The Police of NY broke into the Columbia University building occupied hours before by pro-Palestinian students in an eviction operation that resulted in dozens of arrests. The police used a crane to enter the building from the second floor as the students had set up barricades at the main entrances. The students offered no resistance and were detained one by one and then taken to police stations in several buses, according to The New York Times.
The building, called Hamilton Hall, had been occupied last midnight by Columbia university students, the epicenter of student protests in the United States against Israel’s war in Gaza. Hamilton Hall has a great symbolic value since it was also occupied in 1968 by students who at that time were protesting against the Vietnam War.
The University said in a statement that after learning of the occupation of the building, they made the decision that the protest had become the responsibility of the Police. “We regret that the protesters have chosen to aggravate the situation through their actions. After the University learned overnight that Hamilton Hall had been occupied, vandalized and blocked, we were left with no other option,” he said.
The university protests are causing a major stir in the United States and there is great political pressure to end a movement that questions Washington’s unconditional support for the Government of Israel. The White House itself reacted to the occupation of the building at the prestigious New York university: “Taking buildings by force is not peaceful, it is wrong,” said one of its spokespersons, Andrew Bates, in statements to the NPR network.
The Republicans, for their part, had requested the intervention of the National Guard.