By Gus Saltonstall
NYPD officers in riot gear entered Columbia University’s Morningside Heights campus on Thursday afternoon to clear out a “Gaza Solidarity Encampment” on the school’s South Lawn, amid the second day of a pro-Palestine protest, according to multiple reports.
The protest began on Wednesday, when students pitched several dozen tents in a lawn area in front of Columbia’s Butler Library. The action began shortly after the school’s president, Nemat (Minouche) Shafik, testified in front of Congress and stated that the school would take a harder stand in its handling of student protests related to the Israel-Hamas war.
The encampment stayed in place Wednesday night and Thursday morning, until Shafik announced she had made the decision to authorize NYPD to enter the campus and “begin clearing the encampment from the South Lawn of the Morningside campus.”
Early Thursday afternoon, police moved in, and more than 100 people have been arrested thus far, a police spokesperson told THE CITY.
“This morning, I had to make a decision that I hoped would never be necessary,” Shafik wrote in a message sent to the Columbia community. “I have always said that the safety of our community was my top priority and that we needed to preserve an environment where everyone could learn in a supportive context,” she said. “I took this extraordinary step because these are extraordinary circumstances. The individuals who established the encampment violated a long list of rules and policies.”
The Times has reported that the tents were cleared from the campus lawn and thrown away on Thursday afternoon.
Along with the possibility of arrest, students were told they would face suspension if they remained in the encampment. It is unclear how many students were suspended as of Thursday afternoon, but the list of suspensions included Isra Hirsi, a junior at Barnard and the daughter of Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-MN. “I just received notice that I am 1 of 3 students suspended for standing in solidarity with Palestinians facing a genocide,” Hirsi wrote in a post on X.
As noted by the Columbia Spectator, these are the first mass arrests to take place at the school since 1968, when hundreds of students who had occupied a campus building were arrested for protesting against the Vietnam War and the construction of a gymnasium in Morningside Park.
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. . .and just like the protesters in 1968 these young people are demonstrating against atrocities that no free people should condone or support.
Did these students and supporters not also oppose, implicitly or explicitly, Hamas’s extremely brutal and unconscionable response to the Israeli government’s history of territorial invasions and genocidal attacks on the Palestinians?
We all must distinguish: Jewishness as different from the intractable, aggressive Israeli government; and sovereign Palestinians from violent Hamas, whom desperate Palestinians made the supremely deadly mistake of putting in power. A well-reasoned and monitored two-state solution is feasible, if those in charge would find the intelligence and will to implement it.
It’s hamas who committed brutal atrocities on Oct 7 , a declaration of war on israel. Its Hamas whose founding charter calls for the annihilation of Israel abd Jews worldwide. The Gaza war is a war if self defense. that could have been prevented had Hamas released the 250 innocent hostages and surrendered.
Yes, my PhD is from Columbia. And, I was on campus for a meeting and saw, heard, etc. what was being said. Not all of it was virtuous…Most of it was anti-semitic.
Too bad there are no other eye-witnesses.
It’s difficult being Jewish up there. I was both of these yesterday…Reminds me of the historical accounts of Germany in the 1930s.
I wish I had the kind of money ($90,000) to be allowed to spread tropes and negativity and be so highly regarded for them.
Oh. They were demonstrating against Hamas barbarism and terrorism? I must have misread the article. My bad.
Nor were they demonstrating against China sending 2-3 million Muslims to concentration camps in western China. Or the numerous Muslim-on-Muslim attacks we’ve seen in the Middle East all these years. It’s only when the Jews are involved do these protesters take notice.
The OBVIOUS difference is this is a US ally that we send military aid to and (Bibi notwithstanding) should influence over.
Perhaps if these protesters had called for a ceasefire in Gaza AND the release of the Israeli hostages I might have an iota of respect for them.
Instead, they are protesting for the annihilation of Israel. This is overt and threatening hate speech.
Freedom of speech does not mean you have the right to rant anything, anytime, anywhere. Columbia University is under ZERO legal or ethical obligation to allow these protesters to use its property to spew their venom, especially considering many Columbia students feel physically threatened by these protests.
These protesters were warned repeatedly to leave Columbia property and take their protests elsewhere. They refused and now they must face the consequences.
I salute the courage of Columbia President Nemat Shafik. Just yesterday Google fired 28 employees for engaging in disruptive behaviour to protest a contract with Israel.
It seems that much of America is fed up with disruptive thugs who are more motivated by hatred than any genuine concern for the plight of the Palestinians.
This is America. The First Amendment is the FIRST for a reason.
Israel is not the US. We have a constitutional right to dissent. Don’t like it? The door is right there
The door is right here as well to those who call for the “death to America” and “we are Hamas”.
Had they cried out “we are ISIS”, they could/should be arrested, yet Hamas is Isis and a recognized terrorist organization by the USA.
Murray is correct. The First Amendment prohibits ^Congress* from making laws that restrict freedom of religion, speech, the press, and assembly. As Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes said, it “does not give you the right to shout fire in a crowded theater.” It also does not you the right to say or do things in your university community that are deemed to violate its code of conduct.
