An incident involving pro-Palestine protesters who disrupted a University of Colorado Boulder classroom this week and were physically removed by two men is now being investigated by campus police, CU officials said Thursday.
Student advocacy group Buffs 4 Palestine posted edited video of the altercation on social media, writing that it showed two students “violently assaulted by a CU Boulder professor.”
The edited video shows a person walking toward the front of a classroom before cutting to that person being dragged out of the room by two men. A different clip shows another person being grabbed and dragged by their keffiyeh — a traditional Arab headdress — by one of the men.
University officials posted a statement online that said the class on Wednesday was interrupted by “unidentified individuals” who were repeatedly told to leave by an instructor, and then removed from the classroom.
“CU Boulder condemns acts of violence and does not tolerate classroom disruptions, both of which violate state law and university policies,” the university said in its statement.
Nicole Mueksch, a CU Boulder spokesperson, would not say whether the instructor was one of the people involved in removing the student protestors.
The university’s statement describes “a second individual” seen on the video removing people from the class, and notes that person “was not an employee or a student.”
Mueksch said that individual was serving as a mentor for class, identified in the video as “Designing for Defense.” That class is described in the course syllabus as developing and testing hypotheses to solve real-world problems facing the U.S. Department of Defense and the American intelligence community.
The two pro-Palestine demonstrators were students interrupting the “Designing for Defense” class to protest its connection to the Defense Department and government support of the Israeli military’s bombardment of Gaza, according to Buffs 4 Palestine’s post on Instagram.
Student organization Boulder Students for a Democratic Society wrote on Instagram that the university’s statement about the incident was misleading and downplayed what happened.
“We are horrified — but not surprised — that CU has responded to anti-genocide protest with physical repression and lies,” the group wrote.
Unedited videos of the incident provided to The Denver Post on Friday by the Buffs 4 Palestine Instagram account show more of the altercation.
Two protesters are seen entering the classroom, with one staying in the back filming while the other protester, wearing a keffiyeh, walks to the front of the classroom carrying some papers. Before that protester can speak, the instructor snatches the papers from his hands and says “Get out!”
The video shows the instructor walking to the back of the room toward the person filming, saying “Get out!” multiple times and crumpling the papers in his hand. A struggle involving the instructor, the unidentified “mentor” and one of the protesters unfolds, leaving the protester on the floor shouting “No!” The protester’s video, shot from the floor, shows the instructor and mentor hovering over them.
A second video clip shows the mentor exiting the classroom with the keffiyeh in his hands. He turns toward one of the protesters outside the classroom and says “You want some, too?” in a threatening manner.
A third video clip shows the unidentified mentor outside the classroom door picking up one of the protesters by the keffiyeh and dragging them, flinging their body around. A passerby is shouting “Hey, hey!” while one of the protesters is yelling “Stop!” The mentor tells passersby to call campus security and someone responds that they will — but that he “can’t assault people like that.”
The instructor listed as teaching “Designing for Defense” did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday.
Campus police are investigating the incident and will “vigorously” pursue charges or other action, CU Boulder officials said.
Universities across Colorado and the U.S. have been flashpoints for conflict between students, protesters, police and campus officials over the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.
More than 50,000 Palestinians have been killed since the war started in October 2023 after Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel, killing roughly 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages. Eighty-four of those hostages have been killed and most of the living hostages have been released in ceasefire and other agreements, or were rescued by Israeli troops.
At least 100 Palestinians were killed by Israeli airstrikes on Thursday, including 14 children and five women sheltering in a school in Gaza City, according to Palestinian medical authorities.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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