Around 50 people attended a pro-Palestine protest Tuesday in solidarity with Monday’s occupation of Morrill Hall at the University of Minnesota.

Put on by Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), the protest started around 4:30 p.m. in front of Coffman Union and then marched to stand in front of Morrill Hall, which was occupied in a Students for Democratic Society (SDS) protest Monday evening where 11 protesters were arrested.

SJP media consultant Ali Abu said SJP decided to come back to Morrill Hall the day after the occupation in solidarity with the 11 people arrested, eight of whom were University students.

A SAFE-U alert at 5:06 p.m. stated certain buildings on campus would be locked until further notice due to the protest activity.

Abu said yesterday’s protest was due to the now “infamous” protest policy, the University’s decision to stay neutral in terms of divestment and the chalking warning.

“They basically gave a warning to SJP for chalking at Coffman,” Abu said. “You can’t get a warning for chalking, that’s really weird.”

Speakers at the protest include SJP and SDS members, along with University faculty. Attendees held photos of people and children who were killed in Palestine and chanted “Free, free Palestine.”

Other chants included “How many kids did you kill today?” and “Israel bombs, U of M pays.” 

Abu said the plan is to keep doing whatever is needed to win divestment.

“The students are ready to protest, they’re ready to escalate and do whatever the case, whatever it is, to get what we want, which is divestment,” Abu said.

The protest ended around 6 p.m. and according to a SAFE-U alert sent at 6:20 p.m., all University buildings reopened except Morrill Hall and Coffman.