Anti-Israel activists protest event welcoming new Columbia University students

Anti-Israel activists gathered outside Columbia University on Sunday to protest an event welcoming new students and the continued operation of the academic institution without adopting their policies against Israel, according to Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and the Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD) coalition.

Activists in keffiyehs shouted and banged drums and pots outside the gate of the university in an attempt to cause noise that would disrupt the convocation and encourage new students to join their movement.

“Until Columbia divests, there will be no business as usual during a genocide,” Columbia SJP said on X.

CUAD alleged on Instagram that the university had displaced residents from Harlem with its Manhattanville campus and new Tel Aviv Global Center, and urged activists to join the protest to “Demand Columbia end the displacement from Harlem to Palestine!”

“We don’t want two states, we want ‘48,” activists chanted in a Palestinian Youth Movement video.In a picture shared on Instagram by Palestine Action US, one of the activists could be seen wearing a Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine pin. The PFLP is designated as a foreign terrorist organization by the US State Department.

The anti-Israel groups referred repeatedly to “Hind’s Hall,” their name for the university’s Hamilton Hall when activists occupied the building, assuring that the idea would persist.

Campus protest movement 

Columbia University was the epicenter of the anti-Israel protest encampment movement, with a sprawling settlement of tents and structures erected on campus grounds from mid-April until May.

While dozens of students had been suspended and disciplined over the protests, Reuters reported last Tuesday that only five of the 80 still faced interim suspensions.

Before the new academic year began, Columbia University president Minouche Shafik resigned from the role over the toll of the sustained anti-Israel demonstrations. CUAD on August 16 pledged to continue to protest after her resignation.

“We remain steadfast on our demands,” said CUAD. “The student intifada will outlast every figurehead the institution installs.”