Update: Reactions for, against the more than 100 arrested at Dartmouth, UNH
Calvin George, middle, of the Dartmouth New Deal Coalition, negotiates with Dartmouth administrators Eric Ramsey, associate dean for student life left, and Emma Wolfe, vice president for government and community relations, right, during a protest of the Israel-Hamas War on the Dartmouth College Green in Hanover, N.H., on Wednesday, May 1, 2024. (Valley News - James M. Patterson) Copyright Valley News. May not be reprinted or used online without permission. Send requests to permission@vnews.com. James M. Patterson
Douglas Smith, left, and Jill Wilcox, both of Sharon, set up tents on Dartmouth College Green in solidarity with students protesting the Israel-Hamas War and demanding Dartmouth College divest from companies connected to Israel, in Hanover, N.H., on Wednesday, May 1, 2024. (Valley News - James M. Patterson) Copyright Valley News. May not be reprinted or used online without permission. Send requests to permission@vnews.com. James M. Patterson
New Hampshire State Police, and Lebanon and Hanover Police cross the Dartmouth College Green to remove students protesting the Israel-Hamas War in Hanover, N.H., on Wednesday. James M. Patterson photos / Valley News
Students protesting the Israel-Hamas War and demanding Dartmouth College divest from companies connected to Israel, set up an encampment on the Dartmouth College Green in Hanover, N.H., on Wednesday, May 1, 2024, defying the University’s policies on use of the Green. (Valley News - James M. Patterson) Copyright Valley News. May not be reprinted or used online without permission. Send requests to permission@vnews.com. James M. Patterson
New Hampshire State Police wearing riot gear gather before crossing Dartmouth College Green to remove protesters who set up tents to protest the Israel-Hamas War in Hanover, N.H., on Wednesday.
A protester waves to friends while being arrested by New Hampshire State Police on the Dartmouth College Green in Hanover, N.H., on Wednesday, May 1, 2024. Students protesting the Israel-Hamas War and demanding Dartmouth College divest from companies connected to Israel, set up an encampment on in defiance of university policies. (Valley News - James M. Patterson) Copyright Valley News. May not be reprinted or used online without permission. Send requests to permission@vnews.com. James M. Patterson
Students protest the Israel-Hamas War by attempting to occupy an encampment on the Dartmouth College Green in Hanover, N.H., on Wednesday, May 1, 2024. They demanded that the institution divest from companies connected to Israel. (Valley News - James M. Patterson) Copyright Valley News. May not be reprinted or used online without permission. Send requests to permission@vnews.com. James M. Patterson
Dartmouth College Professor of History Annelise Orleck is held to the ground while being arrested during a protest of the Israel-Hamas War on the Green in Hanover, N.H., on Wednesday, May 1, 2024. (Valley News - James M. Patterson) Copyright Valley News. May not be reprinted or used online without permission. Send requests to permission@vnews.com. James M. Patterson
Ahlam Abuawad, left, and Emily Simpson, both members of Upper Valley for Palestine, listen to a speaker during a protest of the Israel-Hamas War on the Dartmouth College Green in Hanover, N.H., as men in a passing car unfurl an Israeli Flag on Wednesday, May 1, 2024. (Valley News - James M. Patterson) Copyright Valley News. May not be reprinted or used online without permission. Send requests to permission@vnews.com. James M. Patterson
Greg Timmins, of Dartmouth College Safety and Security, warns students putting up tents on the Green as part of a protest of the Israel-Hamas War that they are violating Dartmouth College policy and will be arrested, in Hanover, N.H., on Wednesday, May 1, 2024. (Valley News - James M. Patterson) Copyright Valley News. May not be reprinted or used online without permission. Send requests to permission@vnews.com. James M. Patterson
A student is arrested during a protest of the Israel-Hamas War on the Dartmouth College Green in Hanover, N.H., on Wednesday, May 1. Protesters demanded that the university divest from companies in Israel. James M. Patterson photos / Valley News
A student is arrested during a protest of the Israel-Hamas War on the Dartmouth College Green in Hanover, N.H., on Wednesday, May 1, 2024. Protesters demanded that the university divest from companies in Israel. (Valley News - James M. Patterson) Copyright Valley News. May not be reprinted or used online without permission. Send requests to permission@vnews.com. James M. Patterson
Hartford Selectboard Member Brandon Smith, left, is arrested while protesting the Israel-Hamas War with Dartmouth College students in Hanover, N.H., on Wednesday, May 1, 2024. (Valley News - James M. Patterson) Copyright Valley News. May not be reprinted or used online without permission. Send requests to permission@vnews.com. James M. Patterson
New Hampshire State Police arrest Laura Simon, of Hartford, who joined students protesting the Israel-Hamas War in an encampment on the Dartmouth College Green in Hanover, N.H., on Wednesday, May 1, 2024. (Valley News - James M. Patterson) Copyright Valley News. May not be reprinted or used online without permission. Send requests to permission@vnews.com. James M. Patterson
Dartmouth College student Maya Beauvineau, continues to sing a protest song she was leading when New Hampshire State Police in riot gear arrested her in Hanover, N.H., on Wednesday, May 1, 2024. Beauvineau was participating in a protest of the Israel-Hamas War during which students set up tents on the College Green in violation of university policy. (Valley News - James M. Patterson) Copyright Valley News. May not be reprinted or used online without permission. Send requests to permission@vnews.com. James M. Patterson
Spectators watch from a tree in front of McNutt Hall in Hanover, N.H., as students protesting the Israel-Hamas War are arrested on the Dartmouth College Green on Wednesday, May 1, 2024. (Valley News - James M. Patterson) Copyright Valley News. May not be reprinted or used online without permission. Send requests to permission@vnews.com. James M. Patterson
Spectators watch from Dartmouth Hall as protesters calling for Dartmouth College to divest from companies connected to Israel are arrested in Hanover, N.H., on Wednesday, May 1, 2024. (Valley News - James M. Patterson) Copyright Valley News. May not be reprinted or used online without permission. Send requests to permission@vnews.com. James M. Patterson
Dartmouth College student and activist Roan Wade attempts to tell student protesters to disperse and remain safe as New Hampshire State Police in riot gear move down North Main Street in Hanover, N.H., clearing the road after hours of protests on Wednesday. James M. Patterson / Valley News
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Published: 05-02-2024 10:00 AM
Modified: 05-02-2024 5:18 PM |
Police arrested about 90 pro-Palestine protesters at Dartmouth College and a smaller number of protesters at the University of New Hampshire on Wednesday night and Thursday morning, which drew both praise and condemnation.
