Anti-Zionist protesters being arrested at Pomona College on April 5, 2024. They had taken over an administrative building. Photo: Screenshot/Students for Justice in Palestine via Instagram

Twenty anti-Israel activists were arrested at Pomona College in Claremont, California on Friday for taking over the president’s office and refusing to present identification to the authorities, the school’s newspaper reported over the weekend.

Dozens of students, many of whom were members of the anti-Zionist campus group Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), began occupying Alexander Hall in the late afternoon, according to The Claremont Independent, with at least 18 commandeering the office of Pomona College president Gabrielle Starr. Once inside, they allegedly spurned numerous requests to identify themselves and uttered a racist remark about African Americans. It is believed that the demonstration was prompted by the administration’s dismantling of an “apartheid wall” that demonstrators mounted earlier last week.

“A group of individual refused to identify themselves to Campus Safety and Student Affairs staff, and proceeded to verbally harass staff, even using a sickening, anti-Black racial slur in addressing an administrator,” Starr said in a statement issued after the demonstration began. “This is unacceptable. These actions are actively destructive of the values that underpin our community.”

Starr added that any Pomona College student who participated in the demonstration will be “subject to immediate suspension.”

In total, 20 students, including one who allegedly attempted to stand in the way of a police officer escorting a student in custody, were arrested and released late on Friday night. Students for Justice in Palestine is now demanding Starr’s resignation, The Claremont Independent reported.

“The public has been aware of egregious transgressions done against students at Pomona College following their college sit-in protest of the institution’s involvement with the genocidal state of Israel,” the group said in an email quoted by The Independent. “As a supposed representative of your institution, your [Starr’s] conduct has been fascistic in nature and absolutely reprehensible. Should you have any shame for your conduct, you will resign, drop the charges made on students, and revoke their suspensions immediately. Following these acts in this order, students and the public demand your immediate resignation as president of this institution.”

SJP has called on others to copy its letter and send it to Starr.

The incident at Pomona comes as US colleges and universities are taking action against students who hold unauthorized demonstrations in defiance of school rules, following decades of lax enforcement of rules governing such student protests.

On Friday, Vanderbilt University suspended and expelled anti-Zionist students who participated in occupying an administrative building last month. Several had “assaulted a Community Service Officer” to gain access to the building and others “pushed” officials who suggested having a discussion about their concerns, according to the school’s administration.

On the same day, Columbia University president Minouche Shafik confirmed that up to six student members of an anti-Zionist organization that invited a terrorist to campus have been suspended. According to The Columbia Spectator, their scholarships have been cancelled and they are evicted from campus housing.

Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.