HANOVER — A Dartmouth student and a college employee were arrested by Hanover police after they protested for Palestinian rights by interrupting an appearance of U.S. Sen. John Fetterman, D-Penn., on campus Wednesday, the latest campus incident over Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza.

Greyson Xiao, a Dartmouth senior, and Emma Herndon, a service specialist in Dartmouth’s Office of the Registrar, were each charged with a single count of disorderly conduct after they stood and held up a Palestinian flag and chanted pro-Palestinian slogans during an appearance by Fetterman as part of a speaker series tied to the election.

The arrests are the latest in a series of disruptions on the Dartmouth campus the past year, beginning last October when two protesting students were arrested and charged with trespassing by refusing to leave a tent pitched in front of Parkhurst Hall. That was followed by the mass arrest of 89 people during a pro-Palestinian protest on the Green in May.

The protests have continued this fall. Last week, red paint was splattered across the steps outside Dartmouth President Sian Leah Beilock’s office and “Free Palestine Divest” was painted on the side of the building.

Wednesday’s incident began nearly 18 minutes into the one-hour event at Filene Auditorium as part of the Rockefeller Center for Public Policy’s 2024 Election Speaker Series when he said he recognized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as “the democratic leader of that nation, that’s our ally” and a someone in the audience shouted out “You’re a liar … there are children dying, their blood is on your hands.”

The protesters were immediately shouted down by others in the audience, according to a video recording of the event, and left without incident. Fetterman gave a glance sideways in the direction of voices and continued a few seconds later: “That’s OK. Look, I wish I could talk with them. You may not believe this or even care, but I am very pro-Palestinian. I am no different than you in some sense. I grieve the tragedy and the death and the misery.”

About 10 minutes later, Xiao and Herndon stood up, held a Palestinian flag and chanted “Fetterman, you can’t hide, we charge you with genocide,” and “Money for health and education, not war and education.”

A Dartmouth “open expression facilitator” then asked Xiao and Herndon to stop interrupting or to leave the event in order that it could continue, Dartmouth College spokeswoman Jana Barnello said via email on Thursday.

But the two protesters continued to chant, at which point a man in a black T-shirt wearing a Dartmouth lanyard approached them and tried to talk with Xiao and Herndon but was ignored. He gave up with an exasperated look on his face and walked away, according to the video.

Then a Hanover police officer approached, grabbed the arm of Xiao, with whom Herndon was linked, and pulled the pair away.

“When attempts to resolve the situation were unsuccessful, the Hanover Police Department — which was already on site for the event with a sitting U.S. senator — decided to remove the two individuals from the event,” Barnello said.

The presence of Hanover police officers is not unusual when high-profile visitors are in town or on campus, according to both Hanover police and Barnello.

“Hanover police are present at all Dartmouth events involving elected federal officials, and HPD officers assess and make determinations about arrests,” Barnello said.

“Freedom of expression and dissent is protected by Dartmouth regulations,” Barnello added, noting that college policy states “protest or demonstration shall not be discouraged so long as the orderly processes of the institution are not deliberately obstructed. Membership in the Dartmouth community carries with it, as a necessary condition, the agreement to honor and abide by this policy.”

Barnello noted Dartmouth employees or students who have violated Dartmouth policies or applicable laws are subject to disciplinary action, although she said the college does not comment on particular cases.

Hanover Police Lt. Michael Schibuola said that officers had accompanied Fetterman throughout the day beginning when he arrived on campus in the morning through the event that began at 5 p.m.

The decision to arrest Xiao and Herndon was the decision of Hanover police, Schibuola said.

Dartmouth “staff clearly indicated they wanted us to intervene but the college did not directly say ‘we want them arrested.’ Our officer made contact, asked them to leave the venue they were interrupting, they refused, and they were taken into custody for disorderly conduct. But there was not any I-want-them-arrested, no,” Schibuola said.

Xiao, 21, said that the people inside Feline who protested were part of the Palestine Solidarity Coalition, a group of students advocating for Palestinian rights. Members of PSC gathered outside the auditorium to demonstrate but only five volunteered on their own to go inside and protest, they said.

“The inside disruption was more so autonomously organized,” Xiao said, explaining that they chose to disrupt Fetterman’s event “because he is one of the most outspoken, unapologetic Zionists who says crazy things, like he celebrates when Palestinians and leaders of the resistance are killed.”

Xiao, a women’s gender and sexuality major from San Jose, Calif., said that they were among the 89 who were arrested last May, although they were also in the group of students who had their charges dismissed.

Xiao said they only met Herndon, who attended Lebanon High School and joined the registrar’s office in August after graduating from the University of Pennsylvania, a short time earlier at a planning meeting for the disruption.

Xiao said after they were arrested in May for the protest on the Green they got a “hand slap” from the Office of Community Standards and although they have not yet heard anything from the college they expect “something similar this time.”

Xiao is due to appear in Lebanon District Court on Dec. 14, they said.

Contact John Lippman at jlippman@vnews.com.