The twelve pro-Palestinian demonstrators who were forcibly removed from a vacant UC Berkeley building Thursday evening were arrested on suspicion of burglary, vandalism and conspiracy, a university spokesperson said.
The details regarding the charges the protesters are facing were revealed Friday in an email from UC Berkeley Assistant Vice Chancellor Dan Mogulof. The email additionally alleged that some protesters used crowbars to attack officers and many resisted arrest, which could lead to additional charges being sought in the future.
“The suspects blocked the north entrance to Anna Head with plywood and shields; they violently resisted arrest, used crowbars to hit officers and used their hands to resist arrest,” Mogulof said.
On Wednesday, the group took over the Anna Head building on Haste Street between Telegraph Avenue and Bowditch Street to protest Israel’s ongoing invasion of the Gaza Strip, which was launched in response to a large-scale terrorist attack in October 2023.
School officials said the group had sticks, crowbars and bolt cutters and that they cut fences, broke windows and spray-painted walls.
The effort to clear the protesters involved officers from more than two dozen different agencies, including UC Berkeley, Oakland, Alameda and San Mateo, Pacifica and San Francisco counties.
The Anna Head building has been unused and boarded up since a fire in 2022.
A spokesperson for the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office did not immediately respond to a request for information about possible charges against the protesters.
The Anna Head occupation came just two days later the pro-Palestinian encampment in front of UC Berkeley’s Sproul Hall was disbanded. That camp dispersed partly to attend a protest in Merced during a meeting of the University of California Board of Regents scheduled for Wednesday, and partly in response to UC Berkeley’s pledge to block investments in Israel during recent negotiations to research.
Pro-Palestinian protesters occupied the lawn around Sproul Plaza on the UC Berkeley campus for 22 days to pressure the university to divest from Israel, before Chancellor Carol Christ released a statement pledging to end UC Berkeley’s ties with the Israeli government to investigate and expressed support for a ceasefire. Her statement noted that University of California regents control the investments.
