NEW YORK (AP) — Dozens of protesters occupied a Columbia University building in New York early Tuesday, placing barricades at the entrances and hanging a Palestinian flag in a window, in a new escalation of demonstrations against the war between Israel and Hamas that have spread to college campuses across the United States.
Video footage showed protesters on Columbia’s Manhattan campus with arms linked outside Hamilton Hall early Tuesday and carrying furniture and metal barricades into the building, one of those occupied during a civil rights protest and against the Vietnam War in 1968. Posts on an Instagram account by protest organizers shortly after midnight urged people to protect the camp and join them at Hamilton Hall. A sign reading “Free Palestine” hung from a window.
“An autonomous group reclaimed the Hind building, formerly known as ‘Hamilton,’ in honor of Hind Rajab, a martyr murdered at the hands of the genocidal Israeli state at the age of six,” CU Apartheid Divest wrote early Tuesday in Twitter.
Student radio station WKCR-FM covered step by step the takeover of the building, which occurred about 12 hours after the 2 p.m. Monday deadline for protesters to abandon a camp of about 120 tents under threat of suspension.
University representatives did not initially respond to emails requesting comment early Tuesday, although the school’s public safety department said in a statement that only students staying in residence halls and service staff could access the Morningside campus. essentials such as restoration, public safety and maintenance. There would only be one point of access and exit from the premises.
“The safety of each and every member of this community is paramount,” the statement added.
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Universities across the United States were trying to find a way to clear the camps before impending graduation ceremonies. Some remained in negotiations while others resorted to force and ultimatums, which have led to clashes with the police. Dozens of people were arrested Monday in protests at universities in Texas, Utah, Virginia and New Jersey, while Columbia said a few hours before the Hamilton building was occupied that it had begun suspending students.
For their part, police intervened Tuesday morning to dismantle an encampment at Yale University in Connecticut, although there were no immediate reports of arrests.
The Yale Daily News, an independent student newspaper, reported that Yale and New Haven police had surrounded the encampment on the campus esplanade with tape starting at 6 a.m., and said that anyone inside the perimeter could be arrested and suspended if he did not quit. As of 7:30 a.m., no arrests had been made, said Officer Christian Bruckhart, a New Haven police spokesman.
Protests on campuses across the country began in response to Israel’s offensive in Gaza after Hamas carried out a deadly attack on southern Israel on October 7.
The militants killed about 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and took about 250 hostages. Israel has vowed to eradicate Hamas and has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, according to the local Health Ministry.
Israel and its supporters have described the student protests as anti-Semitic, while Israel’s critics say that accusation is used to silence dissenting voices. Although some protesters have been recorded making anti-Semitic comments or violent threats, protest organizers, some of whom are Jewish, say it is a peaceful movement that aims to defend Palestinian rights and denounce the war.
At the University of Texas at Austin, a lawyer reported at least 40 protesters arrested Monday. The clash represented an escalation of the situation on the 53,000-student campus in the state capital, where more than 50 protesters were arrested last week.
Later Monday, dozens of officers in riot gear at the University of Utah attempted to clear an encampment outside the university president’s office, an operation that lasted well into the afternoon. Police dragged students out by their hands and feet, broke tent poles, and held back those who refused to leave with zip ties. Seventeen people were arrested. The university said overnight camping on campus grounds was prohibited and that several warnings had been given to students before the police intervention.
At Princeton University, 13 people were arrested Monday night, including 11 students, after briefly occupying a building housing its faculty. They received court summonses for trespassing and have been banned from campus, according to a statement from the center’s president, Christopher Eisgruber.
The plight of the detained students has become a central part of the protests, with students and a growing number of teachers demanding an amnesty for protesters. The question is whether suspensions and court records will follow students throughout their adult lives.
Protests in Texas and elsewhere — including in Europe and Canada — were inspired by the first demonstrations in Columbia, which have continued. On Monday, student activists in Columbia defied a 2 p.m. deadline to leave an encampment. A handful of opposing protesters waved Israeli flags, and one held a sign that read: “Where are the anti-Hamas chants?”
Although the university did not call police to remove the protesters, university spokesman Ben Chang said Columbia had initiated the suspensions. Protest organizers said they were not aware of any suspension for Monday night.
In a rare case, Northwestern University said it reached an agreement with students and faculty representing the majority of protesters on its campus near Chicago. Allows peaceful demonstrations until classes end on June 1, requires the removal of all but one tent to provide aid, and restricts the demonstration area to allow only students, faculty and other staff unless the university approve something else.
At the University of Southern California, organizers of a large camp met with university president Carol Folt on Monday. Folt declined to give details but she said she had heard protesters’ concerns and that dialogue would continue Tuesday.
USC sparked controversy on April 15 when it banned its student representative speaker, who has publicly supported Palestinians, from making an inaugural address, citing unspecified security reasons for his unusual decision. The institution later canceled a speech by filmmaker Jon M. Chu, a former student, and declined to award honorary degrees.
Outrage over those decisions and protests at Columbia inspired the encampment and demonstrations on campus last week, where 90 people were detained by riot police. The university has canceled its main graduation ceremony.
Elsewhere, administrators have tried to save their graduation ceremonies, and several have ordered camps cleared in recent days. When these attempts have failed, officials have threatened disciplinary action, including suspension, and possible arrest.
But students have held firm to their positions at some high-ranking universities, including Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania and Yale, among others. Police in riot gear tried to clear an encampment at Virginia Commonwealth University on Monday night and clashed with protesters.
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2024-05-02 14:34:37
