Professional-Palestinian scholar group says it staged demonstration to protest in opposition to college taking advantage of ‘imperialist violence’.
Dozens of pro-Palestinian activists have staged a protest at Columbia College in america.
Footage posted on social media confirmed demonstrators standing on tables, chanting and beating drums contained in the college’s most important library.
Columbia College Apartheid Divest, a pro-Palestinian scholar group, stated it had occupied the library to protest the college’s hyperlinks to Israel.
“Over 100 individuals have simply flooded Butler Library and renamed it the Basel Al-Araj Common College,” the group stated on Substack, referring to the Palestinian activist and author who was killed by Israeli forces in 2017.
“The flood reveals that so long as Columbia funds and earnings from imperialist violence, the individuals will proceed to disrupt Columbia’s earnings and legitimacy. Repression breeds resistance – if Columbia escalates repression, the individuals will proceed to escalate disruptions on this campus.”
Columbia College’s appearing president, Claire Shipman, condemned the demonstration as “fully unacceptable”.
College officers known as police after demonstrators refused requests to offer identification and go away the constructing, Shipman stated.
“Disruptions to our tutorial actions won’t be tolerated and are violations of our guidelines and insurance policies; that is particularly unacceptable whereas our college students examine and put together for closing exams,” Shipman stated in a press release.
“Columbia strongly condemns violence on our campus, antisemitism and all types of hate and discrimination, a few of which we witnessed at the moment.”
Shipman stated two Columbia Public Security Officers sustained accidents when people tried to pressure their means into the constructing.
The New York Police Division stated in a press release that “a number of people who didn’t adjust to verbal warnings” to disperse had been taken into custody.
New York radio station 1010 WINS reported that round 80 demonstrators had been arrested.
Columbia College, one of many top-ranked US universities, was the positioning of huge demonstrations final yr when scholar protests in opposition to Israel’s battle in Gaza erupted on greater than 100 campuses throughout the US.
