Welcome to Columbia: Keffiyeh-Clad Activists Chain Themselves to Campus Gate, Call for ‘Intifada’

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Several Columbia University student activists chained themselves to a school gate Wednesday afternoon, chanting “globalize the intifada” as prospective students walked by.

The four unmasked protesters secured to the St. Paul’s Chapel gate, which serves as a campus entrance, were joined by additional students behind them, wearing masks and holding signs that read “Pigs aren’t kosher,” “Israel bombs, Columbia pays,” and “ICE off campus.” The group assembled to demand the names of the trustees who “collaborated” with the Trump administration, resulting in the arrest of Mahmoud Khalil.

As a group of prospective students and their families passed by, the anti-Israel agitators chanted, “There is only one solution, intifada revolution,” and “Intifada, intifada, globalize the intifada.”

Columbia’s Public Safety removed the chains after several hours and escorted the activists through the gate, where they continued their protest.

Wednesday’s events unfolded amid Columbia’s ongoing battle to curb rampant campus anti-Semitism, a crisis that has destabilized its leadership and triggered a $430 million loss in federal funding. On Friday, Claire Shipman, co-chair of Columbia’s Board of Trustees, stepped into the role of acting president following the abrupt resignation of Katrina Armstrong, who exited after just seven months at the helm.

It’s unclear whether the protesters’ stunt will dissuade or encourage the prospective students from attending Columbia. A university report published Monday noted that Columbia has “maintained a tradition of student-led political protest” since the Vietnam War.

A university spokeswoman told the Washington Free Beacon that the protest “constitutes violations of the Rules of University Conduct.”

“Individuals complied with the demand for identification but refused to leave the area. The chains were removed by Columbia’s Public Safety and the individuals were escorted off campus,” the spokeswoman said. “We will follow the process established in the Rules of University Conduct for enforcing violations. Our focus is on preserving our core mission to teach, create, and advance knowledge while ensuring a safe campus for our community.”

Columbia has grappled with implementing reforms aimed at curbing campus anti-Semitism, such as restricting masks and protests that disrupt academic activity and levying consistent discipline on violators. A student in a nearby class on “Zionist Thought” told the Free Beacon that the activists’ loud chanting disrupted their lesson, prompting one student to close a window in the classroom to muffle the noise.

Columbia’s Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) chapter organized the protest, demanding “accountability from the trustees who collaborated in the kidnapping of Mahmoud Khalil,” adding that they refuse to leave until Columbia hands over the names of the trustees who “colluded” with the Department of Homeland Security, according to an Instagram post.

“OUR TRUSTEES HAVE FORESAKEN [sic] ALL FORMS OF SHARED GOVERNANCE AND TRANSPARENCY TO ENDANGER OUR PEERS,” the group wrote on Instagram. “WE DEMAND TO KNOW THE NAMES OF THE COLUMBIA TRUSTEES WHO FACILITATED THE ABDUCTION OF OUR BELOVED FRIEND BY COLLABORATING WITH THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION. WE WILL NOT LEAVE UNTIL OUR DEMAND IS MET.”

As the protesters were led through the gate and off campus, activists chanted, “We are currently unlocking a gate which has not been unlocked for an entire year … which shows they are capable of unlocking gates.”

Prior to this semester, the St. Paul’s Chapel gate had been used as an entry point to the campus. A school official told the protesters that they were violating school policy by blocking the campus entrance.

“Our demand was simple. It was for the trustees to disclose which one of them turned over student names to ICE. That was our only demand of them, and instead they forced us off campus,” the protesters chanted after exiting.

A Columbia spokeswoman said no member of its leadership team “has ever requested the presence of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents on or near campus to target students.”

Khalil, a former Columbia graduate student and foreign national, was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in March. After Columbia tapped Shipman, who was co-chair of the board of trustees, JVP wrote in an Instagram post that “Columbia University announces AIPAC [American Israel Public Affairs Committee] as its fourth president in the span of two years.”

Last week, Grant Miner, a Columbia graduate student who was expelled earlier this month for overtaking Hamilton Hall, gave a speech on campus, telling anti-Israel protesters they had to “fight back.”

Miner, the president of Columbia’s radical graduate student union, Student Workers of Columbia, led a chant before giving the speech on the steps of Low Memorial Library, an administrative building. The union organized the protest, demanding “No research cuts. No ICE. No censorship. No layoffs.”

Four days earlier, the union coordinated another demonstration to protest the Ivy League school’s policy reforms, which include new restrictions on mask-wearing during protests. Members of the union handed out masks to protesters while Columbia’s Palestine Solidarity Coalition, a splinter group of the notoriously anti-Semitic Columbia University Apartheid Divest, called on students to “wear a mask on Monday to protest mask bans and the fascist trustees.”

Original News Source – Washington Free Beacon

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