Backgroound Image

Tag: Columbia

NYPD arrests pro-Palestinian protesters after Columbia University library takeover

Posted on by neversleep

Police arrested dozens of pro-Palestinian demonstrators who took over part of Columbia University’s main library on May 7.

Ahead of finals week at the Ivy League campus, student activists clashed with campus public safety officials and contracted security guards inside and outside Butler Library.

Videos posted to social media showed confrontations between university officials at the entrance to a reading room inside the library. Outside, scores of students gathered, with some trying to force their way into the building.

Dozens of people donning masks and keffiyehs could be seen chanting and hoisting signs in support of Palestinians and Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia graduate student who has been held in Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention over his pro-Palestinian advocacy.

Claire Shipman, Columbia University’s acting president, said in an update that the university asked New York City police to assist in securing the building.

In the evening, the university sent a campus text alert that the library is closed and the area must be cleared. Shipman said two campus public safety personnel were injured in a crowd rush. The student radio news station WKCR reported demonstrators had also been injured.

NYPD officers wearing helmets and face shields entered the campus from a closed-off street.

An NYPD spokesperson said police made multiple arrests but declined to provide an exact amount. Police officers escorted dozens of people cuffed in zip ties onto NYPD buses and vans, Reuters reported.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio tweeted that officials would review visa statuses for those who took over the library.

Just outside campus gates, another group of demonstrators gathered in support of those arrested.

University officials earlier said there was a disruption in a reading room, and people were asked for identification. They were then asked to disperse. The protesters were told that failing to comply would result in violations of university rules and policies, and possible arrest. None chose to identify themselves and depart, university officials said.

In a blog post earlier in the afternoon, student demonstrators said they entered the library, dubbing it “Basel Al-Araj Popular University,” named for a Palestinian activist and writer.

“Repression breeds resistance,” the post said, “if Columbia escalates repression, the people will continue to escalate disruptions on this campus.”

In March, the Trump administration gave the university an ultimatum to adopt a set of policies to quell pro-Palestinian protests in order to receive federal funds. The policies included adopting rules around masks, protests and allowing law enforcement to arrest demonstrators.

Just over a year ago, hundreds of NYPD in riot gear entered the campus after a group of student demonstrators took over a building. More than 100 people were arrested, though prosecutors dropped charges for most.

Found on mainstream news.

Security Checkpoint Vandalized at Columbia University

Posted on by neversleep

April 30, 2025

Overnight, an autonomous group acted against Amerika’s repression of the Palestine movement. The group attacked one of Columbia University’s border checkpoints — structures created to surveil and suppress the student momvement. Security equipment was dismantled and stolen. Infrastructure was vandalized.

These checkpoints materially link Columbia to the zionist occupation through an identical colonial tactic: separating the hallowed “inside” from the criminalized “outside.” There are parallels in the way that resources are concentrated “inside”: the ill-gotten gains from Columbia’s rampant expansion across Harlem mirror the zionist entity’s desperate, vampiric attempts to transform and extract as much value from Palestinian people and land as possible. There are parallels in the way that the technologies and institutions used by ICE to surveil, kidnap, and traffic immigrants in the US — with the help of IOF-trained pigs — are used by Isr*el to murder Palestinians and Black and Brown people globally.

The U.S.-zionist empire is attempting to erase Palestinians and Palestine. It is our duty to act. Any instruments that further our repression will never be allowed peace.Free Palestine. Free all political prisoners. Glory to our martyrs. Abolish ICE.

Submitted anonymously.

Vandals splash Columbia University president’s home with red paint as protests rage over ICE arrest of Mahmoud Khalil

Posted on by neversleep

Vandals targeted the home of Columbia University’s president, splashing the historic residence with red paint and scrawling the words “Free Them All,” as protests rage this week over ICE’s arrest of former protest ringleader Mahmoud Khalil, cops said.

The side of the building at 60 Morningside Drive appeared to have been pelted with red paint balloons — with the urgent message scrawled in black marker — when Columbia’s public safety officers spotted the damage around 12:50 a.m., police said.

Columbia’s current interim president, Katrina Armstrong, lives in the building, sources said.

Continue reading “Vandals splash Columbia University president’s home with red paint as protests rage over ICE arrest of Mahmoud Khalil”

Columbia University Student Activist Detained by Department of Homeland Security Following Threats of Deportation of Pro-Palestinian Students

Posted on by neversleep

The arrest comes on the heels of the Department of State’s announcement that it plans to deport students affiliated with pro-Palestine protests. The student, who is Palestinian, is a lawful permanent resident of the United States.

NEW YORK, NEW YORK—On March 8, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agents arrested Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian activist and recent graduate student at Columbia University, at his place of residence, an apartment building owned by the university.

The DHS agents said that the U.S. Department of State had revoked Khalil’s green card.

At approximately 8:30 p.m. ET, Khalil and his wife, a U.S. citizen who is eight months pregnant, had just unlocked the door to their building when two plainclothes DHS agents forced their way in behind them. The agents initially refused to identify themselves, instead asking Khalil to confirm his identity before detaining him without explanation. The agents proceeded to threaten his wife, telling her that if she remained by his side, they would arrest her too.

