Above photo: Sydney Lee.
Dozens of students were dragged away by police with their hands zip-tied behind their backs.
Dozens of student protesters were cleared out from Columbia University’s Hamilton Hall building by New York police late on 30 April, after storming and occupying the building the night before as part of demonstrations in support of Palestine.
Hundreds of police officers wearing helmets and carrying riot shields surrounded the building, with a number of policemen climbing into Hamilton Hall via a ramp extending from one of the police vehicles into a window of the building.
Dozens of pro-Palestine students were detained and dragged away from the scene with their hands zip-tied behind their backs.
The New York Police Department had earlier issued a dispersal order for students to vacate the building.
The administration at Columbia University released a statement saying it had “no choice” but to bring in the police to move against the protesters. “We regret that protesters have chosen to escalate the situation through their actions. After the University learned overnight that Hamilton Hall had been occupied, vandalized, and blockaded, we were left with no choice,” the statement read.
A spokesman for the institution said the students involved in the takeover of Hamilton Hall face possible expulsion.
Late on Monday night, dozens of Columbia students broke into Hamilton Hall, blocking doors and windows and encamping inside.
The protesters unfurled a large banner off one of the building’s balconies, reading “Hind’s Hall,” marking an unofficial renaming of the building after Hind Rajab, the six-year-old Palestinian girl killed by Israeli forces alongside her entire family in Gaza.
Columbia University students have demanded their institution divest funds from Israel, show transparency about finances, and amnesty for students and faculty involved in the protests at the university. The university has refused the demands.
The clearing out of the university building came hours after police in California surrounded a building that had been taken over by protesters at Cal Poly Humboldt University. The building was renamed from Siemens Hall to “Intifada Hall” by students. Over two dozen people were detained by police.
Dozens of student protesters were also pepper-sprayed and detained at the University of Austin, Texas, on Monday.
Several universities across the US have witnessed an unprecedented wave of student protests in solidarity with Palestinians and in condemnation of Washington’s support for Israel. Many of these movements saw protest encampments set up on university grounds.
Hundreds of these protesters, including faculty members, have been detained in recent days for refusing to back down from their position.
Some protesters have now reached deals with their administrations, including Northwestern University and Brown University. Brown said it would hear its students’ demands for divestment from Israel in exchange for the dismantling of the encampment on its grounds.
The harsh response to student protests on US campuses has prompted many to lose faith in those institutions, which claim to nurture free speech and expression.
The widespread student movement has spread, with universities in France, Lebanon, and elsewhere taking to their campuses to denounce Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza.