Anti-Israel protesters dialed up their demonstration at Columbia University by taking over an academic building after the school suspended students who did not abandon their encampment.
Hours after Columbia University began suspending students who did not abandon their anti-Israel encampment in the heart of campus, the agitators dialed up their demonstration by taking over an academic building.
Early Tuesday morning, hundreds of anti-Israel protesters at Columbia’s Manhattan campus took over Hamilton Hall, an academic building used by the dean and other senior offices. The unruly group gained access shortly before 1 a.m. and then began “moving metal gates to barricade the doors, blocking entrances with wooden tables and chairs, and zip-tying doors shut,” according to the student newspaper Columbia Spectator.
Other footage showed the agitators in New York smashing windows, unfurling a Palestinian flag over a window and chanting: “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” and “Palestine will live forever.” Outside the facility, the anti-Israel rebels, many of whom wore masks, locked arms in front of Hamilton Hall to form a human barricade.