Later, the DHS agents stated that the U.S. Department of State had revoked Khalil’s student visa, despite the fact that he has a green card, not a visa, and is a lawful permanent resident. An agent showed Khalil what he claimed was a warrant on his phone. Khalil’s wife went into their apartment to retrieve his green card while the agents remained with Khalil downstairs. When she returned, advising them of Khalil’s legal status and presenting them with Khalil’s green card, one agent was visibly confused and said on the phone, “He has a green card.” However, after a moment, the DHS agents stated that the State Department had “revoked that too.” Khalil’s wife then phoned his attorney, who spoke with the agents in an attempt to intervene. When Khalil’s attorney requested that a copy of the warrant be emailed to her, the agent hung up the call.

Continue reading “Columbia University Student Activist Detained by Department of Homeland Security Following Threats of Deportation of Pro-Palestinian Students”

THE BATTLE OF HIND’S HALL FROM OUR SIDE OF THE BARRICADES

Posted on by neversleep

A MESSAGE TO THE STUDENT INTIFADA:

Let us not dialogue with our persecutors.

In the words of Ghassan Kanafani, we must reject the “conversation between the sword and the neck.”

The footage you are viewing is contraband. It was smuggled out of Hind’s Hall and hidden from the NYPD in the band of a militant’s bra. Until now, the only footage to come out of the battle and raid was from the perspective of the pigs, but this footage is the worldview of the militant. We are releasing it in response to the latest wave of repression sweeping across amerika. The Student Intifada put the imperialist ruling class on its back foot. Echoes of 1968 and the threat of mother country militancy still loom over their heads—they remember the last time this kind of struggle erupted. They remember the last time youth in the metropole began to identify with the Third World guerrilla. The enemy is scared, and they should be. They’ve responded using every tactic of repression available to them, teetering on the edge of criminalizing all anti-zionist speech.

Yesterday, Columbia expelled another student for their alleged involvement in the Student Intifada. This is the first expulsion for alleged involvement in Hind’s Hall.

We send a message to our enemies:

We will not back down. We will resist you.

Continue reading “THE BATTLE OF HIND’S HALL FROM OUR SIDE OF THE BARRICADES”

Barnard expels students for class disruption, pro-Palestinian protest

Posted on by neversleep

February 24, 2025

Barnard college, an affiliate of Columbia University in New York, reportedly expelled two students last week for disrupting a session of the class “History of Modern Israel.”

The Barnard students, both seniors in their last semester of undergraduate studies, banged on drums while chanting “free Palestine” and distributed flyers with the phrase “CRUSH ZIONISM” and a depiction of a boot over the Star of David, according to [news source].

A Columbia University student was also involved in the protest and has since been suspended and barred from campus, the university said in a press release last month.

The history course is being run by Columbia, and the disturbance occurred on the first day of spring semester classes for both schools, according to the student group Columbia University Apartheid Divest.

The pro-Palestinian coalition criticized the expulsions in a statement posted to X Sunday, calling Barnard’s decision “a serious escalation in the crackdown” against student activism. The group said in their post they plan to hold “a week of action” Monday through Thursday in response.

Columbia University became the epicenter of nationwide protests last spring, during which students built encampments and denounced Israel’s escalating response in its war against Hamas. In one day of demonstrations last April, more than 100 Columbia students were arrested on campus.

More than 50 students from Barnard have been suspended for political protest, according to Columbia University Apartheid Divest.

Found on mainstream news.

15 Months of Protest Art for Gaza

Posted on by neversleep

Admin note: only New York sections included

Over the last 15 months, artists have mobilized against Israel’s attacks on civilians in Gaza, which organizations including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have determined to be consistent with genocide. After multiple failed attempts, Israel and Hamas agreed to a mutually negotiated ceasefire deal that went into effect on Sunday, January 19, with an initial phase stipulating a halt in Israeli attacks on Gaza for six weeks. The deal will reportedly allow humanitarian aid to enter the Gaza Strip as Palestinians are permitted to return to their locales and Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners will be released in stages. Still fragile as it unfolds day by day, the US-backed ceasefire deal marks a precarious break in the onslaught of violence and destruction throughout Gaza. On Monday, January 27, tens of thousands of displaced Gazans began to return north.

In their international push for a permanent ceasefire, artists have developed visual languages to demand institutional divestments from Israel and call for an end to violence against Palestinians in Gaza and the Occupied West Bank. Many have either foregone or been denied life-changing career opportunities in their public advocacy for Palestine, underscoring the importance of community, solidarity, and artistic freedom in the broader culture sector.

Below are some of the most impactful moments of artistic protest for Gaza since October 2023.

Continue reading “15 Months of Protest Art for Gaza”

Columbia University suspends one student as it expedites investigation into Israeli history class disruption

Posted on by neversleep

January 24, 2025

Columbia University says it has suspended one student after “expediting” its investigation into a group who disrupted a class on Israeli history.

