Columbia University Threatens to Expel Students Occupying Building in Pro-Palestinian Demonstration

Students with the Gaza solidarity encampment block the entrance of Hamilton Hall at Columbia University after taking over it, in New York on April 30, 2024. Marco Postigo Storel via AP

Columbia University has warned students who took over and barricaded themselves inside a building on campus as part of an ongoing pro-Palestinian demonstration that they face now expulsion.

Protesters first took over Hamilton Hall early on Tuesday morning after defying orders to disperse from an earlier encampment they had set up at Columbia University’s Morningside Campus in New York City. Participants were seen vandalizing the building and moving furniture and other items into the entryways.

In a statement Tuesday, Columbia spokesperson Ben Chang said “students occupying the building face expulsion,” and those who defied the earlier calls to disperse on Monday were being suspended.

“Protesters have chosen to escalate to an untenable situation—vandalizing property, breaking doors and windows, and blockading entrances—and we are following through with the consequences we outlined yesterday,” he said.

Earlier on Tuesday morning, Columbia University announced access across its Morningside Campus had been restricted to on-campus residents and essential employees.

“Effective immediately, access to the Morningside campus has been limited to students residing in residential buildings on campus (Carman, Furnald, John Jay, Hartley, Wallach, East Campus and Wien) and employees who provide essential services to campus buildings, labs and residential student life (for example, Dining, Public Safety, and building maintenance staff),” the university announced in a press statement. “There is no additional access to the Morningside campus.”

The university also said the only way in and out of the Morningside Campus now is through its 116th Street and Amsterdam gate.

The campus closure comes a week after University President Minouche Shafik halted in-person learning over concerns that pro-Palestinian protesters had begun to disrupt learning and harass other students.

The university had taken steps to disperse the earlier encampments, and on Monday gave a 2 p.m. deadline for the protesters to finally pack up. That deadline came and went with many protest participants still refusing to budge, leading campus administrators to begin issuing suspensions.

“We gave everyone at the encampment the opportunity to leave peacefully. By committing to abide by University policies, they would be allowed to complete the semester,” Mr. Chang’s Tuesday statement reads. “Students who did not commit to the terms we offered are now being suspended. Those students will be restricted from all academic and recreational spaces and may only access their individual residence. Seniors will be ineligible to graduate.”

The Protest Demands

The protests on the Columbia campus have been organized through a number of groups, including Columbia’s Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapter and Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD). Both groups circulated a CUAD statement on Tuesday, saying “an autonomous group” had reclaimed Hamilton Hall as “Hinds Hall,” in honor of Hind Rajab, a six-year-old Gazan “murdered at the hands of the genocidal Israeli state.”

“Protestors have voiced their intention to remain at Hind’s Hall until Columbia concedes to CUAD’s three demands: divestment, financial transparency, and amnesty,” the statement continues.

The CUAD website states their call for “divestment” entails ensuring Columbia University cuts off all financial support “from companies and institutions that profit from Israeli apartheid, genocide and occupation in Palestine” and ensuring accountability and transparency regarding its financial investments.

The CUAD website lists other demands, including that Columbia University “sever academic ties with Israeli universities, including the Global Center in Tel Aviv, the Dual Degree Program with Tel Aviv University, and all study-abroad programs, fellowships, and research collaborations with Israeli academic institutions.”

CUAD further calls for Columbia University to stop “the targeted repression of Palestinian students and their allies on and off campus,” defund the campus public safety program and sever ties with the New York Police Department. The group has also called for the university to issue a public statement in support of a ceasefire in the ongoing Israel–Hamas war taking place in the Gaza Strip.

“We were engaging in good faith negotiations until the administration cut them off under threat of suspensions,” student organizer and negotiator Xueda Polat said at a Monday encampment press conference. “Where we asked for amnesty, they gave us more discipline. Ironically, the notices [of suspension] assure students that their rights to demonstrate will be protected by the university if they sign these papers. We refuse to operate on the basis of speculation. We want assurances.”

Leo Elkins, a Jewish student at Columbia University, told The Epoch Times on Monday that he had studied in Israel for two years as part of a dual degree program supported by the university.

“One of the main goals of these protests is to end that,” he said. “I feel discriminated against.”

On Monday, Ms. Shafik said Columbia would not divest from Israel but has offered to publish an expedited process by which the university’s Advisory Committee for Socially Responsible Investing would take up new divestment proposals, and more openly and frequently publicize details about Columbia’s direct investment holdings.

“The university refused to seriously consider our demands for divestment, financial transparency, and amnesty for students and faculty disciplines in the movement for Palestinian liberation,” Jared Kennel, a self-described Jewish student and protest organizer, told The Epoch Times on Monday.

The Associated Press contributed to this article.

From NTD News