New York City Police officers entered the Columbia University campus late on Tuesday, taking many people into custody in a move to end the protest that started in essence to show solidarity with Palestine.
The protest had initially started on April 17th, when a group of student organizers set up a series of tents outside the main library at Columbia University. In continuation of the protest, the protestors took control of the Hamilton Hall of the campus on Tuesday, a few hours before police entered.
Live television footage captured dozens of police officers entering Hamilton Hall shortly after 9 p.m. on Tuesday.
The action was taken in order to clear the protesters who had taken control over the hall, declaring it ‘Hind’s Hall’ in the memories of a Palestinian child, Hind Rajab, killed in Gaza.
The tension surged quickly as the officers wearing helmets and carrying shields and zip ties moved to disperse the protestors who had occupied Hamilton Hall earlier and set up barricades. NYPD spokesman Carlos Nieves said he had no immediate reports of any injuries following the arrests.
“We’re clearing it out,” police yelled as they marched up to the barricaded entrance to the building.
According to the reports, the protesting students started to chant “Shame! Shame!” as the incident unfolded.
One protester at Columbia, named Sophie, told the Guardian that police had barricaded protesters inside buildings before making arrests. “It will not be forgotten,” she said. “This is no longer an Israel-Palestine issue. It’s a human rights and free speech issue and a Columbia student issue.”
Earlier on the same day, Columbia University issued a warning to the protestors, threatening expulsions and academic sanctions.
The protest that started to show solidarity with Gaza had surged widely across the US, affecting various universities like Harvard, Yale, Texas, and others.
The university said in a statement on Tuesday that it had asked police to enter the campus to “restore safety and order to our community.”.
On April 25, Thursday, more than 100 people were arrested at protests at Columbia. Palestine Legal, a Chicago-based advocacy group, filed a complaint demanding a probe into what it calls the university’s “discriminatory treatment of Palestinian students and their allies,” as reported by NBC News.