Correct. Some people have difficulty in distinguishing between the government’s prohibition against limiting free spech and the non-governmental tradition of free spech, which is not legally guaranteed, However, there are lines that when crossed create problems. And, by the way, it’s not illegal to shout “fire” in a crowded theater – as long as there is a fire.
So very true. It is really frustrating how so many people think that the First Amendment applies even to private institutions. The fact is, Columbia is a private university and as such, can impose stricter limitations on speech. One of the difficulties for private universities is that they also support academic freedoms which often translates into upholding the First Amendment.
But, people need to realize the First Amendment only applies to government restrictions on free speech…
The First Amendment is not only law, it is principle.
In the 1980s, Columbia rolled out the same framework to crack down on students protesting Apartheid in South Africa.
By supporting this crackdown (which, FWIW, even the NYPD has said did not rise to the level of ‘violence’ that Columbia’s admin claimed), you all are condoning suppression of speech in favor of another Apartheid regime.
But hey – you’re outliers. The majority of Americans support a ceasefire. Particularly young Americans.
Please tell me where in my comments I talked about a ceasefire or my lack of. a desire for a ceasefire? Nor did I take any position on whether or not the protest was “violent.” In fact, I said nothing about whether I agreed with Columbia’s position or not.
I was simply correcting the fact that many people continue to believe that the First Amendment applies to private institutions – it does not.
May I come to your apartment to protest? First Amendment does not give the right to disrupt the right of others, block roads or protest on somebody else’s private property.
Universities are for learning, exploring, listening, empathy, and helping others do the same. Listening to 20 year olds shouting at me hatefully, on my way to public health classes, because I look Jewish, does not sound like a great use of time.
Bravo, Law Enforcement and mature admins.
Should this have been an encampment pro Israel, the tents would still be there…
There is no just unbiased discussion of this conflict in the US…
What amazes me is the anti-Semitic allusions and tropes I’ve been seeing and hearing here and throughout the media in response to the police action. You have the right to free speech. You have the right to hate me. You do not have the right to threaten my safety in public or to be coddled and use someone else’s property without permission. IF I came into your home, threatened your safety, and drowned out what you had to say, you would be justified in calling the police and having me taken arrested. Don’t engage in civil disobedience if you don;t want to accept the consequences!
I thought calling in the troops to restore order was “fascism” and “what dictators do”. At least according to the NYTimes. I guess it all depends on who’s in charge!
Depends on characterization. “Calling in the troops” (as a tool of fascism) generates an image of brownshirts bashing in heads. I would simply call this incident “summoning the police to remove trespassers from my property.” Or is it fascism any time you call the police to enforce the law?
We live in a world where there is both rampant anti-semitism AND intolerance of anything short of unconditional support for Israeli. Protesting against Israeli is not the same as being anti-semitic, Palestinian lives matter.
I would bet that everyone reading this agrees that Palestinian lives matter.
Sadly, Hamas doesn’t agree with that sentiment. And one could argue that those who protest against Israel while supporting Hamas (e.g. these protesters) don’t really agree that Palestinian lives matter.
At the least, they don’t seem to have a problem with Hamas using Palestinians as human shields.
How is Zionism, and the right to land that already has people living on it, not a settler colonialist ideology? How is Zionism any different than Manifest Destiny and the tactics Christian’s and Mormon’s used to claim land out west?
– Israeli historian Benny Morris quotes David Ben-Gurion as stating in 1938 that:
“When we say that the Arabs are the aggressors and we defend ourselves—that is only half the truth. As regards our security and life we defend ourselves… But the fighting is only one aspect of the conflict, which is in its essence a political one. And politically we are the aggressors and they defend themselves.”
Palestinians speak Arabic and come from the neighboring Arabian Peninsula. They’re the colonizers. Jews lived on the land for thousands of years before Arabs came over. Jews maintained a continuous presence on the land. Jews never died out. Arabs manufactured a Palestinian identity.
There are 22 Arab Muslim countries. Arabs conquered North Africa and now Africans speak Arabic and practice Islam and there are Arab majority countries on the African continent. Arabs conquered the Middle East — Afghanistan, Syria, Iran, Pakistan — those are not originally Arab lands. Arabs do not tolerate any other groups. They consumed Egypt, Lebanon, and the city of Bethlehem which were Christian. Arabs do not have a right to ANY of these lands.
There are Arab Jews so I don’t see how this point stands. It seems like a very European and white group of Jewish people decided the land of Israel was theirs and the dirty Arabs needed to get off of it and if they didn’t Israel was going to force them. Committing racist acts of genocide and claiming it’s antisemitism whenever someone points that out, is a manipulative redirection to avoid accountability. I understand the roots of self determination and the descendants of the Holocaust decided it was safer to leave than to try and stay in Europe, but the way Israelis talk about Arabs is exactly how the Germans talked about the Jews.
