A group of Palestinian students demonstrated to protest profits from “imperialist violence.”
Dozens of pro-Palestinian activists protested at Columbia University in the United States.
Video posted on social media showed protesters standing on a table chanting and beating drums in the university’s main library.
Columbia University’s Apartheid Divast, a group of Palestinian students, said it had occupied the library to protest the university’s ties with Israel.
“More than 100 people have flooded the Butler Library and renamed it Basel Al-Aladi’s popular university,” the group said in Subsac, referring to Palestinian activists and writers who were killed by Israeli forces in 2017.
“The flood shows that as long as Colombia brings funds and benefits from imperialist violence, people will continue to disrupt Colombia’s interests and legitimacy. Repression creates resistance. When Colombia escalates its crackdown, people will continue to escalate this campus’ confusion.”
Columbia University foreman Claire Shipman has denounced the demonstration as “completely unacceptable.”
University officials called police after demonstrators provided identification and refused requests to leave the building, Shipman said.
“The disruption in our academic activities is unacceptable and is a violation of our rules and policies. This is not particularly acceptable while students study and prepare for the final exam,” Shipman said in a statement.
“Columbia strongly condemns violence in our campus, anti-Semitism, all forms of hatred and discrimination.
Shipman said two Columbia Public Sheriffs were injured when an individual tried to force his way into the building.
New York police said in a statement that they were detained for disbanding “several individuals who failed to comply with oral warnings.”
The victory of New York Radio Station 1010 reported that around 80 demonstrators had been arrested.
Columbia University, one of the top-ranked US universities, was the site of a massive demonstration last year when students of Israel’s war in Gaza exploded on more than 100 campuses across the United States.
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