AMHERST, Mass. (WWLP) – UMass4Palestine, a campus-wide coalition of pro-Palestine organizers, hosted a conference Wednesday afternoon addressing the ongoing pre-trials of those who were arrested during demonstrations in May.
The pre-trials for the arrested protestors began last Monday, and are expected to continue into September, but Wednesday some of those that were arrested back in May spoke out against their charges and treatment from UMass and the Police.
On May 7th, hundreds of students, staff, and community protestors occupied the South Lawn of the UMass Amherst campus, participating in an encampment site known as “the Popular University for Gaza.” The demonstrations were eventually derailed after Umass Chancellor Javier Reyes authorized local and state police forces to shut down the encampment
site.
134 arrests were made, and now the University’s administration continues to pursue these charges in addition to levying disciplinary sanctions against the students involved.
Attorney Rachel Weber told 22News, “For the most part it’s trespassing, failure to disperse, and then some people are charged with resisting arrest, a couple of people are charged with disorderly conduct.”
Weber defending most of the arrestees, spoke about why she’s defending these students, faculty, and community protestors, “The police are who brought the violence, the police are who brought the disruption and it’s the University and Chancellor Reyes who called them in who invited them in to bring that violence to our campus and to this beautiful demonstration that had been happening all day for hours.”
As the pre-trials continue, both the arrestees and their legal team continue to reiterate their demands. Over a dozen of those who were arrested stood outside of the Eastern Hampshire District Courthouse and spoke about their ongoing fight.
Diana Sierra, Faculty for Justice for Palestine, says, “We continue to resist until our University accepts our demands, we want to reiterate that the fight for Palestinian liberation is not over.”
Much of the legal ramifications are still up in the air, some protestors have accepted the Northwestern District Attorney’s deal to have their charges dropped if they complete the adult diversion program.
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Heath Kalb is a reporter who has been a part of the 22News team since 2022. Follow Heath on X @HeathKalb and view his bio to see more of his work.
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