By Jonathan Allen and Brendan O’Brien
NEW YORK (Reuters) -Columbia University officials on Tuesday threatened academic expulsion of students who seized and occupied a classroom building as the standoff between administrators and pro-Palestinian activists on the Manhattan campus intensified.
The occupation began overnight when protesters broke windows and entered Hamilton Hall, where they unfurled a banner reading “Hind’s Hall,” symbolically renaming the building for a 6-year-old Palestinian child killed in Gaza by the Israeli military.
Outside the building – the site of various student occupations on the Ivy League campus dating back to the 1960s – protesters blocked the entrance with tables, linked arms to form a barricade and chanted pro-Palestinian slogans.
A day earlier, the university said it had begun suspending students who defied a deadline for vacating a tent camp that has become a focal point for dozens of student demonstrations around the U.S. expressing opposition to Israel’s war in Gaza.
“The encampment has created an unwelcoming environment for many of our Jewish students and faculty and a noisy distraction that interferes with the teaching, learning and preparing for final exams,” the university said in a statement on Monday.
The Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel by Hamas militants from Gaza, and the ensuing Israeli offensive on the Palestinian enclave, have unleashed the biggest outpouring of student activism since the anti-racism protests of 2020.
At some recent rallies, protesters have been met with counterprotesters accusing them of fomenting anti-Jewish hatred. The pro-Palestinian side, including Jewish activists opposed to the Israeli actions, say they are being unfairly branded as antisemitic for criticizing Israel’s government and expressing support for human rights.
In dealing with the protests, university officials have struggled to strike a balance between allowing freedom of expression and stamping out hate speech.
The issue has taken on political overtones in the run-up to the U.S. presidential election in November, with Republicans accusing some university administrators of turning a blind eye to antisemitic rhetoric and harassment.
White House spokesperson John Kirby on Tuesday denounced non-peaceful forms of student protests, calling the occupation of campus buildings “the wrong approach.”
‘UNTENABLE SITUATION’
After the occupation, a Columbia University spokesperson said the protesters had chosen to escalate an “untenable situation” and that the school’s top priority is safety and order on campus.
“The work of the university cannot be endlessly interrupted by protesters who violate the rules. Continuing to do so will be met with clear consequences,” spokesperson Ben Chang said in a statement. He said students occupying the building face expulsion.
The school also said it was restricting access to university grounds to students living on campus and employees providing essential services.
A representative of the protesters who identified herself only as a graduate student told reporters outside Hamilton Hall that about 60 students were believed to be inside.
A few dozen students, some with tambourines, milled about outside the barricaded doors, clapping and chanting, “The people united will never be defeated,” and “Free Palestine!”
Pizzas were passed to students inside the building in a plastic crate dangled from a pulley rope suspended from an upper-floor balcony.
One of the lead negotiators for the coalition of student protest groups said Columbia officials contacted him through mediators to ascertain the demands of the activists.
“Once they decide to come back to the table we can talk about demands,” said Mahmoud Khalil, who said he was off-campus. “These students felt hurt and abandoned by the administration because it did not listen to their demands, so they had to do things differently.”
On Monday, Columbia began suspending pro-Palestinian activists, including Khalil, who the university said had refused to leave the protest camp when school officials declared a stalemate in talks to end the encampment.
University President Nemat Minouche Shafik said in a statement that days of negotiations had failed to persuade demonstrators to remove the dozens of tents set up on a hedge-lined campus lawn.
New York City police cleared the original tent complex on April 18 and made more than 100 arrests, stirring an outcry by many students, faculty members and employees.
Protesters are demanding that Columbia meet three demands: divestment from companies that support Israel’s government, transparency in university finances, and amnesty for students and faculty disciplined for their part in the protests.
Shafik this week said Columbia would not divest from finances in Israel. Instead, she offered to invest in health and education in Gaza and make Columbia’s direct investment holdings more transparent.
ARRESTS IN CALIFORNIA
Students at dozens of campuses from California to New England have set up similar tent encampments to demonstrate their anger over the Israeli operation in Gaza.
At Cal Poly Humboldt University, police early on Tuesday swarmed the campus, where students were occupying a school building, and starting detaining people, local media reported.
Police on Monday had declared the protest an unlawful assembly and warned people they faced arrest if they did not disperse.
Civil rights groups have criticized law enforcement tactics on some campuses where police have clashed with protesters and have used chemical irritants.
Police detained about 30 protesters at their encampment at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill early on Tuesday, according to a university statement, noting that students had trespassed into classroom buildings overnight.
At the University of Texas at Austin, police arrested dozens of students whom they hit with pepper spray at a pro-Palestinian rally on Monday.
(Reporting by Jonathan Allen in New York, Brendan O’Brien in Chicago; Rich McKay in Atlanta and Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; editing by Frank McGurty, Bill Berkrot and Jonathan Oatis)
Brought to you by www.srnnews.com
