Professional-Palestinian scholar group says it staged demonstration to protest in opposition to college making the most of ‘imperialist violence’.
Dozens of pro-Palestinian activists have staged a protest at Columbia College in the US.
Footage posted on social media confirmed demonstrators standing on tables, chanting and beating drums contained in the college’s important library.
Columbia College Apartheid Divest, a pro-Palestinian scholar group, mentioned it had occupied the library to protest the college’s hyperlinks to Israel.
“Over 100 individuals have simply flooded Butler Library and renamed it the Basel Al-Araj Well-liked College,” the group mentioned on Substack, referring to the Palestinian activist and author who was killed by Israeli forces in 2017.
“The flood reveals that so long as Columbia funds and earnings from imperialist violence, the individuals will proceed to disrupt Columbia’s earnings and legitimacy. Repression breeds resistance – if Columbia escalates repression, the individuals will proceed to escalate disruptions on this campus.”
Columbia College’s appearing president, Claire Shipman, condemned the demonstration as “utterly unacceptable”.
College officers referred to as police after demonstrators refused requests to offer identification and depart the constructing, Shipman mentioned.
“Disruptions to our educational actions is not going to be tolerated and are violations of our guidelines and insurance policies; that is particularly unacceptable whereas our college students examine and put together for last exams,” Shipman mentioned in an announcement.
“Columbia strongly condemns violence on our campus, antisemitism and all types of hate and discrimination, a few of which we witnessed at present.”
Shipman mentioned two Columbia Public Security Officers sustained accidents when people tried to drive their means into the constructing.
The New York Police Division mentioned in an announcement that “a number of people who didn’t adjust to verbal warnings” to disperse have been taken into custody.
New York radio station 1010 WINS reported that round 80 demonstrators have been arrested.
Columbia College, one of many top-ranked US universities, was the location of enormous demonstrations final yr when scholar protests in opposition to Israel’s warfare in Gaza erupted on greater than 100 campuses throughout the US.
