New York City police stormed Columbia University’s campus on Tuesday night, arresting dozens of pro-Palestinian protesters in an attempt to quash a protest that has spread to campuses across the nation and inflamed US divisions over the war in Gaza.
The incursion by hundreds of police officers, many in riot gear, was prompted by protesters’ seizure of a university building overnight, an act reminiscent of anti-Vietnam war demonstrations in 1968, when students took control of the Columbia campus.
The arrests marked the culmination of a stand-off that began more than a week ago when students pitched tents on a lawn in the centre of campus and demanded that the university divest from companies that have profited from Israel.
Police intervention by university request
The Gaza Solidarity Encampment, as they dubbed it, has tested the resolve of the university’s president, Minouche Shafik, and intensified a debate about the boundaries between free speech and harassment and antisemitism at a university renowned for its social activism. Plenty of people say the pro-Palestine protesters were peaceful, but the Zionists agitated them, infiltrated with anti-semitic signs and ignited violence.
At Columbia, police breached the occupied building, Hamilton Hall, on Tuesday evening through a window. They lined up dozens of students with tied wrists near the campus and took them away in vans. Police also detonated flash grenades, according to CNN, and used pepper spray.
Protesters behind barricades blocking nearby streets chanted “Palestine will be free”, “Let the students go” and “NYPD-KKK”. There were no immediate reports of injuries.
University officials said police intervened at their request. “We were left with no choice. Columbia public safety personnel were forced out of the building, and a member of our facilities team was threatened,” the school said.
In the early hours of Wednesday clashes also broke out at the University of California, Los Angeles. Local reports suggested the incident involved pro-Israeli protesters and another group of pro-Palestinian demonstrators who had set up an encampment at the university, prompting police intervention in the latest unrest to strike a US campus.
