Pro-Palestinian protesters occupied a building at Columbia University early Tuesday, linking arms and barricading doors in the latest escalation between demonstrators and administrators at the New York campus.
Protesting Israel’s war in Gaza and demanding university divestment from the country, along with amnesty for demonstrators, students entered Hamilton Hall, which has since the 1960s been central to protests at the university.
Facing calls to resign over how she has handled the protests, Columbia University President Minouche Shafik on Monday released a statement condemning calls for violence and reiterating the university’s commitment to “academic freedom and to ensuring that all members of our community have the right to speak their minds.”
Insisting Columbia will not divest from Israel, Shafik said the school has instead “offered to develop an expedited timeline for review of new proposals from the students by the … body that considers divestment matters.”
Building takeover
The siege of Hamilton Hall came after the university on Monday started suspending students for refusing to take down tents by a 2 p.m. deadline.
Smashing through glass door panels and chaining them shut, students then draped a banner reading “Hind’s Hall” from an upper floor. Protesters have identified Hind as “a 6-year-old Palestinian child murdered in Gaza by the Israeli occupation forces funded by Columbia University.”
Israel denies targeting civilians in its war against Hamas, alleging that militants are using civilians as human shields. More than 35,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s assault on Gaza, many of whom are children, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry.
Israel launched its offensive in response to an October 7 Hamas terrorist attack that killed more than 1,100 people and saw some 250 taken hostage.
Three hours after students commandeered Hamilton Hall, Columbia University issued a notice that the campus would be closed to all except for residential students and essential employees.
“This access restriction will remain in place until circumstances allow otherwise,” the school said, adding, “The safety of every single member of this community is paramount.”
The students have received pushback from some U.S. officials over the demonstrations. White House national security spokesperson John Kirby on Tuesday said “forcibly taking over a building on campus is absolutely the wrong approach.”
“That is not an example of peaceful protest,” he said. “We continue to believe in the freedom of speech and the right to protest policies and ideas that you want to protest. You just got to do it peacefully.”
President Joe Biden last week condemned what he called “antisemitic protests” by “those who don’t understand what’s going on with the Palestinians.”
Nationwide demonstrations
Students have been protesting Israel’s war in Gaza on campuses throughout the country. Dozens of students were pepper sprayed and arrested by police on Monday at the University of Texas at Austin, while students at Cal Poly Humboldt University were detained early Tuesday.
United Nations human rights chief Volker Türk expressed concern over the force being used against protesters throughout the United States, saying, “Freedom of expression and the right to peaceful assembly are fundamental to society.”
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called it “essential in all circumstances to guarantee the freedom of expression and the freedom of peaceful demonstration.”
“Hate speech is unacceptable,” he said, adding that it is up to the university authorities to manage the unrest.
Some information in this report came from Reuters, The Associated Press and Agence France-Presse.
