HAfter Columbia University’s Monday deadline of 2:30 pm for students to leave the camp to avoid suspension, hundreds of pro-Palestinian students remained on and around the lawn. The tents remained pitched.
“We have started suspending students,” said Ben Chang, a Columbia University spokesman, around 5 p.m. Earlier in the day, university president Minouche Shafik said in a statement that they were unable to reach an agreement with the student protesters despite “robust and thoughtful offers.
Shafik’s decision to invite police to campus and arrest student protesters earlier this month sparked camps at dozens of colleges across the country. Hundreds of these students have faced arrests and suspensions – prompting criticism that administrators and law enforcement are criminalizing peaceful protests. A coalition of 185 progressive social justice and religious groups published an open letter on Monday expressing support for campus camps in the face of repression by authorities. Asked about the use of police force in some campus protests, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Monday that “Americans have the right to peacefully protest within the law” and that “anti- -Semitism is very dangerous.”
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Student protesters are calling on their universities to divest from Israel. “The university should be an educational institution, not a stock fund,” says Jamil Mohamad, a 32-year-old Columbia University graduate student and Palestinian-American, who stands outside the camp on the grounds of campus. “The student movement is calling for disclosure and financial transparency to understand exactly where the university endowment is being invested and to understand where the tuition money is going,” he says.
On Monday afternoon, hundreds of students gathered on campus in the early afternoon with megaphones. Later he seemed calmer. Students drank bubble tea, walked dogs and read novels as dozens of teachers in bright orange vests waited. Police flanked the gates where more pro-Palestinian protesters shouted slogans.
Mohamad arrived on campus as soon as he learned that the university would discipline the protesters who are part of the camp. He did not spend the night there, but often dropped by during the day and attended dance performances, lectures, and film screenings. When asked if he fears punishment, he reformulates the conversation. “Any sacrifices I might make as a student protester are insignificant compared to what is happening to civilians in Gaza right now, who face starvation, who face indiscriminate killing.” Mohamad has no relatives in Gaza, but some live in the West Bank, where Israeli settlers have increased violence since October 7.
There were only a few counterprotesters on campus; two men waved giant Israeli flags outside Butler Library. The pro-Palestinian students did not appear to be engaging with them.
Some Jewish students are part of the camp. Others say they feel insecure. Columbia University said it “does not want to deprive thousands of students and their families and friends of a graduation celebration” and that it must “take into account the rights of all members of our community.”
Darializa Avila Chevalier, an Afro-Latina alumna from Columbia University’s Class of 2016 and former member of Students for Justice in Palestine, also appeared on Monday afternoon.
Avila Chevalier points out that Columbia University has already given in to similar divestment demands from protesters during South African apartheid and recently in 2015, when he got rid of private prisons. “The students had a demand that is not only reasonable and concrete, but also a demand that the university has met before,” she says. “It’s nothing new.”
Asked about her response to the characterization of the camps by some politicians and administrators as threats to Jewish security, she emphasizes that many organizers are Jews. “What I think is a threat are these institutions and the violence they inflict on ordinary people here and abroad. This is what terrifies our establishment politicians.”
Protests quickly spread across the country – along with swift police crackdowns. On Monday, more than a dozen students and faculty occupied an administrative office at Princeton University after two graduate students were expelled. Earlier in the day, ABC 15 in Arizona reported a video obtained showing police removing a woman’s hijab at Arizona State University. Legal sources told ABC15 this happened to four women. Last week, a video of a police officer dragging an Emory University professor to the ground and charging her with simple assault went viral.
This story originally appeared on Time.com read the full story
