Police use a special vehicle to enter Hamilton Hall which protesters occupied, as other officers enter the campus of Columbia University, during the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas, in New York City, U.S., April 30, 2024. (Photo: REUTERS/David Dee Delgado)
Nearly 100 people were arrested on Tuesday night as New York Police Department officers stormed Hamilton Hall on Columbia University’s campus, following its takeover by students demonstrating in support of Hamas.”
A group of people, mostly believed to be university students, took over Hamilton Hall just after midnight on Tuesday morning and remained there for over 12 hours.
Shortly after the NYPD cleared the hall, Columbia University President Minouche Shafik released a letter to the NYC police commissioner requesting that a police presence remain on campus until May 17, “to maintain order and ensure that encampments are not re-established.”
Columbia officials said they “were left with no choice” after the group “occupied, vandalized, and blockaded” Hamilton Hall.
According to a police spokesman, dozens of arrests were made in the three-hour operation to clear the building.
In her letter to the police commissioner, Shafik stated, “We believe that while the group who broke into the building includes students, it is led by individuals who are not affiliated with the University. The individuals who have occupied Hamilton Hall have vandalized University property and are trespassing.”
The university’s public affairs office released a statement declaring, “Students occupying the building face expulsion.”
Shafik announced that students remaining in the West Lawn encampment would be suspended and that “participation in other campus encampments was prohibited.”
Columbia University spokesman, Ben Chang, said, “The work of the university cannot be endlessly interrupted by protesters who violate the rules. Continuing to do so will be met with clear consequences.”
On Tuesday, Republicans in the House of Representatives announced an investigation into the funding of public universities where large antisemitic protests have take place.
The investigation was announced by U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson as part of the effort to crack down on antisemitic incidents at college campuses in the United States.
“Antisemitism is a virus and because the administration and woke university presidents aren’t stepping in, we’re seeing it spread,” Johnson said at the press conference. “Nearly every committee here has a role to play in these efforts to stop the madness that has ensued.”
Beginning in January, the House Education and the Workforce Committee, under Chair Virginia Foxx (Rep.-N.C.), launched several antisemitism investigations into Rutgers University, the University of California, Berkeley, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Columbia University, the University of Pennsylvania, and Harvard University.
Johnson also said that further probes would be launched by other committees in the coming days to “look into the billions of federal taxpayer dollars that go to these universities.”
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