Columbia University President Minouche Shafik announced there is a midnight deadline for pro-Palestinian protesters to reach an agreement and dismantle their encampment, otherwise she will have to consider “alternative options.”
The Ivy League experienced its seventh day of protests on Tuesday as students staged a sit-in to demand that the university divest from companies that profit from the Israeli war and sever university ties with its universities.
The university president said a group of university faculty, administrators and senators negotiated with student organizers and set a deadline of midnight to reach an agreement on dismantling the camp.
“I sincerely hope that these discussions will be successful. If not, we will need to consider alternative options for clearing the West Lawn,” Shafik said.
So far, more than 100 activists have been arrested. The demonstration intensified further on Monday, during the Jewish holiday of Passover, when staff and students walked out to protest the New York Police Department’s call to control the demonstrations.
Columbia University President Minouche Shafik announced that pro-Palestinian demonstrators had until midnight to dismantle their encampment.
Shafik said the protests had disrupted campus life and if an agreement was not reached, she would have to consider “alternative options”
The Ivy League experienced its seventh day of protests Tuesday as students staged a sit-in to demand that the university divest from companies that profit from the Israeli war.
The demonstrators, many of whom wore keffiyehs and masks, chanted “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”.
“The encampment raises serious safety concerns, disrupts campus life, and has created a tense and hostile environment for our community. It is essential that we move forward with a plan to dismantle it,” Shafik said.
“I also want to be clear that we will not tolerate any bullying, harassing or discriminatory behavior. We are working to identify protesters who have violated our anti-discrimination and harassment policies, and they will be subject to appropriate disciplinary procedures.
The pro-Palestinian group Within Our Lifetime posted on X, formerly Twitter, calling on protesters to return to the university lawn before the deadline.
“We will not be intimidated by state threats,” the group said.
Activist group The People’s Forum said on
Anti-Israel protesters were arrested Tuesday evening outside Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s home in Brooklyn, Fox News reported.
Shafik is facing growing calls to resign because she “ceded control to the anti-Semitic fringe” and allowed “anarchy” after canceling all in-person classes through the end of the semester.
Following the decision, Democratic Rep. Ritchie Torres tweeted that the president, who has only held the position since the summer of 2023, had “ceded control of Colombia to an anti-Semitic fringe.”
“If you can’t keep your students safe, then you have no business being president of a university… What Columbia University needs is not a peacemaker anti-Semitism but a leader who will fight against it with moral clarity,” Torres added. .
Following growing protests, New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft announced plans to withdraw funding from the school.
“The school that I love so much – the one that welcomed me and gave me so many opportunities – is no longer an institution that I recognize,” Kraft said.
“I am deeply saddened by the virulent hatred that continues to grow on campus and throughout our country.”
Shafik faces growing calls to resign because she ‘ceded control to the anti-Semitic fringe’ and enabled ‘anarchy’
So far, more than 100 activists have been arrested for participating in the protests.
Protesters, many wearing keffiyehs and masks, chanted “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” – which Jewish groups describe as anti-Semitic – and called for an intifada, meaning uprising. .
Two Jewish Columbia University graduates sneaked into the campus’ pro-Palestinian encampment with Israeli flags and accused the activists of “supporting radical Islamic terrorism.”
Isidore Karten and his friend Tomer Brenner, who gained access to the camp on Tuesday afternoon, also carried a poster with photos of Israelis kidnapped by Hamas on October 7. They were confronted by protesters and asked to leave but refused and spent several hours inside. the encampment organizes its own counter-demonstration.
Both told DailyMail.com that the encampment should be immediately removed by university leaders and accused pro-Palestinian activists of making Jewish students feel unsafe.
Karten, who studied architecture and will graduate in 2023, said: “What they are really doing is supporting Hamas. They support radical Islamic terrorism.
Brenner, 29, from Tel Aviv, who graduated in 2020, added: “We see the flags and symbols that aim to provoke maximum violence against Israelis.
“They chant the Intifada.
Two Jewish Columbia University graduates sneaked into pro-Palestinian campus encampment with Israeli flags and accused activists of ‘supporting radical Islamic terrorism’
Both told DailyMail.com that the encampment should be removed immediately by university management.
“We don’t understand why the administration isn’t removing them from here.”
He said other students chanted “Burn Tel Aviv.”
“We were surrounded, everyone was blocking us because they didn’t want anyone, God forbid, to see an Israeli or American flag, or posters of hostages (kidnapped by Hamas on October 7),” Brenner said.
“They claim it’s a safe space, but it’s only safe for them.”
Karten claimed to have seen a Jewish person wearing religious symbols telling him to “go back to Poland.”
“It’s not just about Israel, it’s also about the Jews,” he said of the camp.
“I’m totally against what they’re doing here, I don’t think they should be here.”
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