Protesters break windows at Columbia University hours after school starts suspending student demonstrators
Protesters at Columbia University broke windows at the Manhattan campus’ Hamilton Hall early Tuesday, hours after the school began suspending students who defied a deadline to leave a pro-Palestinian camp set up to protest the war in Gaza.
NBC News could not confirm how many people were inside Hamilton Hall, but the university’s student newspaper, the Columbia Spectator, reported that dozens of protesters had occupied the building.
“Let’s finish what they did in 1968,” someone yelled, apparently referring to the famous protest against the Vietnam War in which the same building was occupied.
"Disclose, divest. We will not stop, we will not rest," people were heard chanting.
An NYPD spokesperson said that "we are outside the campus, not on the grounds" just before 2 a.m.
The demonstrators hung a banner outside the building, dubbing it “Hind’s Hall,” to recognize a 6-year-old girl, Hind Rajab, who was found dead in Gaza days after being trapped under Israeli fire. The protestors said they plan to take over Hamilton Hall in honor of Hind and all the Palestinians killed in the war's violence.
“This building is now being liberated,” someone in the crowd could be heard saying early Tuesday.
A Palestinian flag was also hung from a window of the building to face outward, and trash cans were used in an attempt to make a barrier. "Shut it down!" people chanted by the entrance, video from the scene showed.
On Monday, Columbia University began suspending students who failed to leave their pro-Palestinian encampment by the university's 2 p.m. deadline. Earlier in the day, the school's president said the school would not divest from Israel — a demand that has sparked protests on college campuses across the country.
"We have begun suspending students," Ben Chang, vice president for communications and a spokesperson for the university, said about three hours after the deadline passed.
The university did not say how many students it suspended.
The university had told student demonstrators to vacate by 2 p.m. or else “be suspended pending further investigation” and barred from completing the spring semester.
At the encampment, now in its second week, participants voted nearly unanimously to stay put.
Around 2:45 p.m. — after the 2 p.m. warning time to leave — protesters marched on the quad and chanted “Disclose! Divest! We will not slow, we will not rest!’"
A part of the encampment has been cleared to make space for the upcoming commencement ceremony for graduates, and picketers are largely sticking to the perimeters of the encampment.
David Lederer, a 22-year-old sophomore at Columbia, walked up to the picket line and began waving a large Israeli flag in opposition to the protests.
"I’m here to show we’re here to stay; we’re not going anywhere," Lederer said.
President Minouche Shafik asked the protesters in her statement to voluntarily disperse, saying that the demonstration had created “an unwelcoming environment for many of our Jewish students and faculty,” that “external actors” have contributed to a “hostile environment” around university gates and that it had become a “noisy distraction” for students.
Shafik also cited the May 15 commencement, saying, “We also do not want to deprive thousands of students and their families and friends of a graduation celebration.”
More than 15,000 Columbia students are graduating this spring, the university said.
At the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, the main stage commencement ceremony was canceled after protests.
Columbia was the first institution struck by protests in support of the Palestinian cause, with students demanding that the school divest from investments that support weapons manufacturing and Israel amid the backdrop of the Israel-Hamas war, in which more than 34,000 people have been killed in the Gaza Strip.
Protests spread quickly last week on campuses from coast to coast, resulting in mass arrests and crackdowns.
“While the University will not divest from Israel,” it offered to create an expedited timeline for a review of new proposals from students by the school's Advisory Committee for Socially Responsible Investing, which explores divestment, Shafik said.
“The University also offered to publish a process for students to access a list of Columbia’s direct investment holdings, and to increase the frequency of updates to that list of holdings,” she added.
Shafik said the university had offered “to make investments in health and education in Gaza, including supporting early childhood development and support for displaced scholars." She urged those in the encampment to voluntarily disperse.
One of those suspended by Columbia for protests is undergraduate student Fadi Shuman, 31, though he was suspended before Monday’s deadline for a previous encampment.
A first-generation American born to Palestinian parents, Shuman says he is low income and may not be able to return to school.
“I don’t know if I’m going to be able to go to school again. I don’t know I’ll be able to afford to go back to another school again,” Shuman said.
“I can’t say it’s like easy, but I know what I’m doing is right and it’s something I’m willing to sacrifice,” he said.
The notices handed out Monday, viewed by NBC News and issued to protest participants that morning, asked protesters to identify themselves to a university official and sign a form agreeing to alternative resolution for the university policy violations that the encampment posed.
Those who sign are eligible to complete the semester in good standing and will not be placed on suspension if they adhere to university policies.
The university also said in the notice it would offer “an alternative venue for demonstrations after the exam period and commencement have concluded.”
Columbia University Apartheid Divest, the coalition organizing the encampment protest, said in a statement Monday: "These repulsive scare tactics mean nothing compared to the deaths of over 34,000 Palestinians. We will not move until Columbia meets our demands or we are moved by force."
The group criticized the university's "threat to mass suspend, evict and possibly expel students" with just hours' notice as a violation of the school's rules.
The group also condemned paper notices the university issued at the encampment as "reminiscent of the flyers the Israeli army launched from the sky to Gazans."
At a Columbia rally by the coalition around 2 p.m., student organizer Sueda Polat said: “The university has conducted itself with obstinacy and arrogance, refusing to be flexible on some of our most basic points.”
“We were engaging in good faith negotiations until the administration cut them off under threat of suspensions. Where we asked for amnesty, they gave us more discipline,” Polat said.
Protest organizers also criticized Shafik's claim that the university had “constructive dialogue” with protesters, noting Columbia refused to give a commitment that student divestment proposals would be binding, and they described Shafik's offering of childhood education programs for Palestinians as "nothing more than bribery of the student movement."
Unrest and protests continue at colleges around the country. Police at the University of Texas at Austin on Monday made arrests and dismantled an encampment set up to protest the war in Gaza, university officials said. There were also arrests at the University of Florida in Gainesville.
Hundreds of protesters marched through the campus of the University of Missouri in Columbia, NBC affiliate KOMU of Columbia reported, but no arrests were reported.
Northwestern University in Illinois said it reached an agreement with demonstrators that will bring an end to tents on Deering Meadow, and the Anti-Defamation League for the Midwest criticized that deal as rewarding bad behavior and it accused the encampment of being a "platform for antisemitism."
At Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, police made arrests after the school said that people refused to gather their belongings and leave, the university said. It's finals week there, it noted. Police used a tear gas-like substance, NBC affiliate WWBT of Richmond reported. Video showed officers with riot shields and helmets as protesters held a makeshift line of wooden pallets.
Shuman, the Columbia protester previously suspended, said it’s hard having Palestinian roots but unable to change the situation.
“My whole life, I feel like growing up as a Palestinian in America you’re always living with this — whether you know it or not — it’s just survivor’s guilt,” Shuman said.
“I’m over here, but not able to, like, actually do something,” he said.
CORRECTION (April 29, 2024, 8:10 pm ET): A previous version of this article misidentified a suspended student. He is Fadi Shuman, not Schuman, and he is an undergraduate student, not a graduate student.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
