Protesters rebuild pro-Palestinian encampment at Columbia during class reunions
The pro-Palestinian encampment on the campus of Columbia University on April 22, 2024 Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images
By Lauren Markoe May 31, 2024
A month after Columbia University called in the New York City Police Department to tear down a pro-Palestinian encampment, protesters have built another encampment to capture the attention of alumni on campus for annual reunions.
About two dozen protesters on Friday pitched about 10 tents, according to the Columbia Spectator, the school’s student newspaper, and displayed banners that read “While You’re Earning Rafah’s Burning,” “We’re back bitches,” and “@alumni No Donations ’til Divestment” among other slogans.
CU Apartheid Divest, the group organizing the protest, posted on X that the new encampment is called “Revolt for Rafah” and was erected to coincide with Columbia alumni fundraising efforts. “We urge alumni to withhold donations until the university ends its complicity in Israel’s crimes,” they wrote. They said they have “not only taken back the South Lawns but reclaimed the tents and canopies that the university has set up for alumni programming.”
A university spokesperson said in a statement Friday: “We are aware of the encampment erected this evening and are monitoring the situation. We remain committed to hosting a successful weekend for our alumni.”
The encampment — about a tenth the size of the one torn down at the end of April — was erected on the same day President Joe Biden unveiled a plan to end the war in Gaza, where Israel has said it will continue its military campaign until Hamas is no longer capable of attacking again. The Columbia protesters say Israel is committing genocide. Biden, describing the proposal as an Israeli plan, said it would end the fighting and entail the withdrawal of the Israel Defense Forces from Gaza and the return of all remaining hostages taken by Hamas.
The protesters at Columbia want an end to the war, which is now focused on the city of Rafah, but also university divestment from Israeli companies and the closure of Columbia’s center in Tel Aviv.
The previous encampment at the university sparked a national movement on dozens of college campuses that led to their mostly forced dismantling, and more than 3,ooo arrests of students and other protesters.
At Columbia, protesters, most of them students, also occupied Hamilton Hall. Riot police removed them, but protests continued. University President Minouche Shafik canceled Columbia’s main graduation ceremony, which was scheduled for May 15. Finals were either canceled or taken online. Today the main quadrangle on Manhattan’s Upper West Side remains closed to all but university ID holders.
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