Columbia University

NYPD Arrests Dozens Of Pro-Palestine Protesters After Columbia Occupation

May 9, 2025 Michael Arria, Mondoweiss. Resist! Columbia University, New York City (NYC), NYPD, Police, Repression, Student Activism

Roughly 80 pro-Palestine protesters were arrested on Wednesday night after occupying a library on Columbia University’s campus. Demonstrators rushed through Butler Library’s security gate at about 3:00 p.m., hanging banners, tagging shelves with graffiti, chanting pro-Palestine slogans, and renaming it the “Basel Al-Araj Popular University,” a reference to the Palestinian writer who was killed by the Israeli army in 2017. By 7:00 p.m., the school had called in the police. A volatile scene had already developed, as a crowd of supporters gathered outside the building and public safety officers prevented students from leaving the library without showing identification.

Harvard Refuses To Comply With Trump Administration

April 19, 2025 Natalia Marques, People's Dispatch. Resist! Columbia University, Donald Trump, Free Speech, Harvard University, Palestine, Student Activism, United States

After Columbia University fully capitulated to the Trump administration’s demands of disciplinary measures against pro-Palestine students and censorship against academic departments, the Trump administration set its sights on other institutions of higher education, one of these being Harvard University. On April 11, Trump officials sent Harvard a similar demand letter to the one Columbia received on March 13. But Harvard’s response to Trump’s demands has been markedly different to Columbia’s – on April 14, Harvard’s President Alan M. Garber issued a bold response: Harvard would “not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights.”

Protesters Denounce ICE ‘Abduction’ Of Mohsen Mahdawi

April 16, 2025 People's Dispatch. Resist! Columbia University, Donald Trump, Free Speech, ICE, Immigration, Israel, Mohsen Mahdawi, New York City (NYC), Palestine

On April 14, Palestinian Columbia University student and leading pro-Palestine activist Mohsen Mahdawi was detained by immigration agents as he attended an interview as part of his application for US citizenship in Colchester, Vermont. Mahdawi is the second Palestinian Columbia University student activist to be kidnapped by immigration authorities, after Mahmoud Khalil’s arrest which has earned international attention as demands for his release grow. With Mahdawi’s detention, pro-Palestine groups have renewed calls to end Trump’s attacks on students and free speech.

Stop The Genocide Abroad And The Repression At Home

April 14, 2025 Open Letter, Mondoweiss. Resist! Columbia University, Genocide, Israel, National Day of Action, Palestine, Palestine Solidarity, Repression

This April 17, we, a collective of academic workers, students, union members, and activists within multiple higher education associations and unions, trade unions, and other organizing spaces, call for a coordinated national direct action in protest of the ongoing genocide abroad and the escalating repression at home. As academic workers and students united with other labor sectors, we aim to take back public places and uplift the right to dissent and the right to collective organizing for liberation. We stand against the neoliberal and colonial logic of higher ed that represses speech and academic freedom in the US and that enables genocide, carceral tactics, and the long-running destruction of education and historical memory in Gaza and throughout Palestine.

A Letter To Columbia

April 7, 2025 Mahmoud Khalil, Columbia Daily Spectator. Resist! Campus Move, Columbia University, ICE, Mahmoud Khalil, Palestine, Palestine Solidarity, Repression

To Columbia—an institution that laid the groundwork for my abduction—and to its student body, who must not abdicate their responsibility to resist repression, Since my abduction on March 8, the intimidation and kidnapping of international students who stand for Palestine has only accelerated. On March 9, Yunseo Chung had to file a lawsuit and eventually seek a court order barring U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement from detaining her for her protest activity. On March 11, Ranjani Srinivasan chose to cross the border to Canada upon the belief that this university was ready to hand her over to ICE.

More Than 1,800 Academics Say They Will Boycott Columbia

April 5, 2025 Jessica Halliday Hardie, In These Times. Resist! Academics, boycott, Campus Movement, Columbia University, Palestine

Near the end of March, Gary Wilder, a professor of anthropology at the City University of New York, sent an email about his decision to decline attending a conference at Columbia University, explaining he was doing so because Columbia is “actively colluding with the U.S. government’s project to destroy higher education and criminalize dissent.” “A boycott is one of the few instruments available to the academic community through which to censure Columbia,” Wilder wrote to many of those involved in the gathering. Wilder is one of more than 1,800 academics and 50 organizations who have joined a quickly expanding boycott of Columbia, which has been at the center of U.S. state and political repression surrounding activism for Palestinian liberation.

Jewish Pro-Palestinian Protesters Chain Themselves To Gates

April 3, 2025 Joseph Zuloaga, Spencer Davis and Daksha Pillai, Columbia Spectator. Resist! Campus Movement, Columbia University, Judaism, Mahmoud Khalil, Palestine, Student Activism

Four Jewish pro-Palestinian demonstrators chained themselves to the gate near St. Paul’s Chapel early Wednesday afternoon in support of Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil, SIPA ’24, who was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement on March 8. A new group of protesters tethered themselves to the Earl Hall gates later that afternoon. A Wednesday post from Columbia’s chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace cites a March 10 report from the Forward in which Ross Glick, former leader of Betar, a self-described “bold Zionist movement,” said he visited Washington, D.C. to meet with officials about Khalil.

