Charges dropped against anti-Israel Columbia activists

The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office dropped charges against almost all of the anti-Israel encampment protesters allegedly involved in the April 30 occupation of Columbia University’s Hamilton Hall, US media reported.

The New York Post reported that James Carlson was the sole protester still facing charges.

Citing a lack of evidence, no previous criminal history, and the fact that they will be subject to university disciplinary proceedings, the DA’s Office dropped charges against 30 defendants, the Columbia Spectator reported Friday.

Lack of evidence

Another 13 protesters, who were reportedly not enrolled at Columbia at the time of the incident, were offered an adjournment in contemplation of dismissal.

Representatives of the 46 activists gave a press conference on Thursday in which they rejected any deals as “state efforts to divide the pro-Palestine movement.”

“We refuse to operate under the fiction that the American legal system upholds justice. Our oppressors will not grant us liberation through sanctioned channels for dissent. Let us be clear: The aim of punitive legal procedures is to intimidate and stifle the movement, to divert energy and urgency from the genocide the US and Israel have been carrying out for the past nine months,” said the activists garbed in masks and keffiyehs. “This is a blow meant to finish what the pigs started with their pistols, circular saws, and flash grenades during our arrests, namely, the goal of intimidating us into silence.”

New York City Police Department officers arrested over 100 students after they had barricaded themselves into Hamilton Hall, which activists renamed Hind’s Hall after a Palestinian girl killed in the war between Israel and Hamas. The request for NYPD intervention came at the request of Columbia administration after weeks of destruction of property, harassment, and intimidation of other students. An encampment was established on April 17, which was emulated on campuses across the US and eventually the world.

At the Thursday press conference, the Columbia activists called for the release of convicted criminals and alleged arsonists that they described as prisoners of war against the “US empire.”

The activists demanded the release of five Palestinians who were officers and employees of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development. The activists said they had been sending food and medicine to Gaza, but they were convicted of using the charitable foundation to funnel funds to Hamas.

Two of the activists wore shirts calling for the freedom of Casey Goonan, who stands accused of four firebombing and arson attacks at the University of California, Berkeley. He was arrested on Monday for involvement in an alleged arson spree that included a UC Berkeley Police Department vehicle, a construction site, a brush area near a library, and a campus building.

Another alleged arsonist that the protesters supported was John Mazurek, who is accused of an arson attack against the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center.

One protester said that just as they would not reject Palestinian armed groups, they would not reject those engaging in “direct action” in the US.

“We must continue escalating in our tactics until we make life for the war-mongering ruling class untenable,” said an activist at the press conference. “Pacifism is not the path toward liberation.”