Anti-Israel students storm Columbia University building

In the early hours of this Tuesday, the 30th, anti-Israel students invaded one of the buildings of the campus from the Columbia University, in New York, and set up a barricade. They stacked tables and chairs to block the doors. Protesters also covered security cameras.

Tension increased in Columbia this Monday, 29, after the institution’s management began suspending anti-Israel students hours after they defied the deadline to vacate the “Gaza Solidarity Camp”.

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Universities across the United States, from the East Coast to the West Coast, have taken disciplinary action in the rush to address the anti-Israel demonstrations that have transformed life in the United States. campuses in chaos as the academic year comes to an end in the Northern Hemisphere.

It was precisely the camp in renowned Columbia that fueled similar protests in campuses from across the country.

This Monday, after the sides failed to reach an agreement throughout the day, according to the institution’s spokesman, Ben Chang, the university notified students that they would be suspended if they did not vacate the camp by 2 p.m., at local time (3 p.m. Brasília time). The measure sparked protests at several universities.

Also read: “Almost 40 of the US have anti-Israel camps”

According to Chang, the camp has created a hostile environment for many Jewish students and teachers and has been noisy in the center of campus.

A teacher’s outburst

In his text published in The New York Timesin an outburst tone, professor John McWhorter said that, on Thursday the 25th, he was unable to continue with a class on the work of composer John Cage, which includes a piece called 4’33‘.

The piece is known for being completely silent and inviting people to listen to the sounds around them. McWhorter reported that the shouting outside was “offensive.”

“I had to tell the students that we would not be able to hear that work that afternoon, because the noises around us were not the sounds of birds chirping or footsteps in the hallway,” said the professor, “but of the angry chanting of the protesters in front of the college building. ”.

In addition to the noise and embarrassment for Jewish students and teachers, another concern for the institution is the fact that the lawn occupied by protesters needs to be cleared for the graduation ceremonies that will take place on May 15.

The New York Police Department (NYPD) is on standby near the campuswith police officers on hand to intervene if called by university officials.

Columbia has taken a more cautious approach to avoid a repeat of an incident from last week, when the university’s president, economist Minouche Shafik, called NYPD officers to the campus.

This decision resulted in the arrest of more than a hundred protesters, generating a strong reaction from students and teachers, in addition to triggering a series of pro-Palestinian demonstrations in campuses all over the country.

The history of the occupied building

The building occupied by protesters early in the morning on Tuesday in campus at Columbia University is Hamilton Hall, the scene of a historic protest against the Vietnam War in 1968, in another context.