The Minneapolis mayor has vetoed a city council resolution designed to protect arrested anti-Israel students from various punishments that resulted from an October protest.
Anti-Israel activists at the University of Minnesota were originally able to secure some assistance from the Minneapolis City Council on Thursday when it voted 7-6 in favor of a resolution that urged school and local authorities to remove and reconsider charges, The Minnesota Star Tribune reports.
”[T]he Minneapolis City Council stands in solidarity with nonviolent student activism for Palestinian human rights, and recognizes the crucial role of nonviolent campus protest in advancing crucial social change,” the resolution stated. “Be It Further Resolved that Minneapolis City Council urges the University of Minnesota to work with campus advocates to accomplish their goals of divestment from the State of Israel and participation in an academic boycott of Israeli academic institutions.”
The document also called upon the university to “rescind all academic charges, suspensions, and evictions of student protestors.”
Council members also urged local prosecuting attorneys to ”consider the actions of all individuals within the historical
and political context outlined in this resolution” and to ”use this context to guide their exercise of
prosecutorial discretion, and to consider dropping any charges against nonviolent protestors.”
The Oct. 21 protest saw 11 student activists arrested after they occupied and barricaded a university building, a demonstration that was led by left-wing student groups like Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) and Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP).
Despite the council’s vote, however, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey has since moved to veto the resolution.
“I fully support the right to freedom of speech, but that right does not extend to actions that jeopardize the well-being of others,” Frey reportedly wrote in a statement explaining his decision. “The council’s resolution sets a disturbing precedent that must apply to all groups evenly regardless of the cause they are protesting.”
Despite the veto, the council could override his action with a 9-3 supermajority vote, KMSP-TV reports.
This article was originally published at campusreform.org
