Hundreds of Anti-Israel Protesters Demonstrate at Columbia on Anniversary of 10/7 By Alex Welz
Anti-Israel demonstrations returned to Columbia University on Monday, marking one year since Hamas’s 2023 massacre and kidnapping of innocent Israelis.
These came as part of a wider protest known as Students Flood NYC for Gaza, organized by the pro-Palestinian group Within Our Lifetime. This followed a coordinated student walkout in support of the Palestinians that included hundreds of students. Nearby, pro-Israel demonstrators could be seen waving Israeli flags and calling attention to the hostages taken by Hamas. Pro-Palestinian protesters later swarmed the 110th Street subway station, expanding their activities beyond campus.
In the days leading up to the protests, Columbia University interim president Katrina Armstrong introduced additional security measures in anticipation of campus clashes. “We anticipated and have been preparing for a period of uncertainty in the coming days,” university spokeswoman Samantha Slater told the Columbia Spectator. Barricades were erected across campus in an attempt to quell any ensuing unrest.
In preparation for the event, Columbia University Apartheid Divest, another pro-Palestinian campus organization, encouraged attendees to conceal their identities. This included wearing all-black clothing, covering up any tattoos/piercings, and wearing masks (allowing one to be “protected from surveillance”). The organization even urged students to avoid using the university Wi-Fi or their Columbia-affiliated email addresses to communicate.
Many chants were holdovers from the last school year’s university encampments, as anti-Israel demonstrators occupied large swaths of the country’s colleges in protest of Israel’s prosecution of its war in Gaza.
“There is only one solution, intifada revolution,” could be heard on Monday. “Globalize the intifada” and “Palestine is our demand, no peace on stolen land” were also shouted.
One sign read, “LONG LIVE THE AL-AQSA FLOOD GLORY TO THE RESISTANCE,” flanked by photos of a Hamas militant and a paraglider. The latter has proven to be a symbol of the October 7 music-festival massacre near Re’im that saw hundreds of young Israelis murdered by Hamas fighters arriving over the border in the motorized aircraft.
The Chicago branch of Black Lives Matter famously tweeted a graphic of a paraglider attached to a Palestinian flag, seemingly in celebration of the assault.
Columbia University captured national headlines last school year when protesters effectively took over campus before breaking into, occupying, and barricading themselves inside Hamilton Hall. Tensions boiled over when former president Minouche Shafik finally called on the police to clear the encampments before being forced to resign herself due to her controversial handling of the entire situation.
October 7 stands as the deadliest day in Israeli history and the bloodiest for Jews since the Holocaust.
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