Columbia University: the raid and the arrests
Dozens of pro-Gaza protesters were arrested on the Columbia University campus. The police broke in through a window on the second floor of a building as soon as the University sent out a request for intervention, the signal that the agents were waiting for after surrounding the campus. The officers aimed to clear the Hamilton Hall occupied by pro-Palestinian students who have blocked access since the early hours of yesterday morning.
«We regret that the protesters chose to aggravate the situation through their actions. “After the University learned overnight that Hamilton Hall had been occupied, vandalized and boarded up, we were left with no other choice,” the university spokesperson said. Ben Chang in a statement released by CNN. «Columbia public safety personnel – he continued – were forced to leave the building and a member of our facilities team was threatened. We will not risk the safety of our community for further escalation.”.
The handcuffed demonstrators were put on police buses. The agents entered around 9.30pm (New York time, 3.30am in Italy). Columbia University has been the epicenter of a national movement in the United States in support of the Palestinian cause and against Israel’s war in the Gaza Strip. On their Instagram account, the protesters of the pro-Palestinian group «Columbia University Apartheid Divest» they denounced the raid on the campus by the police to remove them from Hamilton Hall which they renamed “Hind’s Hall” in homage to the six-year-old girl killed in Gaza.
Columbia spokesman Chang had threatened in the hours before the raid expel students accusing them of vandalizing and blocking access to the building. The New York police denied having used tear gas during the arrests, news that had spread, while they reported having adopted devices to catch people off guard and surprise them.
The student protests are not limited only to Columbia but also concern other universities, each of which has adopted different strategies towards the students camped in support of the Palestinian cause. Some institutes like Yale and Brownremember the CNN, cleared out camps on campus, while others found themselves in chaos. Classes were canceled atUNC Chapel Hillin North Carolina, where dozens of students were arrested, and at least five protesters were arrested at Florida State University.
