Israel supporters rally at Columbia after Ivy leage prez drops deadline for tent protesters to leave
Several hundred pro-Israel protesters rallied outside Columbia University Friday after the university signaled it had given up trying to clear out the tent encampments and dropped a demand that hundreds of protesters clear out this week.
The group waving Israeli and American flags lined Broadway while chanting “Bring them home now!” and “Let my people go” — demands for Hamas to free to hostages taken on Oct. 7 — as NYPD officers looked on.
Several of the attendees held large milk cartons emblazoned with pictures and names of the hostages who are still being held in the Gaza Strip.
Hours before the Friday morning protest, Columbia officials backtracked on the deadline for the students to leave the encampment on Columbia’s lawn – knuckling under as the protesters refused to leave and drew out negotiations with administrators.
An 11 p.m. update from Columbia on Thursday made no mention of a Friday deadline — which the administration initially announced following an extension of an earlier demand to leave by midnight Wednesday.
On Friday morning, the anti-Israel protesters hobnobbed with Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Jamaal Bowman, who stopped by the tent setup but exited out the Amsterdam Avenue gates – apparently bypassing the pro-Israel demonstrators altogether.
“The people who are making those tents, I don’t know if most of them realize what they’re protesting against,” one man, a rabbi, told The Post of the student protesters in the encampment.
“I have 13 grandchildren in Israel…they are constantly having to leave wherever they are because an indiscriminate missile is being sent their way,” one man, the rabbi, told The Post.
“You cannot live this way. Israel has been living this way for years. And [Hamas] said they would like to do it again!” he lamented.
One pro-Israel protester was spotted spray painting over graffiti that read “Free Palestine” with the phrase “Free hostages,” while another man papered over both phrases with small stickers of the hostage posters.
Many of the protesters wore shirts with slogans including “free our hostages,” and held blue signs that read “#EndJewHatred.”
A man in a Columbia shirt wore an Israeli flag as a cape and clutched a handmade sign that read “#MeToo UNless you’re a Jew,” referring to the United Nations’ seeming reluctance to acknowledge the sexual violence inflicted on Israeli women on Oct. 7.
“Me being here is helping the Jewish community here that is feeling that they are not safe. It’s showing support for my people,” 13-year-old Ethan Friedman told The Post.
Assemblyman Jake Blumencranz (R-Long Island) said that he “would like to see the governor finally deploy the National Guard” at the school.
“It’s disgusting to see the reality that the students have to face every single day while trying to get an education at the school they paid for,” he scoffed.
The scene Friday was more peaceful than on Thursday night, when the United March for Israel unleashed chaos at the campus gates.
At one point, a pro-Israel protester moved toward a counterdemonstration and yelled “You want to get raped, you want to get murdered?” according to the Columbia Spectator.
Anti-Israel protesters also confronted a pro-Israel supporter with shouts of “go back to Europe,” prompting a shoving match that nearly erupted into a sidewalk brawl, according to a video from indie reporter Oliya Scootercaster.
The event – which was framed as a “unity march of Christians and Jews” by the Columbia Jewish Alumni Association – featured music from Christian musician Sean Feuct, the Spectator said.
“I felt more scared out here at the gates than I felt on campus all week—it was really terrifying,” one student said of the clash between the two sides.