May 17, 2024
NEW YORK (AP) — Officers took protesters into custody late Tuesday after Columbia University called in police to end the pro-Palestinian occupation on the New York campus.
The scene unfolded shortly after 9 p.m. as police, wearing helmets and carrying zip ties and riot shields, massed at the Ivy League university’s entrance. Officers breached Hamilton Hall, an administration building on campus, to clear out the structure.
The demonstrators had occupied Hamilton Hall more than 12 hours earlier, spreading their reach from an encampment elsewhere on the grounds that’s been there for nearly two weeks.
A statement released by a Columbia spokesperson late Tuesday said officers arrived on campus after the university requested help. The move came hours after NYPD brass said officers wouldn’t enter Columbia’s campus without the college administration’s request or an imminent emergency.
“After the University learned overnight that Hamilton Hall had been occupied, vandalized, and blockaded, we were left with no choice,” the school's statement said, adding that school public safety personnel were forced out of the building and one facilities worker was “threatened.”
“The decision to reach out to the NYPD was in response to the actions of the protesters, not the cause they are championing. We have made it clear that the life of campus cannot be endlessly interrupted by protesters who violate the rules and the law.”
Columbia's protests earlier this month kicked off demonstrations that now span from California to Massachusetts. As May commencement ceremonies near, administrators face added pressure to clear protesters.
More than 1,000 protesters have been arrested over the last two weeks on campuses in states including Texas, Utah, Virginia, North Carolina, New Mexico, Connecticut, Louisiana, California and New Jersey, some after confrontations with police in riot gear.
In a letter to senior NYPD officials, Columbia President Minouche Shafik said it was making the request that police remove protesters from the occupied building and a nearby tent encampment “with the utmost regret.” She also asked that officers remain on campus through May 17, which is after the end of the university’s commencement celebrations.
“Walk away from this situation now and continue your advocacy through other means,” New York City Mayor Eric Adams advised the Columbia protesters on Tuesday afternoon before the police arrived. “This must end now.”
The White House earlier Tuesday condemned the standoffs at Columbia and California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt, where protesters had occupied two buildings until officers with batons intervened overnight and arrested 25 people. Officials estimated the northern California campus' total damage to be upwards of $1 million.
President Joe Biden believes students occupying an academic building is “absolutely the wrong approach,” and “not an example of peaceful protest,” said National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby.
Other colleges have sought to negotiate agreements with the demonstrators in the hopes of having peaceful commencement ceremonies. As cease-fire negotiations appeared to gain steam, it wasn’t clear whether those talks would inspire an easing of protests.
Northwestern University notched a rare win when officials said they reached a compromise with students and faculty who represent the majority of protesters on its campus near Chicago to allow peaceful demonstrations through the end of spring classes.
The nationwide campus protests began at Columbia in response to Israel’s offensive in Gaza after Hamas launched a deadly attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7. Militants killed about 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and took roughly 250 hostages. Vowing to stamp out Hamas, Israel has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, according to claims by the Hamas-controlled health ministry in Gaza.
Israel and its supporters have branded the university protests as antisemitic, and some protesters have been caught on camera making antisemitic remarks or violent threats.
On Columbia's campus, protesters locked arms early Tuesday and carried furniture and metal barricades to Hamilton Hall.
The takeover came hours after protesters had shrugged off an earlier ultimatum to abandon a tent encampment Monday or be suspended — restricted from all academic and recreational spaces, allowed only to enter their residences, and, for seniors, ineligible to graduate.
Columbia spokesperson Ben Chang said in a statement that anyone occupying Hamilton Hall risked being expelled from the university for escalating the protest “to an untenable situation — vandalizing property, breaking doors and windows, and blockading entrances.”
Ilana Lewkovitch, a self-described “leftist Zionist” student at Columbia, said it’s been hard to concentrate on school for weeks, amid calls for Zionists to die or leave campus. Her exams have been punctuated with chants of “say it loud, say it clear, we want Zionists out of here” in the background, she said.
Lewkovitch, who identifies as Jewish and studied at Columbia’s Tel Aviv campus, said she wished the current pro-Palestinian protests were more open to people like her who criticize Israel’s war policies but believe there should be an Israeli state.
