NYPD Arrests More Than 100 Protesters at Anti-Israel Protest on Columbia Campus By Brittany Bernstein
New York City police arrested 108 anti-Israel protesters on Columbia University’s campus on Thursday after the university’s president asked law enforcement to step in and break up the “Gaza Solidarity Encampment.”
NYPD officers in riot gear arrived on campus Thursday afternoon, more than 30 hours after the protest began, and warned protesters to disperse several times before they began making arrests for trespassing. Two protesters were charged with obstruction of governmental administration in addition to trespassing, city officials said at a news conference.
“These arrests were made without incident, and we will now let the rest of the criminal-justice system run its course,” police commissioner Edward Caban said during a news conference on Thursday evening.
Isra Hirsi, the daughter of progressive representative Ilhan Omar (D., Minn.), was among the protesters who were arrested.
Mayor Eric Adams said police “ensured that there was no violence or injuries during the disturbance.”
“Columbia University students have a proud history of protest and raising their voices,” Adams said during the news conference. “Students have a right to free speech — they do not have a right to violate university policies and disrupt learning on campus.”
Asked why the Columbia sit-in was not considered a peaceful protest, Adams said “a peaceful protest is not in violation of city laws” or on public property.
“I know the conflict in the Middle East has left many of us grieving and angry,” he added. “This is a painful moment for our city, for our country, and for the globe. New Yorkers have every right to express their sorrow, but that heartbreak does not give you the right to harass others, to spread hate.”
Columbia University Apartheid Divest organized the encampment and asked students to gather around the lawn to block police from entering. The group led chants calling for “intifada revolution” and for Hamas to “kill another soldier now.”
As police carried out arrests on Thursday, a crowd of some 500 students looked on and shouted at officers. Officials said the students likened police to the Ku Klux Klan and told officers to go kill themselves.
“It’s very troubling,” Adams said when asked about the protesters’ comments. “When you are protesting for peace, you should not be using inflammatory comments like we saw.”
As the protest wound down, police tore down dozens of tents, according to the New York Post.
Earlier on Thursday, Columbia president Minouche Shafik announced that she had “authorized” the NYPD to get involved.
“I took this extraordinary step because these are extraordinary circumstances,” she said in an email to the campus community. “The individuals who established the encampment violated a long list of rules and policies.
“We also tried through a number of channels to engage with their concerns and offered to continue discussions if they agreed to disperse,” added Shafik, who was in Washington, D.C., during the protest, testifying in front of the House Education and Workforce Committee on campus antisemitism.
“I regret that all of these attempts to resolve the situation were rejected by the students involved,” she said.
Before the arrests, Hirsi, Omar’s daughter, wrote in a post on X that she and her fellow activists “will stand resolute until our demands are met.”
Those demands “include divestment from companies complicit in genocide, transparency of @Columbia’s investments and FULL amnesty for all students facing repression,” she wrote.
Earlier, Hirsi announced that she had been suspended from Barnard College as a result of her involvement with anti-Israel protests.
“i’m an organizer with CU Apartheid Divest @ColumbiaSJP, in my 3 years at @BarnardCollege i have never been reprimanded or received any disciplinary warnings,” Hirsi wrote on X. “i just received notice that i am 1 of 3 students suspended for standing in solidarity with Palestinians facing a genocide.”
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