Hundreds of Columbia University students set up nearly 60 tents on the campus’ main lawn to demand the university divest from Israel – just as Columbia President Minouche Shafik testifies Wednesday before Congress about antisemitism at the Ivy League school.
The Gaza Solidarity Encampment first sprung up on the lawn in front of Butler Library before 5 a.m., the Columbia University Spectator reported.
The demonstrations organized by the Columbia University Apartheid Divest group vowed to remain on the grass until university officials agreed to divest from Israeli interests.
Many of the tents in the encampment were adorned with handmade signs, including one that read “Israel bombs, Columbia pays,” in reference to Israel’s months-long bombardment of the Gaza Strip in the aftermath of the Oct. 7 terror attack.
The protest was still going strong hours later, with the NYPD descending on the scene to restrict members of the press to pen on the sidewalk of Broadway and 116th Street without a view of the lawn, independent journalist Katie Smith shared on X.
As of just after 1:30, two NYPD Corrections Department buses were parked in front of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, just two blocks from the campus, Smith added.
Public safety officers entered the encampment and presented the students with a notice to disperse, which accused the group of “‘engaging in disruption,’” another independent reporter, Talia Jane, posted on social media.
The students – some of whom were draped in Palestinian keffiyehs – replied by singing “All you fascists bound to lose,” Talia Jane’s video from the scene showed.
Representatives from Barnard College, the historically women’s college affiliated with Columbia, also entered the lawn and told the students to leave in order to avoid disciplinary action, Talia Jane added.
The group laughed and chanted “Hell no” in response, video showed.
Counter protestors – including one person waving a large Israeli flag – eventually stood outside the area.
The encampment emerged just hours before the university’s president, Minouche Shafik, was set to take the stand before a congressional hearing on antisemitism at the Morningside Heights campus.
Columbia had already restricted access to the main campus to university ID holders ahead of Shafik’s congressional appearance, the Spectator noted.
In her opening statement at Wednesday’s hearing, House Education and Workforce Committee Chairperson Virginia Foxx (R-NC) accused Shafik of “gross negligence” in the face of the protests and occasional violence that emerged at Columbia in the wake of Oct. 7.
Shafik admitted that “the events of October 7 brought to the fore an undercurrent of antisemitism” at the university, but reassured the committee that Columbia took “immediate action” on the issue,
“Trying to reconcile the free speech rights of those who wanted to protest and the rights of Jewish students to be in an environment free of discrimination and harassment has been the central challenge on our campus,” she added.
Shafik is a lauded economist and previously worked for the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and the Bank of England before stepping in as Columbia’s 20th president in July 2023.
Her tenure comes on the heels of the two-decade leadership of Lee Bollinger, an attorney who frequently discussed issues of First Amendment rights and the press on college campuses.