Columbia University President Minouche Shafik announced there is a midnight deadline for pro-Palestinian protesters to reach a deal and dismantle their camp or she will have to consider ‘alternative options.’
The Ivy League saw its seventh day of protests Tuesday as students staged a sit-in to demand that the university divest from companies that profit from Israel’s war and sever academic ties with its universities.
The university president said a group of university professors, administrators and senators have been negotiating with student organizers and set a midnight deadline to reach an agreement to dismantle the encampment.
‘I very much hope that these debates will be successful. If not, we will have to consider alternative options to clean up the west lawn,” Shafik said.
So far more than 100 activists have been arrested. The demonstration escalated again on Monday during the Jewish holiday of Passover, when staff and students walked out in protest of the NYPD’s call to control the protests.
Columbia University President Minouche Shafik announced that there is a midnight deadline for pro-Palestinian protesters to dismantle their camp.
Shafik said the protests have disrupted life on campus and that if an agreement is not reached he will have to consider “alternative options.”
The Ivy League saw its seventh day of protests Tuesday as students staged a sit-in to demand that the university divest from companies that profit from Israel’s war.
Protesters, many wearing headscarves and keffiyeh masks, have led chants including “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”
‘The camp raises serious safety concerns, disrupts life on campus, and has created a tense and hostile environment for our community. It is essential that we move forward with a plan to dismantle it,” Shafik said.
‘I also want to make it clear that we will not tolerate bullying, harassing or discriminatory behaviour. “We are working to identify protesters who violated our anti-discrimination and anti-harassment policies, and they will be subject to appropriate disciplinary processes.”
Shafik has faced growing calls to resign because he has “handed control over to the anti-Semitic fringe” and allowed “anarchy” after canceling all in-person classes until the end of the semester.
Following that decision, Democratic Representative Ritchie Torres tweeted that the president, who has only held office since the summer of 2023, had “handed control of Colombia to an anti-Semitic fringe.”
“If you cannot guarantee the safety of your students, then you have no business serving as president of any university… What Columbia University needs is not an appeaser of anti-Semitism but a leader who will fight with moral clarity against it,” Torres added. .
As a result of the growing protests, New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft announced his intention to defund the school.
“The school that I love so much, the one that welcomed me and gave me so many opportunities, is no longer an institution that I recognize,” Kraft said.
“I am deeply saddened by the virulent hatred that continues to grow on campus and across our country.”
Shafik has faced growing calls to resign because he has “handed control over to the anti-Semitic fringe” and allowed “anarchy.”
So far more than 100 activists have been arrested for participating in the protests
Protesters, many wearing headscarves and face masks, have led chants including “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” – which Jewish groups say is anti-Semitic – and have called for an intifada, which means uprising.
Two Jewish Columbia University graduates sneaked into the pro-Palestinian camp on campus carrying Israeli flags and accused activists of “supporting radical Islamic terrorism.”
Isidore Karten and his friend, Tomer Brenner, who entered the camp on Tuesday afternoon, also carried a sign with photographs of Israelis kidnapped by Hamas on October 7. They were confronted by protesters and asked to leave, but they refused and spent several hours in the camp organizing their own counterprotest.
Both told DailyMail.com that the camp should be removed immediately by university leaders and accused pro-Palestinian activists of making Jewish students feel unsafe.
Karten, who studied architecture and graduated in 2023, said: ‘What they are really doing is supporting Hamas. “They are supporting radical Islamic terrorism.”
Brenner, 29, from Tel Aviv, who graduated in 2020, added: “We are seeing flags and symbols that are intended to cause maximum violence for Israelis.
‘They are singing about the intifada.
Two Jewish Columbia University graduates sneaked into the pro-Palestinian camp on campus carrying Israeli flags and accused activists of “supporting radical Islamic terrorism.”
Both told DailyMail.com that university leadership should immediately eliminate the camp.
“We don’t understand why the administration doesn’t get them out of here.”
He claimed that other students had chanted “burn down Tel Aviv.”
“They surrounded us, everyone was blocking us because they didn’t want anyone, God forbid, to see an Israeli flag or an American flag, or hostage signs. [kidnapped by Hamas on October 7]”Brenner said.
“They claim it’s a safe space, but it’s only safe for them.”
Karten claimed that he had seen a Jewish person wearing religious symbols and was told to “go back to Poland.”
“It’s not just about Israel, it’s about Jews,” he said of the camp.
“I’m very against what they’re doing here, I don’t think they should be here.”