Many police officers came into Columbia University on Tuesday because many protesters supporting Palestine were still there.
Just before police went onto the campus, Columbia gave permission for officers to do what they needed to do, according to a law enforcement official who spoke to The Associated Press. The person in charge couldn’t talk about the details publicly and wanted to keep their name a secret.
After they came onto the campus, a group of police officers went to Hamilton Hall, the main building where students were staying since the morning.
Students had boldly put up tents again after the police removed a camp at the university on April 18 and took more than 100 people into custody. The students were protesting on the Manhattan campus since yesterday, they were against Israeli military action in Gaza. They were also asking the school to stop investing in companies that they say are making money from the conflict.
Protests are happening on college campuses from California to Massachusetts as graduation gets closer. This puts schools under more pressure to deal with the protesters.
More than 1,000 people who are against something have been taken by the police in the last two weeks. It happened at schools in states like Texas, Utah, Virginia, North Carolina, New Mexico, Connecticut, Louisiana, California and New Jersey. Some of them were fighting with the police who were wearing special clothes for riots.
“Mayor Eric Adams told the Columbia protesters to leave and find other ways to support their cause,” advised New York City Mayor Eric Adams. “Let’s stop this now. ”
The White House said it was not okay for protesters to take over buildings at Columbia and California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt. Police broke up the protests and arrested 25 people. Officials said that the total damage to the northern California campus is estimated to be more than $1 million.
President Joe Biden thinks it’s not good for students to take over a building at their school. John Kirby, who works for the National Security Council, said this is not a peaceful way to protest.
Other colleges have tried to talk to the protesters to have calm graduation ceremonies. As talks to stop fighting seemed to progress, it was uncertain if they would make protests less intense.
Northwestern University was able to reach a compromise with students and teachers who were protesting on its campus near Chicago, allowing peaceful demonstrations until the end of spring classes. It was a rare success for the university.
Students all over the country started protesting at Columbia University because of Israel’s attacks on Gaza. This happened after Hamas attacked southern Israel on Oct 7. Terrorists attacked and killed around 1,200 people, mostly innocent civilians, and held about 250 people as hostages. Israel has promised to get rid of Hamas and has killed over 34,000 people in the Gaza Strip, according to the local health ministry.
Israel and its supporters say the university protests are against Jewish people, but Israel’s critics say it is just a way to stop people from speaking out. Some people have been seen in videos saying mean things about Jewish people or making threats at the protests. But the people in charge of the protests, some of whom are Jewish themselves, say they want to peacefully support the rights of Palestinians and speak out against the war.
Protesters at Columbia University linked arms and brought furniture and barricades to Hamilton Hall. This was where a protest against civil rights and the Vietnam War took place in 1968. Protesters named the building Hind’s Hall after a young girl who was killed in Gaza by Israeli gunfire.
The takeover happened a few hours after protesters ignored a warning to leave a tent camp on Monday. Those who didn’t leave were told they couldn’t use any school facilities and for seniors, they couldn’t graduate.
Mahmoud Khalil was one of the students who got suspended before the talks with the administration stopped. He was a main person in charge of negotiating. He got a letter saying he was suspended because he didn’t leave the campsite even after being told to. But he says he did leave like the university told him to by the deadline on Monday.
Columbia spokesperson Ben Chang said that anyone in Hamilton Hall could get kicked out of the university for making the protest worse by damaging property and blocking entrances.
Protesters are staying in Hamilton Hall until the university agrees to three things: stop investing in certain things, be more open about money, and forgive past actions.
The Columbia University Chapter of the American Association of University Professors said the faculty’s attempts to calm the situation have been ignored by the university’s leadership, even though the school’s rules say they should be consulted. The group said there might be a fight between police and protesters at the campus.
The University leaders are being blamed for making bad decisions that caused big problems, the chapter said in a statement on Tuesday evening. The University President, her top staff, and the Board of Trustees will be responsible for any injuries that happen during police actions on our campus.
Ilana Lewkovitch, a student at Columbia, who supports the idea of a Jewish homeland, said it has been difficult to focus on school because people have been saying that supporters of Israel should die or leave the campus. She said that during her exams, people were chanting “say it loud, say it clear, we want Zionists out of here” in the background.
Lewkovitch is Jewish and went to Columbia University in Tel Aviv. She wishes that the pro-Palestinian protests would welcome people like her who speak out against Israel’s war policies but still support the idea of Israel as a state.
Adams said on Tuesday that people from outside the area are taking over the Columbia protests. He didn’t give specific proof for this claim, and the protest organizers and participants disagreed with him.
The police in New York said the same thing about people from outside the city causing trouble during the big protests against racism after George Floyd’s death in 2020. Sometimes, important police leaders wrongly called peaceful protests led by known community activists as the actions of violent troublemakers.