SIUE professor says he has broken bones after police response to Washington U. protest

A 65-year-old history professor at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville has been released from the hospital with multiple broken ribs and a broken hand he says he suffered when police responded to a pro-Palestinian protest at Washington University in St. Louis last Saturday.

At the protest, hundreds of community members and local activists demanded the university stop investing in Boeing, an arms supplier to Israel, and called for an end to the siege on Gaza .

In response, the university sent police to disband an encampment that was set up in violation of the private university’s policy, resulting in the arrest of more than 100 individuals who had refused to leave after multiple requests to do so, the university said in a statement.

“We are firmly committed to free expression and allow ample opportunity for voices to be heard on our campus,” the statement reads. “However, we expect everyone to respect our policies and we will take swift action to enforce them to their fullest extent.”

It was during the police response that SIUE Professor Steve Tamari was “body slammed and crushed by the weight of several St. Louis County police officers and then dragged across campus,” according to a statement from Tamari posted by his wife, Sandra Tamari, Thursday on X (formerly Twitter).

Tamari previously posted a video of her husband’s arrest . It showed him wearing a yellow jacket, taking video with his phone as the event unfolded. He appeared to walk into the back of a police officer, then move away as another officer charged and grabbed him. Others quickly converged and wrestled him to the ground.

Onlookers can be heard yelling “stop,” and “don’t hurt him.”

The latest war between Israel and Hamas began Oct. 7 when Hamas launched a surprise raid on southern Israel from the blockaded Gaza Strip that resulted in the deaths of around 1,200 people, mostly Israeli civilians, and abducted around 250 hostages, according to Israeli officials.

Israel’s response in Gaza since the attack has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians, with about two-thirds of them being children and women, according to local health officials. Additionally, “the war has driven around 80% of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million from their homes, caused vast destruction in several towns and cities, and pushed northern Gaza to the brink of famine,” the Associated Press reports.

The Wash U protest took place amid pro-Palestinian college campus protests taking place across the country in recent weeks that have resulted in more than 2,300 arrests , according to the AP.

“Over the last seven months, I’ve been in agony watching my people in Palestine be slaughtered with U.S. bombs and funding,” Steve Tamari wrote in the statement posted by his wife. “I joined the student-led protest on Saturday to stop this genocide and support and protect the students.”

As a result of the confrontation with police, Tamari was hospitalized with broken ribs and a broken hand, he wrote in his statement.

“One doctor told me I am lucky to be alive; my lungs could have been punctured and I could have died on the ground as they abused me,” he said.

“My ordeal, however, is a small price to pay for Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza, aided and abetted by the U.S. government, the military, the political elite of both the Democratic and Republican parties, and, most outrageously, institutions of higher education like Washington University which give lip service to the principles of freedom of speech while they trample anything that might rattle the military industrial complex to which they are so beholden.”

According to SIUE’s faculty website, Tamari’s areas of research include the modern Middle East, Ottoman Syria, Arab history, early modern history, theories of modern world history, and ethnic and national identities in pre-modern times. His Academia page includes uploads of dozens of articles he’s written on those subjects.