The pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia University in New York are escalating. Police entered Hamilton Hall that evening to evict activists who had occupied the building. There were arrests.
After the escalation of pro-Palestinian protests at New York’s elite Columbia University, a large police force advanced against the students. In the evening, hundreds of police officers streamed onto the campus in northern Manhattan.
The officers also broke into the university building occupied by demonstrators, and there were several arrests – according to the US broadcaster NBC, around 100. Dozens of tents in the so-called solidarity camp on the site were searched by the emergency services.
Second major police operation within two weeks
This is the second major police operation on campus: almost two weeks ago, the New York police had already moved against the students at the request of the university management. They criticized the approach as disproportionate, and as a result there were protests and the setting up of tent camps at dozens of universities in the USA.
Previously, some masked demonstrators had broken windows, barricaded entrances and unfurled a Palestinian flag. Hamilton Hall is the building that was occupied in the 1960s to protest the Vietnam War.
Despite all the threats to evacuate the protest camp, the students have held out for over a week. Gabriela was there from the beginning. The student names one of her main demands on the elite university: “There are many institutions that do business with the apartheid state of Israel. We urge them to cut these relationships with Israel.”
Occupiers threatened Exmatriculation
Columbia University’s $14 billion endowment is managed by its own investment firm. The money flows, among other things, to companies that cooperate with Israel – including in the weapons and tech industries. The university has refused to cut these ties. But university president Minouche Shafik at least promised to review investments in companies suspected of being war-related.
The students are now threatened with exmatriculation because of the squatting, explained university spokesman Ben Chang. “They no longer have access to teaching or leisure facilities. They can no longer complete their degrees either.”
It is regrettable that the demonstrators decided on such an escalation. Chang made it clear that the measure was not a curtailment of freedom of expression: “This is about the actions of the protesters – and not the reason for their protests.”
Accusation of vandalism and disruption of university operations
The occupiers were given the opportunity to leave the building peacefully. But they rejected that. In addition to the vandalism, a few dozen protesters would disrupt university operations for 37,000 students – many of them shortly before their exams.
Some Jewish students reported anti-Semitic attacks. They felt threatened.
Student Gabriela is skeptical. There were many Jewish fellow students at the protests, she says. “It’s a shame that the university portrays us as violent. This is a mixture of all students.”
Carry feels the same way too. The Jew, who lived in Israel for a long time, graduated from this university 20 years ago. The fact that young people are now being arrested or expelled from the university because they expressed their opinions affects them: “I haven’t experienced anything anti-Semitic here. And as a woman with deep Jewish roots, I’m probably credible. I’ve been experiencing these demonstrators completely peacefully for days . I talk to young people who are like I used to be here.”
Concern about “disproportionate” measures
The UN human rights representative Volker Türk was “concerned” even before the police operation in the evening. Some criminal prosecution measures “appear disproportionate in their impact”. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres also warned: “It is important to guarantee freedom of expression and demonstration. At the same time, hate speech is unacceptable.”
With information from Antje Passenheim, ARD New York
Antje Passenheim, ARD New York, tagesschau, May 1st, 2024 6:14 a.m