New York City police cleared an encampment of pro-Palestinian protesters at Columbia University on Thursday, one day after the school's president, Minouche Shafik, appeared before Congress to testify about antisemitism on campus.
Shafik authorized the police action.
"Out of an abundance of concern for the safety of Columbia’s campus, I authorized the New York Police Department to begin clearing the encampment from the South Lawn of Morningside campus that had been set up by students in the early hours of Wednesday morning," Shafik said.
The encampment had been set up in anticipation of Shafik's testimony. The protesters called on Columbia to divest itself of investments in companies with ties to Israel.
The university had locked down the campus prior to Shafik's testimony allowing only those with student IDs to enter. On Thursday, Shafik fired off a letter to the NYPD authorizing the action.
"This group has been informed numerous times and in writing that they are not permitted to occupy this space, are in violation of the University’s rules and policies and must disperse," she wrote. "All University students participating in the encampment have been informed they are suspended."
Among those suspended was Rep. Ilhan Oamar's daughter, Isra Hirsi.
BREAKING‼️NYPD cops arrested anti-Israel, pro-Hamas protestors from Columbia University grounds today after the president of the college finally made the decision to remove the protestors.
— Ermias (@ErmiasAlem) April 18, 2024
Rep. Ilhan Omar's daughter, Isra Hirsi, was one of the protestors and she’s been suspended… pic.twitter.com/dOW1IbZmTI
Hirsi describes herself on her X bio blurb as an "angry black woman."
those of us in Gaza Solidarity Encampment will not be intimidated. we will stand resolute until our demands are met.
— isra hirsi (@israhirsi) April 18, 2024
our demands include divestment from companies complicit in genocide, transparency of @Columbia’s investments and FULL amnesty for all students facing repression
Until the people who scream that they are "facing repression" actually go live someplace where those who open their mouths against the powers that be end up being shot, I really wish they'd STFU about being "repressed.
Writing in The Guardian, Moira Donegan tried to argue that Columbia was allied with the far right because President Shafik sicced the cops on people protesting illegally and who had been warned several times to disperse.
The police raid against Columbia students that followed the next day can be seen as an extension of the policy of appeasement and preemptive compliance with the anti-Palestinian, anti-student Republican right that Shafik adopted in her testimony. In its war on education and ostentatious displays of grievance against “woke” universities, the far right has made itself hostile to academic freedom, peaceful protest and vast swaths of progressive speech. In her willingness to unleash state violence against student protestors, Shafik proved herself their willing ally. It is worth stating plainly what happened at Columbia: the raid was nothing less than the product of collusion between a university administration and rightwing politicians to suppress politically disfavored speech.
Leftists just aren't happy unless they can claim they're being discriminated against or oppressed. They must be seen standing atop the battlement, waving the bloody shirt, screaming, "Look at me!"
The police action at Columbia was legal, it was justified, and it was glorious to see. The cops showed great restraint, considering the usual leftist provocations, trying to get a reaction from cops so they could claim "police brutality."
It didn't work, and Columbia is a safer, quieter campus today because of the police action.
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