“Use of police force against protesters should never be a first resort,” said Devon Chaffee, executive director of the ACLU of New Hampshire. “Freedom of speech and the right to demonstrate are foundational principles of democracy and core constitutional rights.”
Gov. Chris Sununu said the quick police response was necessary because the protests violated school policies.
“Thanks to all those who worked with UNH & Dartmouth to provide on-the-ground support,” Sununu wrote on social media. “Peaceful protests are fine, breaking the law is not.”
The protests came amid a swell of police responses to pro-Palestine encampments on campuses across the country in recent weeks. They are the first arrests to occur on New Hampshire campuses since the first encampment popped up at Columbia University two weeks ago.
At Dartmouth, state police began to move in on protesters at around 8:45 p.m. Wednesday. Demonstrators were arrested following the creation of a small encampment on the Dartmouth Green and the start of an approximately 300-person planned protest at 5 p.m.
The arrests – which involved both state and Hanover police – ensued over the course of the next four hours.
“Once tents were erected, Dartmouth Safety & Security made multiple announcements to participants that they must disperse, and they refused,” the Hanover Police Department said in a statement. “Hanover Police along with the New Hampshire State Police made multiple announcements to disperse and while some chose to leave, many stayed.”
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The statement said protesters were arrested for criminal trespassing and resisting arrest.
On UNH’s campus in Durham on Wednesday, an encampment was erected and police arrested 15 to 20 people after they refused to remove their tents, the Boston Globe reported.
Police and demonstrators at UNH disputed whether the protest had turned violent.
The police responses came hours after Sununu condemned protests on college campuses nationally and vowed to support institutions in New Hampshire in responding to them.
“100%, this is pure antisemitism, this is pure hatred,” Sununu said. “And again, they have a right to express that. I’m disgusted by it frankly.”
Robin Nafshi – the rabbi of Temple Beth Jacob, the only Jewish congregation in the Concord area – said she disagreed for the most part with both the aims and tenor of recent campus protests.
“I think people ought to be able to gather and speak for whatever it is that they want to say,” Nafshi said in an interview Thursday. “Unfortunately, too much of what I have seen, read and heard has spilled into vitriolic, anti-Semitic rhetoric, and that, in my mind, is unacceptable.”
Nafshi said she doesn’t see the calls from campus groups for divestment from Israeli companies as anti-Semitic in and of themselves, but she said the targeting of Jewish students witnessed on some campuses has been unacceptable.
Nafshi, who identifies as a Zionist, disputed protesters’ claim that Israel was committing a genocide in Gaza and called the controversial “From the river to the sea” chant “uninformed.”
The arrests at Dartmouth and UNH – which involved officers in riot gear – drew rebuke from the ACLU of New Hampshire.
“We urge university and government leaders to create environments that safeguard constitutionally protected speech,” Chaffee said in a statement. “While the ACLU of New Hampshire does not take a position on the conflict in Israel and Palestine, we are committed to ensuring freedom of expression and association, including on college and university campuses in New Hampshire.”
At Dartmouth, the arrests included two student journalists, according to the college newspaper.
Here’s what members of New Hampshire’s federal delegation had to say about the protests and the police response:
Rep. Annie Kuster: “I am aware that a group of students and protesters were arrested at Dartmouth College last night, and we are monitoring the situation carefully.
“Like many Americans, I was shocked by the vile attack by Hamas on Israeli civilians last October 7th. While I believe that Israel has the right to self-defense, I also have grave concerns about how Prime Minister Netanyahu’s government has prosecuted the war in Gaza, resulting in an unprecedented number of Palestinian civilian casualties.
“As a defender of the U.S. Constitution, I support students’ rights to freedom of speech and peaceful protest. However, these rights are not absolute, and [Dartmouth] College has rules designed to protect the rights of all students to access their education fairly, without bias or discrimination.
“Freedom of speech and the right to peaceful assembly are the bedrock values of our country, but hate speech and antisemitism are not. No person should feel unsafe or be targeted because of their religious beliefs.”
Sen. Maggie Hassan spokesperson Sahil Mehrotra: “Senator Hassan continues to follow the campus protests in New Hampshire and across the country. She believes that while everyone has the right to peacefully protest, there is absolutely no place for antisemitism and threats of violence, which violate the fundamental norms and values that any educational institution seeks to espouse.”
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen spokesperson Rachel Huxley-Cohen: “Senator Shaheen is monitoring the situation unfolding on campuses across the country, including here in New Hampshire. She is supportive of peaceful protests and believes freedom of speech is a critical part of our democracy. The safety of students must always be a priority and laws cannot be broken. Hateful rhetoric, including anti-Semitic statements and threats, as well as violence, is unacceptable—on a college campus or anywhere in our country.”
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