Police descend on occupied building at Columbia in NYC
Police in New York City clashed with protesters while descending on an occupied building at Columbia University.
NEW YORK − Hundreds of faculty and graduate student workers rallied on a sunny Wednesday afternoon outside Columbia University’s only open entrance, protesting the university’s decision hours earlier to send police on campus and arrest more than 100 pro-Palestinian demonstrators.
Protesters held signs, including “no cops on campus,” as police entered and exited the campus gates just feet away. Others held signs calling for university President Minouche Shafik to resign. Faculty members said access was heavily restricted, as campus was closed for a second day in the period before finals, open only to students living on campus and essential workers.
The NYPD announced almost 300 arrests had taken place Tuesday at Columbia and City College − hours before Los Angeles police in riot gear swept onto UCLA’s campus to break up a violent melee between dueling protesters as opposition to Israel’s war in Gaza continued to roll through universities across the nation.
Dozens of the New York arrests involved demonstrators removed from an administration building at Columbia, where officers also took down encampments that had been the epicenter of the protests nationwide.
“Students and outside activists breaking Hamilton Hall doors, mistreating our Public Safety officers and maintenance staff, and damaging property are acts of destruction, not political speech,” Shafik said in a statement Wednesday. She added that many students felt unwelcome on campus because of the disruption and antisemitic comments made by some protesters.
At City College, affiliated with City University of New York, officials requested NYPD assistance after the college said students and “un-affiliated external individuals” refused to leave. The school issued a statement saying students have a right to demonstrate peacefully but that police were called in because of “specific and repeated acts of violence and vandalism, not in response to peaceful protest.”
About 1,200 people in southern Israel were killed and more than 200 taken hostage in the Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7. The Israeli retaliatory assault has killed nearly 35,000 Palestinians in Gaza, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, and obliterated much of the enclave’s infrastructure. The humanitarian crisis has fueled outrage on some U.S. campuses and spurred demands for an end to investment in Israeli companies and amnesty for student protesters.
Developments:
∎ Protesters and police clashed at the University of Wisconsin in Madison when officers broke up an encampment there Wednesday. Video from the scene showed some protesters being pinned to the ground.
∎ Tulane University said at least 14 protesters were arrested from the “illegal encampment” the school said was dominated by protesters “unaffiliated with our community.”
∎ Ohio State officials locked up some buildings in anticipation of a pro-Palestinian demonstration Wednesday afternoon. A similar protest last week led to almost 40 arrests.
At UCLA, video posted on social media showed counterdemonstrators battering a makeshift barricade around pro-Palestinian protesters. The Los Angeles Police Department said it responded to UCLA’s request to restore order “due to multiple acts of violence within the large encampment” on the campus. “The violence unfolding this evening at UCLA is absolutely abhorrent and inexcusable,” Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said in a Twitter post Wednesday. “LAPD has arrived on campus.”
The Los Angeles Times reported police did not intervene for more than an hour after arriving as counterdemonstrators wearing black outfits and white masks − some armed with metal pipes and sticks − repeatedly tried to breach the perimeter of the encampment while campers pushed back and several fights broke out. It was not clear whether any arrests were made, the newspaper said.
The Jewish Federation Los Angeles issued a statement saying it was “appalled” at the violence, which did not “represent the Jewish community or our values.” But the statement also blamed the fracas on the UCLA administration for allowing an environment that made students feel unsafe.
UCLA canceled Wednesday classes and Chancellor Gene Block said the student conduct process has been initiated and could lead to disciplinary action including suspension or expulsion.
Some of faculty and graduate student workers rallying outside Columbia’s gates wore orange safety vests that said “faculty,” which they donned days earlier to help protect students in the encampment.
“There is not a single university left in Gaza, and I bet a lot of you feel there is not a university here in Morningside Heights,” Joseph Hawley, an associate professor of classics, told gatherers, referring to the neighborhood around the school. “But I’m here to tell you the university is here on this sidewalk.”
Barricades still lined city streets outside Columbia’s campus as police officers stood watch. Shafik has asked the New York Police Department to remain on campus until May 17, two days after graduation.
Mana Kia, an associate professor, read a draft statement from the Columbia chapter of the American Association of University Professors saying members “unequivocally condemn President Shafik, the Columbia board of trustees and other senior administrators involved in the decision to call in the NYPD and clear the encampment of student protesters.” The statement said the association has “no confidence in the administration.”
Dozens of protesters gathered Wednesday in and around Fordham University’s Leon Lowenstein Center in Manhattan and established an encampment. The group is demanding the university divest from all companies “complicit in the Israeli occupation and ongoing siege,” according to a statement from the Fordham for Palestine Coalition.
As the demonstration grew throughout the afternoon, it also attracted a handful of onlookers and opponents who occasionally shouted pro-Israel remarks as they passed. Asa Kittay and Carly Connors said they were in class down the street when they heard demonstrators chanting “Intifada,” an Arabic word for uprising or rebellion. Kittay, who held up a tablet with an image of the Israeli flag, said it was “horribly upsetting.”“I believe that these two states can co-exist peacefully,” Connors said. “I do not believe in an intifada. That is not very anti-genocide.” John Lefkowitz, who attended the protest with friends who go to Fordham, said he believes the demonstrations are sometimes incorrectly characterized as antisemitic by people who are uninformed about the position of anti-Zionism.“It’s often told that Jews should feel unsafe in pro-Palestine circles. As a Jew, I’ve never felt unsafe in a pro-Palestinian circle,” he said. “These people are great, they’re not anti-semites.”
