Columbia University Protesters Occupy Campus Building

Student protesters at Columbia University occupied Hamilton Hall, one of the most iconic buildings of the school’s campus, in a late-night escalation of ongoing pro-Palestinian demonstrations.

In the early hours of Tuesday, dozens of students rushed into the hall and began using furniture to barricade entrances — recreating an occupation of the same building carried out by anti-Vietnam War protesters at the university in 1968. At least one window was broken during the takeover, and the protesters unfurled a banner reading “Hind’s Hall” from the building’s primary balcony.

The banner honored Hind Rajab, a five-year-old Palestinian girl who was killed in February when the vehicle she and several of her relatives were driving in was fired upon by Israeli forces in Gaza City. An ambulance attempting to resume Hind — who survived the initial onslaught — was targeted by an Israeli airstrike, killing the rescue paramedics inside. Hind is one of the more than 34,000 Palestinians killed in Gaza since the outbreak of the war between Israel and Hamas on Oct. 7.

In response, Columbia administrators on Tuesday morning restricted access to the main university campus, and advised everyone but “non-essential” staff and faculty to avoid coming to the campus.

On Monday, the university began suspending students who refused to vacate a Gaza Solidarity Encampment occupying a lawn on the campus since April 17. The protest called for Columbia to “divest” from Israeli and military investments held by the school. The university announced that students who remained past a 2 p.m. deadline and refused to sign a “form committing to abide” by its policies would be “placed on suspension, ineligible to complete the semester or graduate, and will be restricted from all academic, residential, and recreational spaces.”

Earlier this month, University President Nemat Shafik called the NYPD into the campus in an attempt to forcibly clear the encampment. The move further galvanized protesters.

“The University has undermined the negotiation process by threatening its political opponents with soldiers, mass eviction, and at times, the restriction of basic needs,” Columbia University Apartheid Divest wrote in a blog post on Sunday addressing the breakdown of negotiations between protesters and the school.

In a statement issued early Tuesday morning, the group wrote that the occupation of Hamilton Hall “escalation represents the next generation of the 1968, 1985, and 1992 student movements which Columbia once repressed yet celebrates today. Protestors have voiced their intention to remain at Hind’s Hall until Columbia concedes to CAD’s three demands: divestment, financial transparency, and amnesty [for protesters].”

“As this group continues to hold down Hind’s Hall, we reiterate that CUAD’s encampment is a peaceful form of protest as demonstrated over the last 12 days,” they added. “Students and community members are risking suspension and arrest to end the true state of emergency on campus, Columbia’s complicity in the genocide in Gaza.”

With Columbia University as a template, student protests demanding universities divest from Israeli investments and military contractors have exploded into a nationwide movement. The demonstrations have added to existing pressure on the Biden administration to cease providing military aid to Israel given the widespread death toll in Gaza, accusations of human rights violations by the Israeli military, and ongoing international criminal investigations into Israel’s offensive on Gaza.

As Israel continued its siege and humanitarian blockade against Gaza, survivors were directed to flee to “safe zones” in the southern part of the territory. These areas have continued to be targeted by air strikes and Israeli military actions, and earlier this month Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu indicated that the nation is planning a widespread offensive in the Rafah region of southern Gaza.

“We will honor all the martyrs, all the parents, mothers, fathers,” protesters observed by The Columbia Spectator chanted. “We will honor all the martyrs, all the children, sons, and daughters.”

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