The New York Police Department said Saturday it had arrested 34 people in response to pro-Palestinian protests in Brooklyn after reports that artwork at the Brooklyn Museum was damaged and staff were harassed.
Within Our Lifetime, a New York-based Palestinian-led community organization, has called for protests on Friday to demand the museum be “de-occupied” until it discloses and divests investments linked to Israel’s months-long military attack on the Gaza Strip.
The protest began at 3pm on Friday at the Barclays Center and reached the Brooklyn Museum by 4:30pm, where protesters occupied the plaza in front of the museum and even went inside the building.
People blocked the museum’s entrances and hung banners inside and in front of the museum, museum spokesman Taylor Martman said.
“Unfortunately, there has been damage to existing and newly installed artwork in our plaza and some of our public safety staff have been subjected to physical and verbal assaults and harassment,” Martman said.
Video shared and reviewed by NBC News shows police trying to secure the museum from the crowd.
Within Our Lifetime posted on social media that its chairperson, Nadine Kiswani, had been “targeted and violently arrested,” and claimed police ripped off her hijab.
Mertman said the museum closed an hour early due to concerns about the building, collections and staff.
The protest was the latest in a series of pro-Palestinian actions that have taken place in New York and across the country in the past few months, including those led by students at Columbia University, New York University and other universities.
At least 80 people were arrested on Friday. Abby Butler, director of strategic communications and media relations at the University of California, Santa Cruz, said the move came after the university asked for help in removing the pro-Palestinian encampment.
More than 3,000 people have already been arrested in protests on U.S. college campuses alone, according to an NBC News tally.
President Cynthia Larive said in a letter to students on Friday that the university had tried to avoid police involvement, but that the chaos experienced during the camp was “harmful” to others in the community.
“I believe that many of those who have participated in protests over the past few weeks are well-intentioned and are seeking to use their influence to effect change,” Larive wrote. “This decision was made not because any individual demonstrated, but because they chose to do so through unlawful actions.”
She added that students’ demands for the university to divest from and boycott companies with ties to Israel have already been “deemed unacceptable” by the UC Chancellor’s Office.