This is a rather fanciful history. In fact, no Palestinians are NOT simply immigrants to Palestine over the last few hundred years. Many are the descendants of Jews who lived there thousands of years ago.
Arabs includes Jewish Arabs, Muslim Arabs, and Christian Arabs.
I am speaking about Muslim Arabs and the Islamic Conquests. Except for maybe the Neturei Karta, Jews switched over to calling themselves Israeli upon the establishment of Israel.
Where in this article does it say the protestors were “supporting Hamas”? Those of us who live in the neighborhood could not get onto the campus today to hear what the protestors were saying or chanting.
Not sure the article says that. But, as a person on that campus when they were in their ‘encampments’, I heard so much about their affiliation to Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran.
I repeat: I HEARD THEIR SUPPORT IN WORDS CHANTED FROM THE MOUTHS OF THE INDIVIDUALS ON THAT CAMPUS.
Thank you.
I wonder whether the protesters really support Hamas and their tactics. As you say, Hamas doesn’t care about the Palestinians, provoking an endless cycle of retaliation.
Hamas, a terrorist group, using Palestinians as “human shields” does not justify the killing of innocent civilians by Israel and the United States. It’s hard to keep track of who the terrorists are anymore.
Israel must destroy Hamas in order to survive. Hamas has vowed to kill every Jew in the world that they possibly can.
They ebed themselves among civilians and wear civilian clothes. They operate from tunnels beneath schools, mosques, and hospitals.
In order to survive, Israel must destroy Hamas, and so they must go through the civilians.
This does not happen elsewhere because no one else so blatantly uses their own as human shields. Israel has never done so.
And yes, the protesters, by not saying one word against Hamas, effectively supports them. If they didn’t support them, they would say so. It seems they are not shy.
Knock off the specious cries of antisemitism. Israel is a country, not a faith. Israel loudy trumpets its pluralistic society, Israel is promoted as a democracy where religion is irrelevant. For the very reasons we support Israel anti cannot= antisemitism. When the mass protests focus on synagogues then you may have a point.
1A is not the end all and be all. Right to free speech and assembly, yes. Inciting violence? No. Thanks to the NYPD for removing the protesters with care and discretion
Inciting violence? You mean the 3 students attacked with a chemical substance by pro-Israeli counter-demonstrators in January who’ve not been arrested yet? The doxxing truck?
Stop playing victim. It’s not working for Netanyahu and it’s not working for Israel
The 1st amendment doesn’t apply here. Columbia University is not Congress. But even the government can draw a line on free speech when it crosses a line,
Criticizing Israel and the genocide of Palestinian people is not antisemitic. Based on the widespread pro-Israel graffiti around the neighborhood, I feel like it’s hypocritical for folks to turn around and criticize pro Palestinian protest tactics. It just goes to show if an issue is important enough, people will go to great lengths to support that cause; speaking on both sides.
Yes that pro-Israel graffiti and signage is continual and constant vandalism and completely one-sided
“Fire in a crowded theater” is a red herring paraphrase of Holmes from Schenck v. US. It was one line in the decision and one that Homes later regretted as evidenced in several later disents. Holmes believed that opinions were protected absolutely and only lost that protection when they veered toward criminal harm. Schenck was overturned and the limitations of free speech narrowed in Brandenburg v. US. Speech could only be considered illegal when it meant there was “Imminent lawless action.” Nothing about what these protestors were saying falls into this category. The bottom line is that the first amendment protects hate speech and it is essential that it continues to do so. This is what makes the US Constitution the brilliant document that it is.
This being said Columbia has the right to enforce it’s code of conduct on campus. Just as they had many of us arrested in 1968, they can do the same today.
It is also disturbing that people who disagree with a policy of the country of Israel are branded anti-semites. This is a false equivalency and is designed to suppress speech. It is quite simply un-American. The continued invoking of the holocaust for any disagreement or even attack is also revolting.
The free speech cases are not relevant to Columbia, as it is not the government. It can draw its own lines on what it considers acceptable. Of course, there are still consequences for its decisions. Also – it is far too simplistic to categorize the pro-Palestinian demonstrations as anti-Israel and not antisemitic. There is a fair amount of anti-Jewish rhetoric in the demonstrations. I’ve heard it myself.
The protest gives me renewed faith in my alma mater. When I went there, we chanted: Ho Ho Ho Chi Minh, Viet Cong is gonna win. The univ prez, Grayson Kirk, called in the NYPD. Not much progress since then.
A Columbia professor told me yesterday that some students have been expelled,
Isra Hirsi may state that she was suspended for standing in solidarity with Palestinians; others may state that she was suspended for trespassing after having been duly warned. However, the article states that hundreds of students…were arrested (in 1968) for protesting against the Vietnam War. Those students were arrested for trespassing. Their arrest may have been motivated by the university’s administration having no tolerance for their political views (which I doubt), but I doubt that even the Columbia could have them arrested for expressing a political view. Better to have said that they were arrested WHILE protesting.
Who started it on October 7? The protesters are infringing on the rights and even the lives of students, staff, and people like me who happen to be nearby.