New York police officers enter Columbia University to disperse student protest

New York City police entered Columbia University on Tuesday evening in a reported effort to disperse the students who took over an academic building – and are facing expulsion – earlier in the day and those who have been encamped on school property for two weeks as tensions surrounding the pro-Palestinian demonstration escalated.

Live video images showed police in riot gear marching onto the upper Manhattan campus, the focal point of nationwide student protests opposing Israel’s war in Gaza.

“We’re clearing it out,” police yelled as they marched up to the barricaded entrance to the building. Dozens more police marched to the protest encampment.

“Shame! Shame!” jeered many onlooking undergrads still outside on campus.

Columbia’s pro-Palestinian protesters ignored the Monday ultimatum to abandon their encampment or risk suspension. The university said it started suspensions early on Monday evening.

“We have begun suspending students as part of this next phase of our efforts to ensure safety on our campus,” the university said in an update on its website. “Once disciplinary action is initiated, adjudication is handled by several different units within the university based on the nature of the offense.”

Columbia University officials had threatened academic expulsion of the students who had seized Hamilton Hall, an eight-story neo-classical building blocked by protesters who linked arms to form a barricade and chanted pro-Palestinian slogans.

“We made it very clear [on Monday] that the work of the university cannot be endlessly interrupted by protesters who violate the rules,” a Columbia spokesperson, Ben Chang, said. “Continuing to do so will be met with clear consequences. Protesters have chosen to escalate to an untenable situation – vandalizing property, breaking doors and windows, and blockading entrances – we are following through with the consequences we outlined yesterday.”

The ultimatum came after the university’s president, Minouche Shafik, announced that efforts to reach a compromise with protest organisers had failed. She said that the institution would not bow to demands to divest from Israel.

At a Tuesday evening news briefing, Mayor Eric Adams and city police officials said the Hamilton Hall takeover was instigated by “outside agitators” who lack any affiliation with Columbia and are known to law enforcement for provoking lawlessness.

Hamilton Hall was one of several buildings occupied during a 1968 civil rights and anti-Vietnam war protest on the campus. Student protesters there have overtaken it once again, displaying a large banner that reads “Hind’s Hall”, renaming it in honor of Hind Rajab, a six-year-old Palestinian girl from Gaza City who was killed by Israeli forces earlier this year.

Adams suggested some of the student protesters were not fully aware of “external actors” in their midst.

“We cannot and will not allow what should be a peaceful gathering to turn into a violent spectacle that serves no purpose. We cannot wait until this situation becomes even more serious. This must end now,” the mayor said.

One of the student leaders of the protest, Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian scholar attending Columbia’s school of international and public affairs on a student visa, disputed assertions that outsiders had initiated the occupation.

“They’re students,” he told Reuters.

Tensions rose after nightfall, a couple of hours later, as growing numbers of police, some in riot gear, became visible on city streets near campus and university administrators issued a “shelter in place” email notice to students.

New York Police Department officials had stressed before Tuesday night’s sweep that officers would refrain from entering the campus unless Columbia administrators invited their presence, as they did on 18 April, when NYPD officers removed an earlier encampment.

Reuters contributed to this report