Columbia locks down campus after anti-war student protests escalate

Students occupy Hamilton Hall, a building on the main campus that had been occupied in the past by protesters several times; they say the university has not made signi€cant concessions, and refuse to leave the campus ‘unless by force’

In the wee hours of Tuesday morning, student protesters occupied a building on Columbia University’s main campus, escalating tensions at the university hours after administrators began suspending students who refused to leave a ‘Gaza Solidarity Encampment’.

Hamilton Hall, the building at Columbia University that protesters occupied early Tuesday morning, has been occupied several times by student activists over the past half-century. It was last occupied in 1968 amid protests against the Vietnam

War. Over several dozen protesters occupied the hall moving metal gates to barricade the doors, blocking entrances with wooden tables and chairs, and ziptying doors shut.

The building was seized after demonstrators marched around the Manhattan campus to chants of “Free Palestine.” Around 1:40 a.m., protesters inside the hall unfurled a banner reading “Hind’s Hall”— renaming Hamilton after Hind Rajab, a six-year-old Palestinian killed by the Israeli

military in Gaza. At around 6 a.m, the university announced that it had closed the campus to everyone but students who live inside the dorms on the campus and employees who provide essential services. “This access restriction will remain in place until circumstances allow otherwise,” it said in a statement. On Monday, Columbia began suspending students who refused to leave a ‘Gaza Solidarity Encampment’ after negotiations with protesters failed and the students decided to ignore a warning that remaining would lead to their suspension and eviction.

Columbia said the nearly two-week-long protest violated university policies, created an unwelcoming and “intolerable” environment for Jewish students and that “external actors” have contributed to a “hostile environment” around university gates.

Sueda Polat, a student organiser with the encampment, said the university had not made signi–cant concessions to the protesters’ main demand: divestment from companies with links to the Israeli occupation of Gaza. Columbia had stopped negotiating. As a result, she said, the students inside the encampment “will not be moved unless by force”.

REUTERS Protesters link arms outside Hamilton Hall barricading students inside the building, at Columbia University on Tuesday.