New anti-Israel tent city takes over Columbia University lawn days after NYPD raid as activists vow to stay ‘forever’
A massive new anti-Israel tent city took over Columbia University on Sunday, just days after an NYPD raid cleared another intrusive encampment there and cuffed more than 100 protesters.
At least 30 tents were sprawled across the Manhattan Ivy League school’s West Lawn in front of Butler Library along with piles of food and supplies as embattled university officials struggled to contain the growing crisis.
The upheaval and threats to Jewish students have become so intolerable that a prominent rabbi at the prestigious school urged them Sunday to stay home — and university officials told them they could take classes online.
“We are looking for our demands, and we are going to continue that,” an encampment protester defiantly told The Post on Sunday. “We are here forever. We’re here as long as [it takes till] Columbia meets our demands.
“This has been going on for five days, this is Day 5,” the rallier said of the latest protest, which is urging among other things that the university divest from Israel.
“There are people sleeping here, we eat our meals here. The people who are fortunate enough to not have gotten suspended, they also go home to get more materials. We have runners. They are grabbing us stuff and being very supportive,” she said.
“We have an entire community here that’s willing to help us. This is a community, it’s a camaraderie.”
As she spoke, some of the protesters sat on sleeping bags, while others stretched out on yoga mats and blue tarps, making signs and drinking coffee, water and juice while munching on fruit and Middle Eastern pastries.
Speeches were also being made about divestment around her, and chanting could be heard elsewhere.
Anti-Israel students previously took over part of the campus last week, erecting about 60 tents while covering the grounds with Palestinian flags and antisemitic slogans.
The tent city sprouted up even after university President Minouche Shafik vowed to crack down on antisemitism.
On Thursday, NYPD cops in riot gear then moved in and raided the unkempt encampment, hauling away at least 108 protesters — some who had to be carried away — and clearing the area of tents and supplies stashed by students.
But less than 24 hours later, dozens of students started returning to the grounds near the Butler Library, hitting their stride Sunday.
Follow The Post’s coverage of the anti-Israel protests at Columbia University:
Columbia cancels in-person classes to ‘reset’ as anti-Israel protests raise tensions
Columbia Jewish alumni demand firing of president Shafik for failing to protect students on campus
A 27-year-old protester, who is a Jewish graduate student at the Ivy, told The Post Sunday that one of the demonstration leaders claimed that Columbia officials informed them that the tents could remain for a week.
“One of the organizers had made an announcement that there have been negotiations with administration and they had explicitly said that you can set up your tents and there will not be any sweeps, I think they said for the next week,” said Molly, who only gave her first name.
But a university rep told The Post the same day that students “do not have permission to set up tents on the lawn.
“Those who do are in violation of long-standing university policy and will be identified and subjected to disciplinary action,” the representative said.
The grad student called it “concerning” if the university was open to the tents staying because the goal is to rankle the administration.
“The idea is that we’re going to stay until they make the financial divestment demand. For me it’s kind of concerning that they’re saying we’ll let the tents be there because it kind of reduces the sway that we have of them not wanting us to be there,” she said.
“We want to be under their skin, we want to be doing something they don’t want us to do.”
Her parents told her, “don’t get arrested, but if you do we’ll bail you out,” Molly said, who slept in a sleeping bag before the tents were set up.
She said hundreds of protesters are taking shifts staying and sleeping at the encampment, even during the crush of finals week.
“We’re trying to get work done when we can because we all have a bunch of essays to write,” she said. “This week is the last week of class.”
“It’s been kind of difficult to keep up with the demands of schoolwork right now, but this is such a historic time on Columbia’s campus,” Molly added.
Asked if students would have the option of virtual classes, a school source said “guidance” has been handed down saying, “All schools and programs should permit the option of remote learning — and when possible, assessment — to students who are seeking academic accommodations due to campus activity for either religious reasons or other approved disability accommodations reasons.”
The campus — and others around the nation — have been hotbeds of antisemitic protests since Hamas terrorists pulled off a sneak attack on Israel on Oct. 7, with the Jewish state responding with a counter-offensive that has killed thousands in the Gaza Strip.
The show of blatant support for Hamas on American college campuses has rattled some students, particularly Jewish students.
“There is an atmosphere of concern and fear on campus,” a Columbia co-ed told The Post on Sunday. “Depends on who you are — racism, surveillance, fear of being spotted or photographed. A general paranoia. Some exams have been postponed and papers extended.”
Additional reporting by David Propper
