NYPD enter Columbia university to sweep pro-Palestine encampment

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NYPD enter Columbia university to sweep pro-Palestine encampment Witnesses report police equipped in riot gear enter Ivy League School a day after students occupy administration building
Azad EssaWed, 05/01/2024 - 02:14
NYPD officers in riot gear march onto Columbia University campus, where pro-Palestinian students are barricaded inside a building and have set up an encampment, in New York City on April 30, 2024 [Kena Betancur/AFP]
New York Police Department (NYPD) officers on Tuesday evening entered Columbia University to make a sweep of the anti-war and pro-Palestinian encampment at the elite Ivy League school*that sparked a nationwide student protest movement in the US earlier this month.

Witnesses said police were seen climbing on ladders through the windows of Hamilton Hall, which students have occupied since Monday night and renamed Hind's Hall - after a six-year old Palestinian child who was killed by Israeli forces in Gaza.

Several students, including student journalists, were told not to make their way out of the dorms or any of the other buildings on the campus or be faced with imminent arrest. Several student journalists said they were holed out in the Pulitzer Hall at Columbia's School of Journalism.

Earlier on Tuesday, the NYPD shut down entire blocks surrounding*Columbia University and City College of New York (CCNY)*to anyone without a student ID and began marching to Columbia University.

The move drew immediate condemnation and outrage from students and faculty.




"The university chose to call hundreds of NYPD onto campus and violently arrest students. The administration has also asked the police to remain on campus until May 17. Presumably, after that the campus will be locked down,"*one academic, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Middle East Eye.

"How long will the siege of Columbia last? We do not know but whatever emerges after this siege will no longer be a university," the academic said.

The move at Columbia comes as the NYPD simultaneously entered the encampment set up City University of New York (CUNY) in Manhattan, reportedly beating and spraying protesters including faculty and journalists with pepper spray.

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One faculty member told MEE that at least one person had been taken to hospital with injuries.

Meanwhile, at Columbia, the local chapter of*the American Association of University Professors lamented the show of force on students as means to diffuse the protest movement.

"NYPD presence in our neighbourhood endangers our entire community. Armed police entering our campus places students and everyone else on campus at risk. That is why University statutes require consultation with faculty — statutes which appear to have been ignored since April 17, and again tonight,"* the statement read.

"We hold University leadership responsible for the disastrous lapses of judgement that have gotten us to this point."

The statement added that the professors hold the university leadership, including the president and board of trustees, responsible "for any injuries that may occur during any police action on our campus".

In a letter sent to the NYPD, Columbia's President Minouche Shafik said following the student takeover of Hamilton Hall or Hind's Hall, administrators felt they had no choice but to call them in*to end the student action. The Hall is home to the school's undergraduate Columbia College as well as*functions as the Dean’s office.

"With the support of the university's trustees, I have determined that the buildings, occupation, encampments and related disruptions pose a clear and present danger to persons, property and substantial functioning of the University, and require the use of emergency authority to protect persons and property," Shafik wrote.

"In light of the activities that occurred after the events of April 17-18, 2024, we further request that you retain a presence on campus through at least May 17, 2024 to maintain order and ensure encampments are not re-established," Shafik added.

The occupation of the building comes with immense anti-war symbolism given that it was occupied by the students against the war in Vietnam in 1968.


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