COLUMBIA STUDENT REVOLT FOR PALESTINE SPREADS, YALE, HARVARD, PRINCETON, MORE
EXPLODING NATIONAL FIGHT FOR ACADEMIC FREEDOM, OTHER COLLEGES JOIN PROTESTS AGAINST ISRAEL'S 'GENOCIDE' AGAINST PALESTINIANS
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This is a developing report. Check back for additional news.
The student revolt at Columbia University against Israel's war on the Palestinians spread to other elite American colleges on Friday, as a national fight to defend academic freedom exploded.
Students at Yale, at Brown, at MIT, Boston University and Harvard University, at Princeton, Northwestern University, Miami University in Ohio, Temple University and at the University of North Carolina rallied in support of the student protesters at Columbia.
The National Students for Justice in Palestine, the umbrella group for more than 300-plus chapters in colleges across America, issued a nationwide call to action on Friday.
"We call on all SJPs across the nation to seize the university and force the administration to divest, for the people of Gaza!"
Faculty and alumni of Columbia also joined the fight on Friday, vowing to “fight” to take back “our university.”
108 Columbia students protesting against Israel were arrested on Thursday after Columbia's president, Nemat Shafik, alleged they were a "clear and present danger" in a letter to the NYPD asking it to arrest them.
The crackdown came a day after Shafik sacrificed academic freedom at a Congressional hearing allegedly inquiring into anti-semitism at Columbia. Instead of defending diversity of academic opinion and full-throated debate, Pres. Shafik equated legitimate criticism of Israel with anti-semitism.
In response to questioning by Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY), Pres. Shafik "named names" and said Columbia was disciplining professors for exercising academic freedom.
“On my watch, faculty who make remarks that cross the line in terms of antisemitism, there will be consequences for them,” Pres. Shafik said. “I have five cases at the moment who have either been taken out of the classroom or dismissed.”
Earlier in the week, the University of Southern California canceled a Muslim student’s valedictorian speech because she had previously criticized Israel.
The week before, a noted University of California, Berkeley, law professor confronted a Muslim student during a dinner for graduating law students. The student pulled out a mircophone and started speaking. She said a short Muslim prayer but didn’t get a chance to say whatever it was she wanted to say before the professor and his fellow professor wife physically stopped her.
In New York, Students at Columbia reacted almost immediately to Pres. Shafik’s Congressional appearance.
They occupied a part of the university's quad that serves as the urban campus's public square. They raised Palestinians flags and erected tents. They hung hand-lettered protest signs with slogans like "Liberated Zone," "Gaza Solidarity Encampment" and "NO MORE GENOCIDE FREE PALESTINE!" They held informal classes, rap sessions and prayers.
Pres. Shafik responded to the peaceful demonstration by summarily suspending all students participating in it, according to her letter to the NYPD on Thursday. Because they were suspended, she wrote, they were no longer Columbia students, they were trespassers, "we request the NYPD’s help to remove these individuals."
More student protesters replaced those arrested almost immediately on another part of Columbia's quad—minus the tents.
Supporters of the student protesters gathered on the streets around the university. (While the campus is usually open to the public, it has been closed to the public since protests began. Only students can protest inside.)
Students occupied the lawn all of Thursday night and remain on the lawn on Saturday. They released a statement on Friday.
"This is the third day of continuous protests in support of Palestine at Columbia," student organizers said. "As of Friday evening, hundreds of people are still on the lawn in solidarity with their peers facing discipline and with the Palestinian people."
More than a 100 students at Columbia and its sister college, Barnard, have been suspended, according to the statement. Students at Barnard have been evicted from student housing, and denied access to the dining hall.
Though the NYPD complied with Columbia's request to arrest its own students, a high-ranking NYPD commander not known for sensitivity questioned the wisdom of its heavy-handed move.
"So let me put this in perspective, the students that were arrested were peaceful, offered no resistance whatsoever, just saying what they wanted to say in a peaceful manner," NYPD Chief of Patrol John Chell said at a news conference after the arrests.
When asked about Pres. Shafik's claim protesters presented a "clear and present danger," Chief Chell was remarkably candid:
"No, let's put it on the record," Chell said. "The clear and present danger is language used by Columbia University in their letter to us. That was not our words it was their words."
The Occupy Wall Street movement exploded only after the NYPD arrested 732 protesters on the Brooklyn Bridge in 2011—15 days after they occupied Zuccotti Park, and were mostly ignored.
The protests at Columbia continued on Saturday.
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