Columbia students erect 60 tents on main lawn to demand university divest from Israel as president grilled on antisemitism
Hundreds of Columbia University students set up nearly 60 tents and shouted anti-Israel slogans on the campusā main lawn Wednesday ā just as Columbia President Minouche Shafik testified before Congress about antisemitism at the Ivy League school.
The Gaza Solidarity Encampment first sprung up near Butler Library before 5 a.m., featuring a make-shift row of tents and signs featuring slogans such as,āIsrael bombs, Columbia pays,ā in reference to Israelās military action in the Gaza Strip after the Oct. 7 terror attack.
āFree, free Palestine!ā the pro-divestment protesters could be heard chanting in video from the scene captured by The Post.
NOW: Columbia students are occupying the lawn in front of Butler Library as Columbia President Minouche Shafik testifies before Congress
NYPD is confining members of the media to a pen on the sidewalk without a view of the lawn pic.twitter.com/JZ69M3NE0Bā katie smith (@probablyreadit) April 17, 2024
The event was soon met by counter protesters waving Israeli flags, whose numbers grew by the early evening.
āThese guys have been chanting āDeath to the Zionist state,āā Jonny Lederer, a Columbia sophomore, told The Post of the protestors.
āSo I go there with my Israeli flag and my megaphone and I say āListen, can you condemn Hamas on October 7?ā They were silentā¦not one person was able to condemn it.ā
The divestment advocates and pro-Israeli counter protestors circled up on the quad, while one speaker appeared to commandeer the scene with a megaphone.
As the pro-Palestinian protestors cheered, one of the counter protestors was heard yelling out āCan you call for the release of the hostages [held by Hamas in Gaza]?ā
Outside the campus gates, pro-Palestinian protestors wielded signs with slogans like āIsraeli forces slaughter Palestinians waiting for foodā and āCease genocide.ā
Reps from @BarnardCollege entered the lawn at @Columbia where hundreds of students have gathered for a Gaza Solidarity Encampment calling on the university to divest from Israel.
Admins tell students to talk to them to avoid disciplinary action. Students laugh & chant āHell no.ā pic.twitter.com/737hTS8cFQā Talia Jane
(@taliaotg) April 17, 2024
A 21-year-old Barnard College student who was nearby told The Post she doesnāt expect the demonstrations to disperse unless Columbia clamps down on the rabble rousers.
āNot unless Columbia actually implements consequences,ā Katie A. said. āIt is extremely dangerous for Jewish students. There is no public safety on campus ā¦ does not do anything.ā
She called the protests ātone deaf.ā
āI believe they are trying to simulate some type of refugee camp which honestly I think is extremely tone deaf,ā Katie A. said.
āTheyāre all rich students who go to an Ivy League institution that costs over $80,000 a year to attend. They live in their comfy apartment on the Upper West side of New York and they have the gall to come out here and complain.ā
The NYPD arrived at the scene several hours into the protest, and restricted the press to a pen outside the main gates on Broadway and 116th Street.
At least one arrest has been made during dueling protests, the NYPD confirmed.
Photos from the scene show cops leading one person into a police van near 116th Street.
The protester was asked to lower a pole with Palestinian, Yemeni and transgender flags attached to it before taking that person into custody, the Columbia Spectator reported.
Columbia had already restricted access to the main campus to university ID holders ahead of Shafikās congressional appearance, the Spectator noted.
Columbia public safety announced that it was also closing the campusā main gates at 4 p.m. Wednesday due to the ongoing protest.
Two NYPD Corrections Department buses were parked in front of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, just two blocks from the campus, independent reporter Katie Smith wrote.
During her congressional appearance on Wednesday, President Shafik admitted that āthe events of October 7 brought to the fore an undercurrent of antisemitismā at the university, but reassured the committee that Columbia took āimmediate actionā on the issue.
āTrying to reconcile the free speech rights of those who wanted to protest and the rights of Jewish students to be in an environment free of discrimination and harassment has been the central challenge on our campus,ā she added.
Katie A. ripped the president for her lack of support.
āI am utterly disgusted that this is permitted especially when Minouche Shafik our president goes to Congress and says that she doesnāt allow this and if she wouldnāt allow thisā¦.it happens all the time and itās happening again right now and nothing is being done about it.ā
Lederer, however, slammed Shafikās statement that all students who violated university policy would be disciplined.
The tent protest, he alleged, was āunsanctionedā by school officials.
āPublic safety isnāt doing anything. When I asked public safety, āWhatās the policy?ā they said āwe donāt know, nobody tells us,āā he lamented.
āI am pro peace, I am pro two states,ā Lederer added. āThey are not able to have dialogue, they are not able to have any sympathy towards Jews. So I stand there, I know Iām morally rightā¦and someone has to counterprotest them.ā