,” Valdez said.
They also wanted to support UH students who are Palestinian and have struggled to keep up with school while they simultaneously struggle to maintain communication with their families overseas and learn if they’re still alive, she added.
“We’ve also seen that our university has not done anything to support them,” Valdez said. “They haven’t done anything to help them when they’re struggling with classes, because obviously, they’re dealing with an immense amount of grief and fear.”
Students plan to mobilize protest efforts directly to the Board of Regents during its meeting on May 15.
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