Minouche Shafik, president of Columbia University, announced that pro-Palestinian protesters have a midnight deadline to reach an agreement and dismantle their encampment or they will have to consider “alternative options.”
The Ivy League experienced its seventh day of protests on Tuesday, as students staged a sit-in to demand the university divest from companies profiting from Israel’s war and cut academic ties with its universities.
The university’s president said a group of university faculty, administrators and senators negotiated with student organizers and set a midnight deadline to reach an agreement to dismantle the encampment.
‘I sincerely hope that these conversations will be successful. If not, we will have to consider alternative options to clear the West Lawn,” Shafik said.
More than a hundred activists have been arrested so far. The demonstration escalated again on Monday during the Jewish holiday of Passover, when staff and students walked out in protest of the NYPD being called in to control the protests.
Columbia University President Minouche Shafik has announced that pro-Palestinian protesters must dismantle their encampment at midnight.
Shafik said the protests have disrupted campus life and that if an agreement is not reached, she will have to consider “alternative options”
The Ivy League experienced its seventh day of protests on Tuesday as students staged a sit-in to demand the university be divested from companies that profit from Israel’s war.
Protesters, many wearing keffiyeh headscarves and face masks, have led chants including “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”
“The camp poses serious security concerns, disrupts campus life and has created a tense and hostile environment for our community. It is essential that we move forward with a plan to dismantle it,” Shafik said.
“I also want to be clear that we will not tolerate harassing, harassing or discriminatory behavior. We are working to identify protesters who violated our policies against discrimination and harassment, and they will face appropriate disciplinary processes.”
Shafik is facing increasing calls to resign for “handing control to the anti-Semitic fringe” and allowing “anarchy” after canceling all in-person classes until the end of the semester.
In the wake of that decision, Rep. tweeted Ritchie Torres, a Democrat, said the president, who has only been in that role since the summer of 2023, had “ceded control of Columbia to an anti-Semitic fringe.”
“If you can’t guarantee the safety of your students, then you have no business being president of any university… What Columbia University needs is not an appeaser of anti-Semitism, but a leader who will fight it with moral clarity,” Torres added. .
As a result of the growing protests, New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft announced his intention to withdraw his funding for the school.
“The school I love so much – the one that welcomed me and offered me so many opportunities – is no longer an institution I recognize,” Kraft said.
“I am deeply saddened by the virulent hatred that continues to grow on campus and across our country.”
Shafik faces growing calls to resign for ‘handing control to the anti-Semitic fringe’ and allowing ‘anarchy’
So far, more than a hundred activists have been arrested for participating in the protests
Protesters, many wearing keffiyeh headscarves and face masks, have led chants including “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” – which Jewish groups say is anti-Semitic – and called for intifada, which means uprising.
Two Jewish Columbia University graduates sneaked into the pro-Palestine encampment on campus carrying Israeli flags and accused activists of “supporting radical Islamic terrorism.”
Isidore Karten and his friend Tomer Brenner, who gained access to the encampment on Tuesday afternoon, also carried a poster with photos of Israelis kidnapped by Hamas on October 7. They were confronted by demonstrators and asked to leave, but refused and spent several hours in the camp. the encampment organized their own counter-protest.
Both told DailyMail.com that the encampment should be removed immediately by university leadership and accused pro-Palestinian activists of making Jewish students feel unsafe.
Karten, who studied architecture and will graduate in 2023, said: “What they are actually doing is supporting Hamas. They support radical Islamic terrorism.’
Brenner, 29, from Tel Aviv, a 2020 graduate, added: “We see the flags and the symbols that are all about causing maximum violence for Israelis.
‘They sing about the intifada.
Two Jewish Columbia University graduates sneaked into the pro-Palestine encampment on campus carrying Israeli flags and accused activists of ‘supporting radical Islamic terrorism’
Both told DailyMail.com that the encampment should be removed immediately by university management
“We don’t understand why the government doesn’t get them out of here.”
He claimed that other students had chanted “burn Tel Aviv.”
“We are surrounded, everyone blocked us because they don’t want anyone, God forbid, to see an Israeli flag or an American flag, or posters of hostages [kidnapped by Hamas on October 7]Brenner said.
“They claim it’s a safe space, but it’s only safe for them.”
Karten claimed he saw a Jew wearing religious symbols and told him to “go back to Poland.”
“It’s not just about Israel, it’s about Jews,” he said of the encampment.
“I’m strongly against what they’re doing here, I don’t think they should be here.”