Banner with that phrase hung at new, but ephemeral, encampment
Approximately 25 anti-Israel activists crashed Columbia’s alumni reunion event on the South Lawn early Friday evening, putting up tents and hanging banners one of which read “We’re Back Bitches.”
According to the Columbia Spectator, the “Revolt 4 Rafah” demonstrators are an “autonomous group of Palestinian students” who are “supported by Columbia University Apartheid Divest.”
The Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine Instagram account said the new encampment was set up in the same space where “the first two liberated zones existed” before being “violently dismantled” by the New York Police Dept.
“This encampment follows the revelation that Columbia University has been colluding with the billionaire lobby, acting on behalf of foreign governments to brutalize, mass arrest, and siege our campus withe the NYPD,” the Instagram post continued.
The Columbia SJP also referred to Israel as “the Zionist entity” and noted activists “vow to disrupt all aspects of university life” until Columbia ceases its alleged assistance in the Palestinian “genocide.”
An activist press release obtained by Steve McGuire and posted on X implores alumni to withhold donations to Columbia until it “ends its complicity in Israel’s crimes.” It claims the university’s actions “towards its students” over the last few months “mirrors Israel’s violent impunity.”
The statement concludes by noting “disruptions and demonstrations” like Friday’s will continue “throughout the summer and beyond” until Columbia divests from Israel.
The encampment aspect of the new protest didn’t last very long as Columbia Public Safety officers moved in in less than an hour and began dismantling tents.
.@Columbia SJP just established a new encampment. Some faculty from Faculty SJP are already here@ShirionOrg @IsraelWarRoom @CampusJewHate @EllaTravelsLove pic.twitter.com/H3jnoABI6K
— Gil Zussman (@gil_zussman) May 31, 2024
Columbia public safety is already trying to shut down the new encampment:pic.twitter.com/TNOig78jhJ
— Steve McGuire (@sfmcguire79) June 1, 2024
Nevertheless, the Spectator notes that as of 1:30am Saturday numerous activists remained on the lawn and plan to hold a press conference in the afternoon.
Maryam Alwan, GS ’25, a protester at the new encampment, said she was “surprised” that Public Safety officers began removing tents without warning the protesters on the lawns.
“I think if the University hasn’t already realized that their show of force doesn’t deter us, then they have learned nothing from the movement in the first place. So long as the genocide and the occupation of Palestine continues, we will be fighting for divestment, especially seeing the invasion of Rafah and the headless child and the burning bodies,” Alwan said. “I think we all feel sick to our stomach and even though there’s way less of us who are still on campus, we still want to do whatever we can to fight back.” …
“Columbia University thinks that just because it’s the summer, they don’t have as many classes, they don’t have as many students, … that we’re tired, that we’re scared, that we’re not going to be on their campus because they have a few ID checks. They’re wrong,” [an] organizer said. “As long as the genocide rages on in Gaza, students at Columbia University will be present. They will be agitating at this University, learning together, educating, agitating, and organizing at Columbia.”
Columbia’s alumni festivities started Thursday and conclude Sunday with a mass at the Church of Notre Dame.
MORE: ‘Hundreds’ of Columbia faculty to go on strike if police not removed from campus
IMAGE: Steve McGuire/X
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