(UnitedVoice.com) – Protests against educational institutions’ ties to Israel and the war in Gaza have rocked university and college campuses across the nation. Columbia University has been viewed as Ground Zero for the protests. Students recently took over an academic building that was the site of other protests in the past.
On Tuesday, April 30, protesters unfurled a banner from a balcony at Hamilton Hall in Manhattan. The building is where many of Ivy League School’s students take their general education classes and is located across from the main Morningside Heights campus. The protesters broke into the building through a door that they smashed a window out of.
“Hind’s Hall” was scrawled across the banner, an attempt to rename the building after a 6-year-old girl who was killed by Israeli forces.
Taking over Hamilton Hall as done in 1968, Columbia students unfurl a banner that reads "Hind's Hall," in reference to Hind Rajab, a six-year-old girl killed by Israeli forces.
Hundreds of students cheer as the banner is revealed, erupting into chants to "Free Palestine." pic.twitter.com/Oi8WgdZmqf— Prem Thakker (@prem_thakker) April 30, 2024
Columbia University announced it would expel those who were occupying the hall. Additionally, the school suspended students who refused to leave an encampment on the main campus.
Officers with the New York Police Department entered the campus and Hamilton Hall Tuesday night in full riot gear. The university and police claimed professional agitators hijacked the protest and broke into the building, creating a dangerous situation.
NYPD has broken through into Hamilton Hall
NYPD & @NYCMayor says professional agitators hijacked protests and broke into building overnight barricading themselves in creating danger for students @fox5ny @DebraCheatham pic.twitter.com/me2JXCqqYt
— Linda Schmidt (@LSchmidtFox5) May 1, 2024
Approximately 300 people were arrested at the university.
The arrests came on the anniversary of a similar protest in 1968. Students took over Hamilton Hall at that time to protest segregation and the Vietnam War. They held the university’s acting dean hostage, and on April 30, 1968, the NYPD arrested those protesters as well.
Columbia wasn’t the only school that allowed law enforcement onto campus to arrest agitators. At the University of South Florida’s main campus in Tampa, police officers used rubber bullets and tear gas to break up a protest. Ten people were arrested during the incident. UCLA was also forced to cancel classes after violent protests.
Copyright 2024, UnitedVoice.com
