After more than 30 anti-Israel demonstrators were arrested for occupying a University of Washington engineering building — causing more than $1 million worth of damage — the Trump administration announced on Tuesday night that the public university in Seattle would be the latest target in its widespread investigations of colleges for not doing enough to combat antisemitic activity.

The federal government’s Task Force to Combat Antisemitism said it would open a review into the University of Washington following Monday night’s protests, in which masked demonstrators blocked entrances and exits to the building and ignited fires in two dumpsters on a street outside. 

The newly constructed building had been partially funded by Boeing, which the student protest group, Students United for Palestinian Equality & Return, said makes UW a “direct partner in the genocide of the Palestinian people” due to the IDF’s use of Boeing products. Police moved into the building around 11 p.m.

UW President Ana Mari Cauce called the demonstration an “illegal building occupation” and said that “this was no peaceful protest in support of Palestinian rights or against the war in Gaza.” She condemned “in the strongest terms the group’s statement celebrating the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians” and said the university would “not be intimidated by this sort of offensive and destructive behavior and will continue to oppose antisemitism in all its forms.”

“The violence and chaos that ensued on University of Washington’s campus is yet another horrifying display of the antisemitic harassment and lawlessness which has characterized many of our nation’s elite campuses over the last several years. This destructive behavior is unacceptable,” Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said in a statement.

Josh Gruenbaum, GSA federal acquisition service commissioner and a member of the task force, said in a statement that Monday’s events are “another disturbing example of how institutions are failing to protect their communities from radical and dangerous harassment.” 

The federal task force is currently investigating more than 60 universities for an alleged failure to deal with campus antisemitism. So far, seven universities — Harvard, Brown, Cornell, Northwestern, Columbia, Princeton and University of Pennsylvania — have faced funding cuts as a result of the investigations.