The day after other city schools saw violent clashes with police, the encampment at NYU’s lower Manhattan campus stood untouched. Punctuated by faded chalk reading “End Jewish and Palestinian hate,” the collection of tents and chairs took up about one city block near 181 Mercer Street, where the university’s Paulson Center is located.
Fenced-off and guarded by a smattering of campus security, the encampment was bracing for hot weather with some protesters carrying umbrellas to block out the sun and one arriving with large bags of ice. Demonstrators needed to present a school ID to enter the encampment. The barricades held signs reading, “Fund our education, not the occupation” and listing the protesters’ demands, which include divestment and closing NYU’s Tel Aviv campus.
The shadow of Tuesday’s mass arrests and the forced removal of encampments on the other end of the island at Columbia and City College of New York was evident. Just outside the barricades, a group of demonstrators huddled to practice safety tactics.
− Anna Kaufman
The proliferation of antiwar protests in college campuses across the U.S. is filtering down to the younger academic levels, and some of the grown-ups are not happy about it.
A sit-in planned for Wednesday at a Chicago prep school is the latest among high school demonstrations showing support for embattled Palestinians in Gaza. On Monday, about 100 high school students in Austin, Texas, walked out of their classes in protest. Last week, students in western Washington state similarly expressed their objection to the U.S. backing Israel’s military efforts in Gaza.
“I’m protesting against a government that is actively hurting people just because of where they were born and what language they speak,” Pia Ibsen, a senior at McCallum High School in Austin, told USA TODAY. Ibsen helped organize a walkout and left class for about an hour and a half.
Some school and government officials have tried to stop the protests, arguing they create a hostile environment for Jewish students. That was the case last week when two county commissioners in New Jersey demanded a school district’s superintendent cancel a pro-Palestinian walkout at East Regional High in Voorhees Township. The protest was replaced by a rally for human rights.
− Cybele Mayes-Osterman and Kayla Jimenez
New York City police made 119 arrests at Columbia University and 173 at City College in Tuesday night’s crackdowns on protesters, Commissioner Edward Caban said Wednesday. Charges range from trespassing to criminal mischief to burglary, and the breakdown of students to non-students facing charges was not yet available, he said.
Police said there were no injuries, although CUNY for Palestine issued a statement saying one student suffered a broken ankle, two had teeth broken and others received burns from pepper spray used by police during the clash.
Mayor Eric Adams said drones and encryption radios used at Columbia provided police with the element of surprise when they retook Hamilton Hall, adding that “professionals at radicalizing” had influenced the student protesters and co-opted the protest but without providing details.
Officers climbed into Hamilton Hall, which protesters had occupied earlier Tuesday, through a second-story window. Within three hours Tuesday night, they had retaken the building, NYPD said.
“It was about external actors hijacking a peaceful protest and influencing students to escalate,” Adams said. “We cannot allow what should be a lawful protest turn into a violent spectacle that serves no purpose.”
Outside Fordham University’s Leon Lowenstein Center building on Wednesday, another encampment sprung up. Students, faculty and community members surrounded by law enforcement officers and newly erected barricades chanted “Free, free Palestine” and “Disclose, divest, we will not stop, we will not rest.” Inside, demonstrators including current and former students milled around their tents, played drums, banged on windows and held up signs reading “Free Palestine” and “Divest genocide funds” for passersby to see.
Julie Norris, a 27-year-old Fordham alumni, said she arrived before 8 a.m. Wednesday to help establish the encampment. Norris, who spoke to USA TODAY on the phone from inside the Lowenstein Center, estimated about 30 people were inside with her and said they plan to stay until their demands are met.
“The students can’t be stopped,” she said. “We saw intense repression against students on other campuses yesterday, and this morning students are ready to stand back up. There’s going to be no business as usual until Palestine is free.”
Northwestern, Brown reach deal: Make pact with student demonstrators to curb protests
Some student activists who pitched tents and camped on university lawns to protest Israel’s military attacks in Gaza have begun to declare victory after hammering out agreements with school administrators. Northwestern University just outside Chicago became the first U.S. school to publicly announce a deal on Monday. On Tuesday, Brown University protesters broke camp after President Christina Paxson said the Rhode Island school will bring divestment demands to a vote. Organizers hope the deals set a new precedent for protest encampments around the U.S. and show a way to find common ground without using force.
“What these students have done is truly, truly historical,” Summer Pappachen, a graduate student and organizer of the Northwestern encampment, told USA TODAY on Tuesday amid cleanup of the lawn students held for days. “We have been able to achieve (our goals) while keeping students safe.”
− Michael Loria
Columbia building cleared: Police storm into building held by pro-Palestinian protesters
The student protesters opposed to Israel’s military attacks in Gaza say they want their schools to stop funneling endowment money to Israeli companies and other businesses, like weapons manufacturers, that profit from the war in Gaza. In addition to divestment, protesters are calling for a cease-fire, and student governments at some colleges have also passed resolutions in recent weeks calling for an end to academic partnerships with Israel. The protesters also want the U.S. to stop supplying funding and weapons to the war effort.
More recently, amnesty for students and professors involved in the protests has become an issue. Protesters want protections amid threats of disciplinary action and termination for those participating in demonstrations that violate campus policy or local laws.
− Claire Thornton
Contributing: Reuters
Emily Foster is a globe-trotting journalist based in the UK. Her articles offer readers a global perspective on international events, exploring complex geopolitical issues and providing a nuanced view of the world’s most pressing challenges.
