New York’s Columbia University has brought in the cops yet again to violently arrest dozens of anti-genocide protesters amid Donald Trump’s increasingly authoritarian rhetoric and rule.
Trump: wide-reaching implications of rhetoric
19 months into Israel’s genocide in Gaza, protests at universities complicit in Israeli war crimes are ongoing. And Columbia has been a key site of resistance, with the latest action focusing on its main library. The police detained over 70 protesters after they stood their ground.
BREAKING: Pro-Palestine protesters occupy the main reading room of Columbia University’s Butler Library – the university’s campus security is clearing the library right now.
Photos and videos to follow.
This photo courtesy: Johanna Hansel@DropSiteNews pic.twitter.com/LP6IoPX0a3
— Meghnad Bose (@MeghnadBose93) May 7, 2025
We know this moment is fleeting, and that we do not have the capacity to hold it permanently at this time. But one day, this entire building and all the knowledge it holds will be liberated for good, and every book will belong to the free children of the world. pic.twitter.com/MBikqSzNUJ
— CU Apartheid Divest (CUAD) (@ColumbiaBDS) May 7, 2025
Public safety has assaulted dozens of protestors so far and is refusing to let people in and out of the building despite an active fire alarm
All out to the Columbia gates! pic.twitter.com/oyItEbtXbL
— CU Apartheid Divest (CUAD) (@ColumbiaBDS) May 7, 2025
There were scenes of violence from the police, and also scenes of solidarity in the streets:
“He's literally yelling for help.”
Public safety officers at Columbia University forcibly detained pro-Palestinian protesters on Wednesday.
A protester being detained by a group of officers was heard calling for help pic.twitter.com/aJpxX2h7oK
— Middle East Eye (@MiddleEastEye) May 8, 2025
Over ten Columbia University public safety officers place a student into a chokehold, tackling him to the ground. He was screaming from pain and was denied medical attention. Public safety officers surrounded a Jewish student, forming a physical barrier to prevent recording. pic.twitter.com/XVmI7J3nPC
— Layla 🪬 (@itslaylas) May 7, 2025
Saying “job well done” to officers that tackled and choked students. Multiple students were carried out on stretchers because of public safety and NYPD. This happened because of Columbia trustees like David Greenwald. https://t.co/1tdirzUDcU pic.twitter.com/AT3iiIhIm4
— Layla 🪬 (@itslaylas) May 8, 2025
THE UNIVERSITY HAS WELCOMED THE NYPD TO MASS ARREST STUDENTS. DO NOT LET THE NYPD BUSES LEAVE. RALLY OUTSIDE 114th AND AMSTERDAM pic.twitter.com/dZ2PGTLQvQ
— CU Apartheid Divest (CUAD) (@ColumbiaBDS) May 7, 2025
UPDATE: A MESSAGE FROM STUDENT ACTIONISTS INSIDE ❤️🔥 pic.twitter.com/e18EPwluGY
— CU Apartheid Divest (CUAD) (@ColumbiaBDS) May 7, 2025
Hands off our students!!! The NYPD attacked demonstrators flooding Columbia in defense of the Basel Al-Araj Popular University. https://t.co/otasVXg8z2 pic.twitter.com/5fZ83lWxdq
— Writers Against the War on Gaza (@wawog_now) May 8, 2025
Protesters continue marching around Columbia after the university's president called in the NYPD's SRG to raid the Basel Al-Araj liberated zone and arrest students pic.twitter.com/dMK3mdxZ9O
— Within Our Lifetime (@WOLPalestine) May 8, 2025
Protesters demands were:
We reject an imperialist economy of knowledge. We evoke the legacy of liberation and the philosophy of direct action of Basel al-Araj.
OUR DEMANDS: pic.twitter.com/gwKVnowrXu
— CU Apartheid Divest (CUAD) (@ColumbiaBDS) May 7, 2025
Long live the Basel al-Araj Popular University! Long live the Student Intifada! pic.twitter.com/ARxpGxHUUm
— CU Apartheid Divest (CUAD) (@ColumbiaBDS) May 7, 2025
Genocide investments, student resistance, and government repression
Trump and his fervently pro-genocide administration has sought to silence campus protests by revoking hundreds of student visas, cutting $2.2bn from Harvard, and threatening $400m in funding for Columbia.
Protesters from Columbia University renamed the library “the Basel Al-Araj Popular University”, in reference to a Palestinian writer whom Israeli forces murdered in 2017. And they insisted that:
as long as Columbia funds and profits from imperialist violence, the people will continue to disrupt Columbia’s profits and legitimacy. Repression breeds resistance – if Columbia escalates repression, the people will continue to escalate disruptions on this campus.
Columbia’s endowment fund stands at around $13.6bn and there are numerous investors that protesters want the university to break ties with.
Boycott Columbia University
There have been calls for a boycott of Columbia in relation to its investment in genocide and collaboration with police to repress protests. A 1 April open letter says:
We, the undersigned, commit to a boycott of Columbia University in solidarity with students, faculty, and staff targeted by the U.S. Government and university administration for their principled opposition to the genocide in Gaza and support for Palestinian liberation. By violating its ethical and professional duty towards its community and abdicating its responsibility to uphold and support free speech and academic freedom, Columbia has participated in an authoritarian assault on universities aimed at destroying their role as sites of teaching, research, learning, and activism essential to building a free and fair world.
A 29 April update adds:
The aim of this boycott is to hold Columbia University accountable for its collaboration with the government’s assault on higher education, free speech, academic freedom, dissent, protest, and the rights of residents. This also means supporting specific efforts by Columbia University faculty, students, staff, and programs to oppose the university administration’s repressive tactics and refuse attempts to normalize the situation.
Featured image via screengrab
