“Shame! shame!” jeered many onlooking undergrads still outside on campus.
Columbia University officials earlier on Tuesday threatened academic expulsion of the students who seized Hamilton Hall.
The occupation began overnight when protesters broke windows, stormed inside and unfurled a banner reading “Hind’s Hall”, symbolically renaming the building for a 6-year-old Palestinian child killed in Gaza by the Israeli military.
For Columbia University’s Chinese, pro-Palestinian protests evoke sympathy, fear
For Columbia University’s Chinese, pro-Palestinian protests evoke sympathy, fear
Outside the eight-story, neo-classical building – the site of various student occupations on the campus dating back to the 1960s – protesters blocked the entrance with tables, linked arms to form a barricade and chanted pro-Palestinian slogans.
At an evening news briefing held a few hours before police entered Columbia, Mayor Eric Adams and city police officials said the Hamilton Hall takeover was instigated by “outside agitators” who lack any affiliation with Columbia and are known to law enforcement for provoking lawlessness.
Police said they based their conclusions in part on escalating tactics in the occupation, including vandalism, use of barricades to block entrances and destruction of security cameras.
Adams suggested some of the student protesters were not fully aware of “external actors” in their midst.
“We cannot and will not allow what should be a peaceful gathering to turn into a violent spectacle that serves no purpose. We cannot wait until this situation becomes even more serious. This must end now,” the mayor said.
One of the student leaders of the protest, Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian scholar attending Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs on a student visa, disputed assertions that outsiders had initiated the occupation.
“They’re students,” he said.
A day earlier, the university said it had begun suspending students who defied a deadline for vacating a protest encampment, as school officials declared that several days of talks with protest leaders aimed at dismantling the tents had reached a stalemate.
“Disruptions on campus have created a threatening environment for many of our Jewish students and faculty and a noisy distraction that interferes with the teaching, learning and preparing for final exams,” the university said in a statement on Tuesday.
New York Police Department officials had stressed before Tuesday night’s sweep that officers would refrain from entering the campus unless Columbia administrators invited their presence, as they did on April 18, when NYPD officers removed an earlier encampment.
