Columbia University threatens to expel students occupying school building

By Michael Hernandez

WASHINGTON (AA) - Columbia University threatened to expel students on Tuesday who are occupying the Hamilton Hall administrative building, saying antiwar demonstrators "have chosen to escalate to an untenable situation."

"Students occupying the building face expulsion," school spokesperson Ben Chang said in an emailed statement.

Protesters have maintained that they will not leave the facility, which they have renamed "Hind's Hall" in memory of 6-year-old Palestinian Hind Rajab who was brutally killed in Gaza, unless their demands are met. They are seeking to have Columbia divest from Israeli firms and condemn Tel Aviv's onslaught against the Gaza Strip.

Columbia President Minouche Shafik has maintained the school will not divest -- a central demand from students protesting Israel's offensive.

Many of the buildings on campus were locked down Tuesday without an apparent resolution to the standoff in sight.

Protesters said early Tuesday that with Israel continuing to promise a ground invasion of Rafah where 1.5 million displaced Palestinians have sought refuge, "it is more urgent than ever to fight Columbia's contributions to the ongoing murder, maiming, and forced starvation of millions of Palestinians."

"We cannot sit by as our tuition and labor support mass murder. For the last two weeks students have put their safety, homes, education, and careers in jeopardy, knowing no universities remain in Gaza due to US-funded bombs," the Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine group said in a statement.

"Liberators acting in solidarity with Palestine continue to hold themselves to a higher standard than Columbia," the activist group added.

Meanwhile, protesters who did not evacuate from an encampment site by a Monday afternoon deadline set by the university are being suspended and "will be restricted from all academic and recreational spaces and may only access their individual residence," said Chang

Seniors who were slated to graduate will not be allowed to do so, he said.

"We made it very clear yesterday that the work of the University cannot be endlessly interrupted by protesters who violate the rules. Continuing to do so will be met with clear consequences," said Chang.

"This is about responding to the actions of the protesters, not their cause. As we said yesterday, disruptions on campus have created a threatening environment for many of our Jewish students and faculty and a noisy distraction that interferes with teaching, learning, and preparing for final exams," he added.

Shafik's decision to ask police to forcibly disband an initial encampment and arrest demonstrators staging a sit-in on April 18 served as a flashpoint in the wider protest movement. It emboldened demonstrators, and encampments have since spread to universities nationwide in defiance of arrests and threats from university administrators.

Hundreds of students have since been arrested on campuses with protests demanding universities divest from Israel and condemn its onslaught on the besieged Gaza Strip where more than 34,400 people have been killed. The vast majority of the dead have been women and children.

Palestinian journalists, academics, and activists have been frequently killed.

Israel has also targeted Gaza's places of higher education, with all 12 major universities being destroyed. The UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees, or UNRWA, has separately reported mass destruction at the sprawling network of schools it operates in the coastal enclave. ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​