‘We were violently assaulted’: Green Party candidate Jill Stein condemns arrest at WashU’s pro-Palestine protest
Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein is speaking out after being arrested at a pro-Palestinian protest at Washington University in St. Louis on Saturday.
"We were violently assaulted and arrested with ~100 others peacefully protesting genocide at Washington University in St. Louis," Stein said on X Monday.
"Many US police departments - including St. Louis' - are being trained by Israel to use military occupation-style tactics against their own communities," she added, referencing training some departments have received from Israeli forces on counter-terrorism and crowd control.
According to CNN, Stein's campaign manager and deputy campaign manager were also among those arrested.
In a statement put out by Washington University in St. Louis, administrators said that a large group of protesters—many of whom were not affiliated with the school—entered the campus "with the intention of causing a significant disruption to the university."
"It quickly became clear through the words and actions of this group that they did not have good intentions on our campus and that this demonstration had the potential to get out of control and become dangerous," the statement continued. "When the group began to set up a camp in violation of university policy, we made the decision to tell everyone present that they needed to leave. We arrested 100 individuals who refused to leave after being asked multiple times."
Of those 100 individuals, the majority were not affiliated with the university, according to the statement, which said that 23 students and four employees were arrested.
Prior to her arrest, Stein posted a photo of her standing with her arms linked around campus protesters with a super-imposed quote stating: "This isn't just about doing the right thing. It's about doing the only thing that we can do to really take back our future, not only because it's moral and ethical, but because our own survival very much depends on it."
Stein, who is polling at an average 2% nationally, has been vocal about supporting Palestine in the wake of Israel's war against Hamas that has left more than 33,000 Palestinians dead.
She has called for the ending of U.S. aid to Israel and accused President Joe Biden of potential war crimes over his administration's policies toward Israel. Stein has also condemned Israel's actions as a "genocidal bloodbath" and urged an immediate ceasefire.
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