A number of dozen keffiyeh-clad anti-Israel protesters took over a constructing on the Barnard Faculty campus early Wednesday night to protest the expulsions of two college students who stormed a Columbia College class in January and threw round flyers loaded with hateful rhetoric.
Movies circulating on-line, posted by Columbia College students for Justice in Palestine on X, present the masked college students lining a hallway in Milbank Corridor, the oldest constructing on campus, beating drums and loudly chanting via megaphones.
One of many X posts made by the group — which proclaims “lengthy reside the scholar intifada” in its bio — features a listing of calls for, amongst them a reversal of the expulsions, amnesty for college students punished throughout final yr’s anti-Israel campus protests and a public assembly with Dean Leslie Grinage and Barnard President Laura Rosenbury.
The group’s calls for additionally embrace “abolition of the corrupt Barnard disciplinary course of and full transparency for present, previous, and future disciplinary proceedings.”
The professional-Hamas scholar group claimed in a follow-up publish that Barnard public security has “harassed and shoved” a number of college students, and knocked at the least one to the bottom. “Who’re they actually defending?” the manic social media publish learn in all-caps.
Protestors graffitied political messages — similar to, “Free Palestine,” “Barnard expels college students,” and “F–okay Barnard” — on the partitions of Milbank Corridor and vowed to proceed their sit-in till directors entered into “good-faith and substantive negotiations,” the Columbia College students for Justice in Palestine posted on X Wednesday evening.
The 2 expelled college students — who haven’t been publicly recognized — barged their method right into a “Historical past of Trendy Israel” class at Columbia College with the intention to distribute anti-Jewish literature, together with a flyer depicting a boot stomping on a Star of David and one other displaying an Israeli flag on fireplace.
The caught-on-camera saga erupted on Jan. 21, the primary day of the semester on the Ivy League campus. The scholars have been shortly slapped with suspensions, and have been completely tossed from the college final week following a probe, in line with Columbia’s Apartheid Divest — a student-led anti-Israel group.
“When guidelines are damaged, when there is no such thing as a regret, no reflection, and no willingness to vary, we should act,” Rosenbury instructed The Submit in a press release, noting she couldn’t remark straight on a scholar’s disciplinary file, citing federal legislation.
formally expelled final Friday. X/LishiBaker
“Expulsion is at all times a rare measure, however so too is our dedication to respect, inclusion, and the integrity of the educational expertise.
Different video exhibits a big gang of scholars thuggishly shoving their method into the historic tutorial constructing, pushing previous safety guards as they shouted “free Palestine.”
One other video exhibits a Jewish scholar sporting a yarmulke allegedly attempting to get into the constructing for sophistication and pleading with an individual who seems to be a safety guard.
“You’re catering to them. You gotta get them out. All of us must go to class,” the scholar says.
In a press release, Columbia College stated it was “not acceptable conduct” to disrupt tutorial actions — although burdened that Barnard Faculty bears the accountability for addressing the protest.
Mark Treyger, CEO of the Jewish Group Relations Council of New York, condemned the disruption at Barnard.
“It’s utterly outrageous that these protesters endorsed masked strangers barging right into a New York Metropolis classroom throughout instruction with the clear intention to intimidate Jews and unfold concern. Accountability is required,” stated Treyger.
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