Demonstrators handed out flyers with “violent imagery” to students attending a History of Modern Israel class on Tuesday, the university said in a statement.

Columbia said it identified and suspended one student involved, pending a full review, and that its investigation remains active.

It was the first day of Professor Avi Shilon’s class, and students had only just been introduced to the course when protesters – whose faces were covered and appeared to be wearing keffiyehs, entered and distributed anti-Israel leaflets, student Elisha Baker told [news source].

One flyer shows a burning Israeli flag underneath the words “Burn Zionism to the Ground,” and another depicts a large black boot about to stomp on the Jewish Star of David and reads “Crush Zionism,” according to pictures taken by Baker.

“It was shocking for everyone in the class,” said Baker, a junior studying Middle Eastern history. “I’m still super excited for this class. It’s a shame that this incident is going to put us on edge inside the classroom.”

Found on mainstream news.

Actions at Columbia University on Anniversary of Hind’s Death

Posted on by neversleep

Anonymous submission from Columbia:

“Im so scared. Please come.” One year ago today, these were Hind’s last words as she called for an ambulance, while Israeli forces unleashed 355 bullets murdering her as she hid in a car. One year ago, the world failed Hind. But today and everyday we owe Hind, all our martyrs, and ourselves, action.

So today we acted. Inspired by Hind, and the bravery of every Palestinian child who has faced down Israeli genocide for the last century – whether they threw a molotov at a checkpoint, a rock at a tank, or made a call for help. So long as they resist, so must we. We attacked two targets at Columbia University. First, the Kravis Columbia School of Business, one of Columbia’s most recent violent gentrification projects into Harlem, the construction of which was conditioned on the creation of Columbia’s Apartheid Global Center in “Tel Aviv”. We will not allow this land-grab to go unchallenged. Second, we attacked the School of International and Public Affairs – the first Columbia institution to expel a student for their support for Palestinian liberation, currently run by a former “Israeli intelligence officer” – Killer Keren, and staffed by Rebecca Weiner, head of the Counterterrorism Unit of the NYPD, who directed the brutal police assault on our comrades in Hind’s Hall last May. We left Hind’s call painted on SIPA, and we cemented the sewage lines of the entire building, forcing them to shut down business-as-usual.

We are not experts in what it means to take revolutionary action. We are people – just like you – who, today, chose to act. We were afraid- to be arrested, suspended, and expelled; and that is exactly the point. The goal is not to be fearless, but to recognize that to be afraid is merely a symptom of our moral clarity. We are soberly aware of what we may lose if we act, and we are soberly aware of how much more we will lose if we don’t. The most severe consequence we could face today is not expulsion or prison time- it is the knowledge that we had the opportunity to act, and, instead, chose cowardice. The most severe consequence we could face is not only to have failed Hind one year ago, but to have continued to fail her today.

So we invite you to join us. Let us identify the actions that elicit fear in us, find the people who we can be courageous with, embrace the fear, and take collective action.

As Hind’s mother watched the scene of Hind’s Hall unfold, she said “I wanted these movements and support to come while Hind was still alive and not after… but I was still happy that there’s a possibility that Hind’s cause could move and mobilize people in this world.” Let us act together and transform that possibility into a reality.

For Hind, with love and rage from Columbia.

Found on social media.

no peace

Posted on by neversleep

Reflections on Columbia, the Student Intifada and the Culture of Counterinsurgency

28 October 2024 – by Anonymous

“The concentration of violent power in the hands of the few can occur unopposed if it is done quietly, if unnecessary provocation, which can set a process of solidarity in motion, is avoided—that is something that was learned as a result of the student movement and the Paris May.”

— The Urban Guerilla Concept, The Red Army Faction 1971

 

On 30 April 2024 — the 56th anniversary of the 1968 Columbia University mass arrests — the New York Pig Department besieged Harlem, locked down the entirety of Columbia’s campus, swept the Gaza solidarity encampment, and raided Hind’s Hall. This raid marked the end of the spring of the Student Intifada. Those of us who were at the barricades are still reeling from the experience. There are few moments in our lives where history opens its doors to us. Taking the leap through is disorienting, but the responsibility to make sense of this conjuncture falls squarely on those who take the leap.

Journalists and pundits have chimed in endlessly on the Student Intifada with a particular focus on Columbia University. Many of these pundits were nowhere near the action nor the partisans who made the action happen, thus they often get the basic facts of the action wrong. As one rebel once advised, “No investigation, no right to speak.” Additionally, the political orientation of the commentariat necessitated the silencing and erasure of the most radical flank of the movement. This flank played a vital role in not only the uprising at Columbia, but in the direction of the movement nationally. This essay is an attempt to both correct the record and offer up some political perspectives from a segment of this radical flank.

The next sequence of the Student Intifada remains elusive but it is important that interventions are made to push the movement in the correct direction. A minority with the correct revolutionary line is not a minority.

Continue reading “no peace”