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Columbia University has warned that it will expel “dozens” of pro-Palestinian students who occupied one of its New York campus buildings, as US politicians led by President Joe Biden condemned their actions against a backdrop of escalating protests across the country.
Demonstrators marched into the Hamilton Hall building early on Tuesday, blocked entrances and unfurled a “free Palestine” flag, escalating a stand-off after Columbia’s authorities had sought on Monday to end a campus encampment by threatening to suspend any students who did not disperse.
The university — which has been struggling to balance freedom of speech with concerns over antisemitism — sparked frustrations as it further restricted access to its campus, limiting access to resident students and staff providing “essential services”.
“President Biden respects the right to free expression, but protests must be peaceful and lawful,” said White House spokesperson Andrew Bates on Tuesday. “Forcibly taking over buildings is not peaceful — it is wrong. And hate speech and hate symbols have no place in America.”
Columbia has been a focal point of demonstrations triggered by the war between Hamas and Israel, which started October 7, but a decision by its administration to suspend students and call in the police to arrest them sparked widespread copycat occupations and clampdowns in the US and at universities abroad.
Police on Tuesday arrested protesters to end the occupation of a building at California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt. More than 1,000 arrests have taken place at campuses across the US in recent days. Classes were cancelled and buildings shut at UNC Chapel Hill, and the library was occupied at Portland State University.
Students in Hamilton Hall, previously occupied during anti-Vietnam war protests in 1968, said they had renamed it “Hind’s Hall” in memory of a girl killed in Gaza. They have demanded measures including greater transparency in college investments and divestment from companies they deem to have profited from Israel’s war in Gaza.
At a press conference outside the home of the university president, a woman who declined to share her identity but claimed she represented the Columbia University Apartheid Divest group said about 60 students were occupying the building and that a second encampment had sprung up on the central campus.
“Columbia is on the back foot,” she said, insisting that the students were prepared to fight on — even after the end of the school year. “People are fighting for an end to genocide, and I don’t think that’s something that’s regulated by the beginning or end of the semester.”
In response to a Financial Times reporter’s question over her demand for the school to provide food and water to protesters, she said: “Do you want students to die of dehydration or get seriously ill — even if they disagree with you?” She said the university was attempting to bribe students with $80 meal delivery coupons.
She accused the administration of targeting Palestinians for suspension and “creating a state-of-emergency on campus to sabotage negotiations”.
Minouche Shafik, Columbia’s president, last week said the university had negotiated in good faith and had been willing to establish new processes to engage with students around transparency and divestment, but had failed to reach an agreement with protesters.
On Tuesday evening, Ben Chang, a Columbia spokesman, blamed the protesters for choosing “to escalate to an untenable situation’” through “vandalising property”, causing disruption and “creating a threatening environment”. He said the university was “exploring options to restore security.”
Several organisations have sued the university over claims of discrimination and failure to protect Jewish and Muslim students, and most recently over disruption of their ability to study and graduate.
Columbia is under pressure from the US Congress to crack down on the protests, but is also racing to prepare for its graduation ceremony to be held adjacent to the encampment on May 15.
The White House stressed that Biden had “stood against repugnant, antisemitic smears and violent rhetoric his entire life” and added: “He condemns the use of the term ‘intifada’, as he has the other tragic and dangerous hate speech displayed in recent days.”
The student tent camp was still visible through the locked gates of the Columbia campus on Tuesday morning, but just a dozen demonstrators and a small number of police and private security guards stood outside its main entrance. One placard read: “Lift the siege on Gaza now.”
A truck drove by honking its horn, with a US and Israeli flag painted on the side and the slogan “United we stand with Israel.” A few other people not affiliated with Columbia stood outside in a small counter-protest.
As the day wore on, crowds of demonstrators swelled outside the gates on either side of the university. They were overwhelmingly pro-Palestinian, waving flags and shouting now familiar chants: “There is only one solution: Intifada revolution!”
Just after 3.30, a masked figure appeared on a rooftop waving an enormous Palestinian flag and the crowd erupted.
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