Columbia University shut down its campus on Tuesday after pro-Palestinian protesters barricaded themselves inside a campus building.
The pro-Palestinian student protesters are now inside Hamilton Hall as demonstrations that have roiled the campus for weeks show no signs of abating. Now, only students living in residence halls and employees who perform essential duties are allowed to access campus.
The Ivy League school also began suspending students on Monday after hundreds of pro-Palestinian protesters refused to disperse from encampments by a 2 pm deadline. Hundreds remained on campus after the deadline passed.
Columbia president Nemat Minouche Shafik said on Monday that talks between the school and protesters have broken down and that the university has refused to divest from Israel.
Ms Shafik has faced heavy criticism for her decision to call in the New York Police Department against student protesters this month, resulting in numerous arrests and sparking similar protests across the US.
Heavily-outfitted riot police arrested scores of students at the University of Texas on Monday afternoon, using zip ties, pepper spray and a stun grenade against the crowd.
Meanwhile, Northwestern University announced it had reached an agreement with students to dismantle their encampment in exchange for concessions.
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Watch as Columbia University students discuss request to vacate protest encampment
Columbia University’s president said on Monday (29 April) that talks with pro-Palestinian protesters over the dismantling of an encampment on the Ivy League campus had failed and urged them to voluntarily disperse or face suspension from school.
President Nemat Minouche Shafik said days of talks between student organisers and academic leaders had failed to break a stalemate over the tent encampment set up to protest Israel’s war in Gaza.
Graig Graziosi30 April 2024 14:00
WATCH: US campus protests against Israel intensify
Graig Graziosi30 April 2024 13:00
IN PICTURES: Columbia University students barricade themselves inside Hamilton Hall
Columbia University students protesting the war in Gaza have occupied the institution’s Hamilton Hall building:
Columbia Gaza protestors take over campus building:
Protesters move metal barricades as they hole up inside Hamilton Hall:
Demonstrators supporting Palestinians in Gaza barricade themselves inside Hamilton Hall:
Rachel Sharp30 April 2024 12:30
Columbia University professor says university turned protest site into ‘crime scene’
Columbia University anthropology professor Mahmood Mamdani said school’s administration turned the site of an ongoing Gaza protest into “a crime scene”.
Some members of the university’s faculty joined with student protesters ahead of a 2pm deadline the school gave demonstrators to disperse or face suspension.
“Nobody thinks they should be suspended. Look at the thousands that have turned up here,” Mr Mamdani told CNN.
He said that professors”teach our students not to accept things at face value” and to “ask questions, no matter the consequences”.
“The idea of penalizing students for protests? The administration has turned the site of a protest into a crime scene,” he said. “If I were the administration, I would have promoted discussion, not muzzled discussion.”
Graig Graziosi30 April 2024 12:00
Columbia students occupy Hamilton Hall, site of anti-Vietnam War demonstrations in 1968
Columbia University students protesting the war in Gaza have occupied the institution’s Hamilton Hall building, also the site of anti-Vietnam War demonstrations in 1968, flying a Palestinian flag from the facility as people were warned to stay away from campus on Tuesday.
The development comes after the elite institution began suspending students on Monday after hundreds of pro-Palestinian protesters refused to disperse from encampments by a 2pm deadline. Instead, hundreds remained on campus after the deadline passed.
Joe Sommerlad30 April 2024 11:30
Bernie Sanders expresses support for Gaza protests
Mr Sanders, the independent Vermont senator, was questioned by CNN’s Dana Bash on State of the Union on Sunday over the role of antisemitism in pro-Palestine protests that have erupted across college campuses in the United States.
Graig Graziosi30 April 2024 11:00
Brown University offers to hear divestment arguments if protesters end campus encampment
Brown University will hear students’ and faculty’s arguments for divestment if the Gaza protesters agree to end their encampment on campus, according to reports.
The university reportedly gave out letters to protesters on Monday offering the comrpromise.
If the encampment “is peacefully brought to an end within the next few days and is not replaced with any other encampments or unauthorized protest activity,” the “Corporation of Brown University will invite five students representing the current encampment activity and a small group of faculty members to speak with a similarly sized group of Corporation members about their arguments for divestment,” the letter says.
Graig Graziosi30 April 2024 10:00
A Jewish student has sued Columbia University and is seeking a class-action status, claiming the school failed to provide the education it promised to Jewish students
An anoymous Jewish student at Columbia University is suing the school, claiming it has failed to provide a safe learning environment for its students due to the on-going Gaza protests on campus.
The lawsuit is seeking class-action status and argues that the school is “too dangerous fo Columbia’s Jewish students to receive the education they were promised”.
The filing takes particular issue with Columbia’s decision to introduce a hybrid learning system last week due to the protests.
“Jewish students…get a second-class education where they are relegated to their homes to attend classes virtually and stripped of the opportunity to interact meaningfully with other students and faculty and sit for examinations with their peers,” the lawsuit says. “The segregation of Jewish students is a dangerous development that can quickly escalate into more severe acts of violence and discrimination.”
A seperate motion filed alongside the lawsuit is seeking an emergency injuction forcing Columbia University to enforce its Statement of Ethical Conduct and Administrative Code of Conduct.
Graig Graziosi30 April 2024 09:00
Columbia University president Minouche Shafik said negotiations with student protesters broke down
Columbia University‘s embattled president Minouche Shafik admitted that talks between the school and the students protesting Israel‘s war on Gaza broken down in a statement early on Monday.
University administrators negotiated with the protesters during much of last week, even as the Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, visited the campus to berate protesters and to call for Ms Shafik to resign.
The president issued a statement saying that “regretfully, we were not able to come to an agreement” with the protesting students.
She revealed that the university would not divest from Israel, and gave protesters until 2pm to leave the campus or face suspension.
Protesters refused to leave once the deadline passed.
Graig Graziosi30 April 2024 08:00
Donald Trump calls for an end to campus Gaza protests
Donald Trump issued an uncharacteristically restrained — though still all in caps — call for the Gaza student protests to come to an end.
Mr Trump frequently brags that he “fought for Israel like no president ever before,” and moved the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to the contested city of Jerusalem during his administration.
The former president is not a fan of the ongoing demonstrations.
“STOP THE PROTESTS NOW!!!” he wrote.
Despite his disdain for student protest movement and his support for Israel, even he has become somewhat more critical of the war in Gaza, even if he reasons why are rooted in cynical politicking.
“And the other thing is I hate, [Israeli media} put out tapes all the time. Every night, they’re releasing tapes of a building falling down,” Mr Trump said during a radio interview with conservative host Hugh Hewitt. “They shouldn’t be releasing tapes like that. They’re doing, that’s why they’re losing the PR war. They, Israel, is absolutely losing the PR war.”
Even Mr Trump suggested that Israel should show a bit of restraint, at least in how its leaders present it to the world.
“I think that’s one of the reasons that there has been a lot of kickback. If people didn’t see that, every single night I’d watch and every single one of those,” Mr Trump said in an Israel Hayom interview. “And I think Israel wanted to show that it’s tough, but sometimes you shouldn’t be doing that.”
Graig Graziosi30 April 2024 07:00