Police raid Columbia University campus to interrupt up pro-Palestinian protest

Police in riot gear have raided Columbia University and arrested pro-Palestinian protesters occupying one among its buildings.

Around 30 to 40 folks have been faraway from the Manhattan college’s Hamilton Hall, in accordance with police.

The raid got here hours after New York City Mayor Eric Adams mentioned the demonstration on the Ivy League college “must end now”.

He additionally claimed the demonstration had been infiltrated by “professional outside agitators”.

University bosses mentioned they referred to as within the New York Police Department (NYPD) after protesters “chose to escalate the situation through their actions”.

“After the university learned overnight that Hamilton Hall had been occupied, vandalised, and blockaded, we were left with no choice,” a college spokesman mentioned in a press release.

“The decision to reach out to the NYPD was in response to the actions of the protesters, not the cause they are championing.

“We have made it clear that the lifetime of campus can’t be endlessly interrupted by protesters who violate the foundations and the legislation.”

The protest started when college students barricaded the doorway of Hamilton Hall at Columbia’s campus on Tuesday and unfurled a Palestinian flag out of a window.

Video footage confirmed protesters locking arms in entrance of the corridor and carrying furnishings and steel barricades to the constructing.

Those behind the protest mentioned they’d renamed the constructing “Hind’s Hall” in honour of Hind Rajab, a six-year-old woman killed in a strike on Gaza in February.

Demonstrators mentioned they’d deliberate to stay on the corridor till the college conceded to the Columbia University Apartheid Divest’s (CUAD) three calls for: divestment, monetary transparency and amnesty.

“Columbia will be proud of these students in five years,” mentioned Sweda Polat, one of many pupil negotiators for CUAD.

She mentioned college students didn’t pose a hazard and referred to as on police to again down.

Officers raided the campus on Tuesday night time after college bosses wrote to New York City officers and the NYPD formally asking for help.

A big group of officers wearing riot gear entered the campus late on Tuesday night. Officers had been additionally seen getting into the window of a college constructing through a police-branded ladder automobile, nicknamed “the bear”.

Earlier, Mayor Adams urged demonstrators to go away the positioning. “Walk away from this situation now and continue your advocacy through other means,” he mentioned.

Columbia University additionally threatened tutorial expulsions for college kids concerned within the demonstration.

Protests at Columbia earlier this month kicked off demonstrations which have unfold to school campuses from California to Massachusetts.

Dozens of individuals had been arrested on Monday throughout protests at universities in Texas, Utah, Virginia, and New Jersey.

Police moved to clear an encampment at Yale University in Connecticut on Tuesday morning, however there have been no instant stories of arrests.

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Meanwhile, the president of the University of South California issued a press release on Tuesday after a swastika was drawn on the campus.

“I condemn any antisemitic symbols or any form of hate speech against anyone,” Carol Folt mentioned.

“Clearly it was drawn there just to incite even more anger at a time that is so painful for our community. We’re going to work to get to the bottom of this immediately, and it has just been removed.”

Earlier, National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby mentioned President Joe Biden believed college students occupying buildings was “absolutely the wrong approach” and “not an example of peaceful protest”.