Protesters on Columbia University’s campus took control of an academic building early Tuesday, as pro-Palestinian demonstrations continue to spread at college campuses around the nation in opposition to the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.
The demonstrators barricaded entrances and flew a Palestinian flag outside a window of the university’s Hamilton Hall, The Associated Press reported.
Video footage shows the protesters, who also appear to have given the building a new name, locking arms in front of the doors and taking furniture and metal barricades into the hall. The same building was also occupied in a 1968 civil rights and anti-Vietnam War protest, per the AP.
“An autonomous group reclaimed Hind’s Hall, previously known as ‘Hamilton Hall,’ in honor of Hind Rajab, a Gazan martyr murdered at the hands of the genocidal Israeli state at the age of six years old,” CU Apartheid Divest, a coalition of pro-Palestinian student organizations at the university, said in a statement posted Tuesday on the social platform X.
“This escalation represents the next generation of the 1968, 1985, and 1992 student movements which Columbia once repressed yet celebrates today,” the statement continues. “Protestors have voiced their intention to remain at Hind’s Hall until Columbia concedes to CUAD’s three demands: divestment, financial transparency, and amnesty.”
Columbia spokesperson Ben Chang said protesters “occupied” the hall early in the morning, and that “the safety of every single member of this community is paramount.”
“The first step we have taken is to alert our campus community — in light of the protest activity, we have asked members of the University community who can avoid coming to the Morningside campus to do so; essential personnel should report to work according to university policy,” Chang told The Hill in an emailed statement. “Access to campus has been limited to students residing in residential buildings on campus and employees who provide essential services to campus buildings, labs, and residential student life.”
More than 1,000 people have been arrested on campuses as the end of the academic year approaches, according to the AP. Protests have also expanded outside of the U.S. to Canada, according to The Canadian Press, and Europe. However, some Jewish students have said the protests have made them feel unsafe.
Columbia recently banned a student protest leader who said “Zionists don’t deserve to live,” from the campus.
Khymani James, an organizer of pro-Palestinian protests at the school, also said in a video that recently resurfaced from earlier this year that people should “be grateful that I’m not just going out and murdering Zionists.”
James apologized for the resurfaced remarks Friday, acknowledging that they were “a mistake.” Still, the White House heavily criticized his previous comments, calling them “appalling.”
“These dangerous, appalling statements turn the stomach and should serve as a wakeup call. It is hideous to advocate for the murder of Jews,” White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates said in the statement.
“President Biden has been clear that violent rhetoric, hate speech, and Antisemitic remarks have no place in America whatsoever, and he will always stand against them,” he added.
The Associated Press contributed