Columbia Students Fight Back Against Deportation Threats

April 1, 2025 Tamara Turki, Mondoweiss. Organize! Campus Movement, Columbia University, ICE, New York City (NYC), NYPD, Student Activism

Hundreds of Columbia students gathered frantically on Tuesday, March 25 in a cathedral near campus for an emergency union meeting, debating how to respond against what they described as the university administration’s “concessions to fascism.” The uproar ignited on March 9, when Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents detained Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian graduate and student activist Mahmoud Khalil at his home without a judicial warrant. Federal authorities claimed to revoke Khalil’s green card from his involvement in pro-Palestine campus protests since Israel’s war on Gaza.

Does Columbia Still Merit The Name Of A University?

March 28, 2025 Rashid Khalidi, the Guardian. Strategize! Campus Movement, Columbia University, Israel, New York City (NYC), Palestine, Repression, Student Activism, Zionism

It was never about eliminating antisemitism. It was always about silencing Palestine. That is what the gagging of protesting students, and now the gagging of faculty, was always meant to lead to. While partisans of the Israeli-American mass slaughter in Gaza may have been offended by their protests, large numbers of the students whose rights of free speech have been infringed upon via draconian punishments were themselves Jewish. Many of those faculty members who are about to be deprived of academic freedom and faculty governance, and perhaps fired, are themselves Jewish, indeed some are Israelis.

Explainer: The Lawsuits Aiming To Stop Trump’s Assault On Free Speech

March 28, 2025 Michael Arria, Mondoweiss. Resist! Campus Movement, Columbia University, Donald Trump, Free Speech, Higher Education, Israel, Lawsuits, Palestine, Palestinian Solidarity, Repression, Student Activism, Trump Administration, UCLA

According to a tracker developed by Just Security, there have been at least 146 legal challenges to Trump administration actions since he took office. Several of those have dealt with the White House’s war on Palestine activists. In recent weeks, students, faculty, and legal organizations have launched multiple lawsuits aimed at halting the Trump administration’s draconian crackdown on Palestinian protesters and holding universities accountable for their complicity. Here are some of the legal efforts that we’ve seen so far.

Letter From A Columbia PhD Candidate, After Fleeing The United States

March 24, 2025 Ranjani Srinivasan, Counter Punch. Resist! Columbia University, ICE, Immigrant Rights, Palestine, Repression

My name is Ranjani Srinivasan. I was a 5th year PhD student at the Department of Urban Planning, GSAPP. I was also a TA in the Urban Studies Department at Barnard College. Some of you might have heard about my case. For those who haven’t, I would like to share the details. On Wednesday night (March 5), my visa was revoked by the Department of State. While I was examining the email on Thursday morning (March 6), I received a phone survey from a private number claiming to be a third party hired by CU to administer a student opinion survey on campus conditions.

Film On Gaza Solidarity Encampments Launched Amid Crackdown On Activism

March 23, 2025 People's Dispatch. Educate! Campus Movement, Columbia University, Documentary, Free Speech, Gaza, Genocide, Palestine, United States, Zionism

A new documentary chronicling the Gaza Solidarity Encampment at Columbia University will premier at the CPH:DOX Film Festival in Copenhagen on March 25, 2025. “The Encampments,” a film produced by BreakThrough News and Watermelon Pictures, “challenges the dominant media narrative by revealing the true spirit of the encampments—what it felt like to be there, the emotions that fueled the students, and what motivated their drastic action,” said directors Kei Pritsker and Michael T Workman. The film was produced by nonprofit media organization BreakThrough News, Grammy-award winning musician Macklemore, and Watermelon Pictures, a production company focusing on Palestinian-centered films.

Palestinian Political Prisoner Mahmoud Khalil Releases Statement

March 19, 2025 Scheer Post. Educate! Campus Movement, Columbia University, Deportation, Mahmoud Khalil, Palestine, Repression, Student Activism

Mahmoud Khalil, a green card holder with permanent residency, has released his first public statement since his arrest on March 8. He was taken into custody by plainclothes Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officers in the lobby of his Columbia University apartment complex due to his alleged connection to Hamas. His statement, released Tuesday, was dictated by phone to family members from an ICE center in Louisiana. Khalil, who has not yet been charged with a crime, said he is a “political prisoner” and expressed concern with the political and social climate in the United States that led to his arrest.

Union President Responds To Repression

March 19, 2025 Grant Miner, Left Voice. Educate! Columbia University, Donald Trump, Palestine Solidarity, Repression, Student Activism, UAW, Unions

Last week, I was expelled from Columbia University for protesting the U.S.-backed genocide in Gaza. As president of Student Workers of Columbia, Columbia’s student workers union, I was also fired from my job. The Trump administration is pushing their narrative. Here’s the real story. Thousands of students across the country have been exercising our First Amendment rights to oppose genocide. Standing against genocide is not just a moral imperative—it is an act of anti-racism and solidarity. Columbia’s response? Expulsions, suspensions, and retaliation.

Mahmoud Khalil And The Criminalization Of Anti-Zionism

March 16, 2025 Margaret Kimberley, Black Agenda Report. Educate! Anti-Zionism, Columbia University, Israeli Apartheid, Mahmoud Khalil, Trump Administration

“Since yesterday, I have been subjected to a vicious, coordinated, and dehumanizing doxxing campaign led by Columbia affiliates Shai Davidai and David Lederer who, among others, have labeled me a security threat and called for my deportation, he began. Their attacks have incited a wave of hate, including calls for my deportation and death threats. I have outlined the wider context below, yet Columbia has not provided any meaningful support or resources in response to this escalating threat, he added. I haven’t been able to sleep, fearing that ICE or a dangerous individual might come to my home.

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