At Columbia University in the United States, dozens of pro-Palestinian activists have staged a demonstration.
Demonstrators chanted and beat drums while seated on tables inside the university’s main library, according to video that was posted on social media.
Apartheid Divest, a pro-Palestinian student organization affiliated with Columbia University, claimed to have taken over the library in protest of its connections to Israel.
The group, referring to the Palestinian activist and writer who was killed by Israeli forces in 2017, said on Substack that “over 100 people have just flooded Butler Library and renamed it Basel Al-Araj Popular University.”
The people will continue stifling Columbia’s profits and legitimacy as long as Columbia funds and profits from imperialist violence, according to the flood. If Columbia’s repression is intensified, the people will continue to cause disruption on this campus. Repression breeds resistance.
Claire Shipman, the acting president of Columbia University, criticized the demonstration as “completely unacceptable.”
According to Shipman, university officials called the police after demonstrators turned down requests for identification and exit the building.
This is especially unacceptable while our students study and study for final exams, according to Shipman in a statement, “Disruptions to our academic activities will not be tolerated and are violations of our rules and policies.”
“Columbia firmly condemns violence on our campus, antisemitism, and all forms of hate and discrimination, some of which we witnessed today,” said Columbia.
Two Columbia Public Safety Officers were hurt, according to Shipman, as a result of an internal conflict.
According to a statement from the New York Police Department, “multiple individuals were taken into custody who did not follow verbal instructions to disperse.”
Around 80 demonstrators were detained, according to a report from 1010 WINS, according to a report from New York radio station.
Source: Aljazeera
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