Hundreds of Columbia University students staged a sit-in on campus in “Gaza solidarity” as President Minouche Shafik testified before Congress on anti-Semitism.
Students began setting up their tents around 4 a.m. Wednesday, hours before Shafik was scheduled to testify before the House Education and Workforce Committee about rampant anti-Semitic remarks on campus.
Inspired by the occupation of the university’s Hamilton Hall in 1968 against the Vietnam War, students gathered in what they called the “Gaza Solidarity Encampment” to demand that the school administration divests from companies affiliated with Israel.
About sixty tents dotted the south lawn of the campus, displaying two large signs declaring “liberated zone” and “Gaza solidarity camp.”
As of midday Wednesday, it was still unclear who organized the sit-in, but students from the SJP (Students for Justice for Palestine) and the PSL (Party for Socialism and Liberation) were spotted on the ground.
Videos showed the students on the main campus. It also showed officials handing out papers to students and telling them that if they did not leave by noon, they risked suspension.
Hundreds of Columbia University students staged sit-in on campus in ‘solidarity with Gaza’ as President Minouche Shafik testified before Congress on anti-Semitism
Students began setting up their tents around 4 a.m. Wednesday, hours before Shafik testified before the House Education and Workforce Committee about rampant anti-Semitic remarks on the campus
As of midday Wednesday, it was still unclear who organized the sit-in, but students from the SJP (Students for Justice for Palestine) and the PSL (Party for Socialism and Liberation) were spotted on the ground.
About 60 tents dotted the campus’s south lawn, with two large signs declaring “liberated zone” and “Gaza solidarity camp.”
One of the protesters, Catherine Elias, told the student newspaper Columbia Spectator that protesters “won’t move until they meet our demands.”
“Our demands are in line with and carry the movement that has been taking place on this campus for more than 60 years, from 1968 to the 1980s to the 90s until 2024 today,”
“The anti-apartheid movement and the student organizing struggle at Columbia has been alive and well for over 60 years, and we take all of these organizers with us as we come here today,” Elias said.
The demonstrators also held up numerous signs written on cardboard, including those stating: “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” and “Say the word genocide,” videos posted on social media show.
Just 30 minutes after protesters set up their tents, an NYPD vehicle entered the campus before officials arrived to ask students to evacuate.
“The presence of tents on the South Lawn constitutes a safety concern and a violation of university policies,” a university spokesperson wrote in a statement.
“We are informing students that they are violating university policies and must leave for their own safety and the operation of the university.”
The demonstration continues as President Shafik is accused of being at the head of one of the “worst centers of anti-Semitism and hatred” during a questioning in Congress.
Inspired by the 1968 occupation of Hamilton Hall on campus against the Vietnam War, students gathered in what they called the “Gaza Solidarity Encampment” to demand that the school administration divest from businesses affiliated with Israel.
Just 30 minutes after protesters set up their tents, an NYPD vehicle entered the campus before officials arrived to ask students to evacuate.
The university implemented restrictions on campus access and identity checks for students shortly after the protest began.
Representatives from Columbia University and Barnard College were spotted Wednesday asking protesters to leave to avoid disciplinary action. Protesters responded by chanting: “All of you fascists are doomed to lose” and “shame on you.”
In a video shared by a witness, a woman who appeared to be a representative could be seen handing out a sheet she called the “university code of conduct.”
“You are violating university policies. If you don’t evacuate by 11 a.m., you will be suspended,” she said.
The demonstration continues as President Shafik is accused of being at the head of one of the “worst centers of anti-Semitism and hatred” during a questioning in Congress.
The Ivy League chief defended “peaceful” protests and free speech amid the wave of anti-Semitic rhetoric since the start of the Gaza war that led to the resignation of Harvard President Claudine Gay and by Yale President Liz Magill.
House GOP Conference Chairwoman Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., accused Columbia leaders of refusing to “enforce their own policies and condemn Jewish hatred on campus, creating fertile ground for anti-Semitism.”
Rep. Burgess Owens, R-Utah, told Shafik that the experience of Jewish students at Columbia reminds him of “the hatred and bigotry” he experienced in the Deep South in the 1960s, referring to a professor of the Ivy League calling the October 7 attack ‘brilliant.’
He asked the president a pointed question: “Would this treatment of black Americans be tolerated for a single second on the Columbia campus?”
Shafik replied “absolutely not”.
Speaker Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., played a clip of students gathering at Columbia and shouting “Intifada!” and “We will honor all martyrs!” in reference to the Hamas attackers on October 7.
“While anti-Semitism has spread across many college campuses, Columbia University stands out as one of the worst offenders,” Foxx insisted.
But Shafik insisted she has worked aggressively to combat anti-Semitism on campus, including holding more than 200 meetings on the topic, hosting daily campus security team meetings and working with the NYPD and FBI when hate crimes occur on campus.
Rep. Suzanne Bonamici, D-Ore., asked Shafik whether chanting “Intifada” violated Columbia’s rules.
“I find this incredibly distressing and I deeply wish people would not use them on our campus,” Shafik said. “This is abhorrent and has no place in our community.”
She continued: “I think one of the issues we’re actively debating right now…is clarifying where language crosses the line between protected speech and discriminatory or harassing speech.”
Stefanik, who led the line of questioning that baffled the presidents of Harvard and Yale in December, had a series of pointed questions directed at Shafik.
She asked him about the “disciplinary measures” taken against Columbia professor Joseph Massad, who celebrated Hamas’ attack on Israel as “brilliant.”
Shafik said he was still a professor at Columbia, but had a stern conversation.
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