Dozens of police officers swarmed Columbia University’s campus Thursday, breaking up a encampment where pro-Palestinian demonstrators had slept overnight, demanding the university divest from companies and interests that support Israel.
By Thursday afternoon at least 108 people had been arrested, according to a spokesperson for the NYPD. Two legal observers were among those arrested, according to an attorney on site with the National Lawyers Guild.
In an email sent out Thursday afternoon to all Columbia students, faculty and staff, President Minouche Shafik said she had authorized the NYPD to enter the university — even as reporters were blocked from entering the campus to cover the arrests.
“I took this extraordinary step because these are extraordinary circumstances,” Shafik wrote, adding students had been given warnings they would be suspended if they continued their protest. She said the encampment violated many of the university’s new policies put in place last fall, requiring at least two days notice for demonstrations and requiring them to be held in authorized areas.
“This is a challenging moment and these are steps that I deeply regret having to take,” her email continued. “The current encampment violates all of the new policies, severely disrupts campus life, and creates a harassing and intimidating environment for many of our students.”
The NYPD crackdown on student demonstrators came a day after Shafik testified before members of Congress over efforts to root out antisemitism on campus.
In a letter to the NYPD sent Thursday that Shafik posted on the university’s public safety website, she wrote that “the encampment and related disruptions pose a clear and present danger to the substantial functioning of the University. With great regret, we request the NYPD’s help to remove these individuals.”
The letter said all students participating in the demonstration have been informed they’d been suspended and were now trespassing.
It wasn’t clear how the university had identified all those students, and a spokesperson declined to say how many suspensions had been issued.
As demonstrators were arrested on Thursday afternoon, hundreds of students chanted “Shame” and “Let them Go” from the perimeter of the South Lawn as officers rounded up those on the green, put their hands in zip ties and walked them off campus.
“I feel pretty disgusted,” said a 21-year-old student named Aidan, who declined to give his last name, fearing retaliation from the administration. “It’s crazy seeing how much police presence they need for non-violent protesters too.”
At a press conference at 1 Police Plaza Thursday evening, Mayor Eric Adams joined NYPD officials who confirmed 106 demonstrators were given summonses for trespassing, with two others additionally charged with obstructing governmental administration.
“A peaceful protest is not in violation of city laws,” Adams said, though he added because the protest occurred on Columbia’s private property, “you’re no longer protesting within the authority to do so.”
Historic Echoes
Students first set up an encampment in the South Lawn with tents and signs on Wednesday morning around 4 a.m., independent reporter Talia Jane reported.
The scene harkened back to historic protests at the university in 1968 in protest of the Vietnam War, with students unfurling some of the same signs, like one that proclaimed the encampment a “Liberated Zone.” After days of protests, the NYPD stormed the campus arresting more than 700 students, according to the University’s own account of the events.
“Columbia is a far different place today than it was in the spring of 1968,” the school’s account says. “The fallout dogged Columbia for years.”
The parallels to 1968 weren’t lost on some of the spectators who came to show support for the students being hauled away.
“People see continuities between what happened in 1968 and what’s happening now,” said a 20-year-old junior who declined to give his name fearing retaliation. “I think it’s an important part of the student culture here to question bodies of authority and exercise their right for free speech.”
By 2 p.m. police had taken away all the students involved in the first encampment, though hundreds of students remained, chanting and protesting, with some later climbing into a second section of lawn and erecting new tents there.
Third party presidential candidate Cornel West, who teaches at the Union Theological Seminary which is affiliated with Columbia, joined demonstrators at the second encampment around 4 p.m.
“I’m just blessed to be here with my courageous young people who are standing in solidarity with some precious human beings, West told THE CITY, referring to Israel’s war in Gaza as as “a genocide” that, he said, “Columbia is in denial about.”
At a press conference held Thursday evening outside the university president’s mansion on Morningside Drive, student and faculty leaders called out Shafik’s decision to bring in police.
“She is willing to sacrifice the students’ education, their health, their safety and their well-being,” said Palestinian-American student Layla Saliba. “She is throwing that away at the chance to please donors and trustees.” “Today was a dark day for freedom of speech on Columbia’s campus,” she added.
‘We’re Coming for You’
Israel’s war in Gaza has roiled college campuses across the country in the seven months since Hamas’ Oct. 6 attack, where 1,200 Israelis were killed, and 240 hostages were taken, more than 100 of whom have yet to be released.
Through Wednesday, the subsequent Israeli military offensive has killed 33,899 Palestinians and wounded 76,664, according to Gaza’s health ministry, Reuters reported. Around 9,500 Palestinians from Gaza and the West Bank were being detained in Israeli jails through Tuesday, Al Jazeera reported.
Last fall, Columbia leadership suspended the university’s chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace, Columbia Spectator reported. The university’s student council in March approved a resolution calling on Columbia to divest from Israel, the Columbia Spectator reported.
Smaller numbers of Jewish students waving American and Israeli flags marched throughout the throng of students. One Jewish student, who declined to share his name, said he’d felt targeted for wearing a yarmulke.
“I passed by protesters and they look at me with my yarmulke and they say, ‘we’re coming for you,’” he said, expressing support for Columbia’s decision to break up the encampment.