Colombian protester mocked after demanding food for occupiers

A pro-Palestinian protester at Columbia University was mocked for demanding that the Ivy League school provide students who had occupied a building with food and “basic humanitarian aid.”

In an impassioned plea, Johannah King-Slutzky, a doctoral student in English and comparative literature, warned that students illegally occupying university properties could “die of dehydration and starvation” if they did not receive supplies.

“Like, could people have a glass of water please?,” Ms. King-Slutzky, 33, told reporters outside Hamilton Hall, which had been overrun by protesters.

“Do you want students to die of dehydration and starvation or become seriously ill even if they disagree with you? If the answer is no, then you should allow basic aid… I mean, it’s crazy to say because we’re on an Ivy League campus, but it’s like basic humanitarian aid. basis that we are asking for,” she added.

A reporter responded: “It seems like you’re sort of saying, ‘We want to be revolutionaries, we want to take back this building, now could you get us some food and water.’

In response, Ms. King-Slutzky said: “No one is asking them to bring anything.

“We ask them not to violently prevent us from providing basic humanitarian assistance.”

Ms. King-Slutzky later clarified that she was not sure whether the university had tried to prevent supplies to the protesters.

“We expect them to commit to not stopping it,” she said. “I don’t know to what extent this was attempted. But we are looking for commitment.

The protester also said she believed the university was obligated to provide food to all student occupiers who had paid for a meal plan as part of their tuition.

On her now-deleted website, Ms. King-Slutzky described herself as a “full-service video editor and digital communications expert for progressive and left-wing causes.”

The activist, originally from New York, was also a member of the student union. During the 2021 strikes, she described herself and her colleagues as “lambs raised for the slaughter.”

Ms. King-Slutzky’s academic research focuses on “theories of imagination and poetry interpreted through a Marxist lens in order to update and offer an alternative to historicist ideological critiques of the Romantic imagination,” according to his profile at Columbia University, which was also deleted.

She is the daughter of psychologists Mitchell Slutzky and Beth King.

Mr. Slutzsky, who runs a private practice specializing in dementia care, was recently listed as living in an Upper East Side property that was put up for sale earlier in 2024 for $1.3 million ( £1 million).

Her mother studied her doctorate in clinical psychology at Teachers College Columbia in the 1980s, according to her LinkedIn profile.

In 2015, Ms. King-Slutzky wrote a 2,360-word article on “normcore diet theory” in which she described pickles, Greek yogurt and quinoa as “high-stakes, lifestyle-laden trend foods.” moral and aesthetic baggage.

Earlier Tuesday, videos of people giving food to women inside a door in Columbia were shared online.

Last week, protesters ate a diet of $17 Pret-A-Manger sandwiches and toasted mixed nuts, according to the New York Post.

Police arrested 119 people barricaded inside Hamilton Hall on Tuesday evening, New York Mayor Eric Adams said.

Protests have raged at the university for nearly two weeks and have spread to campuses in more than two dozen US states.

On Tuesday, Joe Biden, the US president, accused the Columbia group of hate speech and said their occupation was wrong.

Columbia officials accused the activists of vandalism, including breaking doors and windows.

Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 3 months with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving deals and more.