NY police clear pro-Palestinian protesters from Columbia in escalation of campus turmoil

NEW YORK — Police cleared Columbia University of pro-Palestinian protesters Tuesday night as the school requested officers stay to maintain order on a campus engulfed in chaos over the Israel-Hamas war.

At least 200 police officers, some in riot gear, descended onto the Upper Manhattan campus following a takeover of the university’s Hamilton Hall the night before.

They arrested dozens and cleared the building that protesters occupied overnight, following a breakdown in negotiations between the university and students.

It was a stark recognition by the school’s embattled president, Minouche Shafik, that she was losing control.

What began as protests of Israeli’s military operation in Gaza last fall recently evolved into a full-blown encampment that sparked campus demonstrations across the country and upended life at the Ivy League school.

The drama began unfolding Tuesday morning, when Columbia officials conceded during a call with the administration of New York City Mayor Eric Adams that the protests had gotten out of hand, according to three people with knowledge of the conversation who were granted anonymity to share details of a private discussion.

School officials requested assistance from police, as they had on other occasions in recent weeks. Cops had been frustrated after they entered campus earlier this month and arrested more than 100 students in the encampment but the demonstrations persisted, one of the people said.

Nevertheless, they agreed to come back Tuesday given the turn of events.

In addition to the takeover of Hamilton Hall and the tent encampment, NYPD officials became alarmed about the presence on campus of a woman married to Sami Al-Arian, a former computer science professor in Florida who pleaded guilty in 2006 to aiding the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a designated terrorist organization by the U.S. Department of State, according to one of the people who spoke with POLITICO.

Shortly after Adams held a press conference Tuesday night, Shafik delivered her formal request for police intervention.

The university president has faced intense criticism by members of Congress for not doing more to protect Jewish students during the protests — and by her own faculty for authorizing earlier arrests.

“The events on campus last night leave us no choice,” she wrote in a letter, adding that she would use “emergency authority to protect persons and property.”

Letter in hand, officers who had been mustering outside the university grounds streamed onto campus, surrounding the pro-Palestinian encampment and entering Hamilton Hall through a second-story window and a side entrance before charging through the front doors.

Dozens of protesters, mostly students, surrounded Hamilton Hall with their arms linked as police began deploying outside the building and clearing the area. People inside the building, meanwhile, waved Palestinian flags out the windows.

Students outside the barricade set up just at the campus’ perimeter yelled at the police to let their peers go, chanting “We see you, we hear you! We will get justice for you!”

Others stood on a nearby corner chanting “Free, free Palestine!” and reiterating their demands that the school divest from Israel.

Earlier in the day, university spokesperson Ben Chang said in a statement that students occupying the building face expulsion.

The situation at Columbia has garnered the attention of politicians across the country, with Republicans like House Speaker Mike Johnson visiting the school last week and Democrats grappling with how to respond.

Squad members Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar and Jamaal Bowman have joined students in the encampment while establishment Democrats like Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer have been more critical of the protests in recent days.

Former President Donald Trump called in to Fox's Sean Hannity to weigh in on the situation, denouncing the protesters and defending Israel’s response to the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas.

“We have to let Israel complete their war on terror,” he said. “It's a horrible thing. But they have to do it and they have to do it fast and we have to get back to order and people have to respect law and order in this country.”

The situation at Columbia has prompted comparisons to 1968, when racial justice and anti-war student protesters occupied the same building for over a week before being removed by the NYPD.

A NYPD spokesperson did not immediately comment on the number of arrests Tuesday night.