Former Sen. Heidi Heitkamp sat in her second-floor office at the University of Chicago’s Institute of Politics, preparing to appeared on a television newscast Friday afternoon when three pro-Palestinian protesters wearing masks and sunglasses stormed in and ordered her out of the building.
Ms. Heitkamp, the institute’s director and the only staff member left in the building, refused to go, slowing an apparent attempt to occupy the building, the latest tactic in protests over the Israel-Hamas war. position on the University of Chicago campus and across the country.
“They were desperate for me to leave,” Ms. Heitkamp recalled. “I told them, ‘I’m not going to leave. This is our building.” And I planted my feet.” She added: “I’m a stubborn old woman.”
Ms. Heitkamp, who represented North Dakota as a Senate Democrat, said she tried to engage in dialogue with the protesters about their goals and why they had targeted the institute, even as she heard others smashing furniture. in other rooms.
“I was trying to find common ground,” he said. “They kept saying, ‘Aren’t you concerned for your safety?’
The standoff ended, he said, when campus police suddenly arrived and some protesters, who had brought an offering of bagels and water to last them a long time, fled through windows.
In a statement, the protest group on Friday said it occupied the building to protest the University of Chicago’s ties to Israel. Bystander video showed protesters climbing out of second-story windows to leave the building as the crowd below cheered.
After the protesters were removed from the building, other protesters remained outside, shouting, chanting and beating drums. It was about two blocks from where police cleared a protest encampment last week,
Jeremy Magnier, a university spokesman, said in a statement that protesters tried to block entry to the building, destroyed property and ignored orders from law enforcement officials to leave.
Earlier in the day, the institute held a board meeting in the building that included David Axelrod, the organization’s founder who was a senior adviser to President Barack Obama.
Mr. Axelrod and Ms. Heitkamp issued a statement later in the day, “We recognize protest as a timeless part of the democratic process. But occupying buildings, destroying property and violating the rights of others is not.”
Ms. Heitkamp said she never felt threatened by the protesters who showed up at her office, nor did she feel like she was being held hostage. “They knew who I was – they called me a senator,” he said. “They really wanted me to leave.”
“I tried to explain that we are a dialogue space at IOP,” he said.
“We are neutral,” he said, adding, “our role at the university is to really create a space for dialogical dialogue.”
The Institute of Politics is two doors away from the University of Chicago Hillel and across the street from Rohr Chabad, where some students were having a Shabbat dinner when the demonstration began. As the protest continued, counter-protesters held up Israeli flags in full view of pro-Palestinian demonstrators. Rock music blasted from a nearby house in what appeared to be an attempt to drown out the voices of protest.
A sign identifying the Institute of Politics building was covered with a cardboard placard reading “permanent ceasefire now” and a series of demands were hung from the building. Among the demands was the “abolition of the university”.
A group of protesters at the University of Pennsylvania also attempted to occupy a campus building Friday night. University police and Philadelphia police made several arrests and cleared the building, Fisher-Bennett Hall. The hall is opposite College Green, the site of the camp which was cleared last week by police.
Mattathias Schwartz, Bob Chiarito, Jeremy W. Peters and Natalie Pompilio contributed reporting.
