Carefully planned and partly improvised: inside the Columbia protest that fueled a national movement

NEW YORK — Months before pitching their tents on Columbia University’s main field, triggering a wave of protest encampments on college campuses nationwide, a small group of pro-Palestinian student activists met privately to map out the logistical details of a 24-hour occupation .

During hours of planning sessions, they discussed communication strategies and their willingness to risk arrest, along with the more prosaic questions of restroom access and trash disposal. After scouring online retailers and Craigslist for the most affordable options, they then ordered the tents.

“It took a lot of work, a lot of meetings, and when we finally got it done, we had no idea how it would go,” said Elea Sun, a Columbia graduate. “I don’t think anyone expected it to turn out this way.”

Inspired by the Columbia protests, hundreds of students have set up protest camps on at least a dozen other college campuses across the country to protest Israel’s actions in the war with Hamas. Among other demands, they call on their schools to cut financial ties with Israel and the companies that support the conflict. The protests come as universities wrap up the spring semester and prepare for graduation ceremonies.

Those involved in the Columbia protest, also known as the “Gaza Solidarity Encampment,” describe their organizing efforts as both carefully planned and heavily improvised. They say the university’s aggressive tactics to suppress the movement have only given it more momentum.

Basil Rodriguez, a Columbia student affiliated with Students for Justice in Palestine, a group the university suspended in November, said organizers had been in contact with students at other schools about how to set up their own encampments. About 200 people participated in one call with students on other campuses.

To get the most attention from the news media, organizers timed the Columbia encampment to coincide with university President Minouche Shafik’s testimony last Wednesday before a congressional panel investigating concerns about anti-Semitism at elite colleges.

The next day, New York Police Department officers flooded the campus, dismantled the tents, arrested more than a hundred activists, and threw away their food and water. Shafik said she took the “extraordinary step” of requesting police intervention because the encampment had disrupted campus life and created an “intimidating and intimidating environment” for many students.

That decision ignited waves of anger that quickly washed across the country, prompting students on other college campuses to set up their own protest camps.

“We stand here today because we are inspired by the students of Columbia, who we consider the heart of the student movement,” said Malak Afaneh, a law student and spokesperson for the 100-student camp at the university. of California, Berkeley, said Tuesday.

Just hours after last week’s arrests, some Columbia students jumped the fence onto an adjacent lawn, wrapping themselves in blankets until a new supply of tents finally arrived. In the week since police cleared the first encampment, the second version has not only grown larger, but also better organized.

“The university thought they could call the police and make the protesters leave. Now we have twice as many protesters,” said Joseph Howley, an associate professor at Columbia and a proponent of the encampment. “The students have experienced an increase in repression that has prompted them to now escalate their own tactics.”

The mood was lively and cheerful Wednesday, as some students passed out matzo left over from a Passover seder and knafeh, a Middle Eastern puff pastry dropped off by a supportive Palestinian family from New Jersey.

Others attended a class taught by a Columbia alumnus involved in the anti-apartheid movement in the 1980s, pulled books from the shelves of a “People’s Library” and grabbed art supplies themselves from a craft table. Those who spent the night in one of about 80 tents said they used bathrooms in nearby university buildings. (An earlier experiment with a “camp toilet” was quickly abandoned.)

At the nearby law library, a group of negotiators representing the protesters have been meeting intermittently with university administrators since Friday to discuss their demands, as well as amnesty for students and staff facing discipline for participating in the protests.

Those talks broke down Tuesday evening, chief negotiator Mahmoud Khalil said, after he said the university threatened to send police and the National Guard if the encampment was not cleared by midnight. Hundreds of students and teachers soon gathered on the lawn in the largest numbers since the demonstration began.

Overnight, the university backed down and gave the protesters a 48-hour extension if the group agreed to ban non-students from the camp and remove a certain number of tents. A spokesperson later denied that the university had suggested calling the National Guard.

Although there have been clashes and accusations of anti-Semitic activity outside the university gates, police described students in the camp as peaceful and compliant.

Organizers said they had dismantled some tents for fire safety reasons, but were still allowing outsiders into the camp as long as they adhered to community guidelines, including: not taking photos, littering or coming into contact with counter-protesters. They said they had no intention of leaving until their demands were met.

Opponents of the encampment say it has destabilized campus life, forcing the university to barricade many of its entrances to non-students while endangering Jewish students.

Omer Lubaton Granot, a graduate student from Israel studying for a master’s degree in public administration at Columbia, said the university should have taken “stronger action” in clearing the encampment. He accused protesters of embracing an aggressive anti-Zionist stance, which made him feel unsafe.

“They are canceling my identity and threatening me as an Israeli and as a Jew,” he said.

Officials including President Joe Biden and Democratic New York Governor Kathy Hochul have also condemned what they described as anti-Semitism in connection with the protests. On Wednesday, Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson held a news conference in Columbia to denounce the encampment, drawing mockery from many students.

Mayor Eric Adams, a Democrat, noted this week that many students were sleeping in co-branded tents, which he said could indicate that “outside agitators” were responsible for organizing the encampment, an unsubstantiated claim that has previously emerged under some had spread. right-wing news media and police officials in New York.

Layla Saliba, a Palestinian-American student at Barnard, Columbia’s sister university that shares some facilities with the university, dismissed the idea. She said the students leading the protest were mainly “nerds” who enjoyed lengthy meetings and consensus building.

“It’s ridiculous to suggest that this is AstroTurfed or has paid off, when in fact it has been students who have laid the groundwork for this from the very beginning,” she said.

As for the similarity of the tents, she said the brand was ordered in bulk by student organizers. Now that the encampment has expanded, students have brought their own camping gear, she said, pointing out the varied sleeping arrangements on the busy lawn.

“There seem to be a lot of people here in Columbia who like to camp,” she added. “I admit I was a little surprised by that.”