Pro-Palestinian Arab protesters at Columbia University on Wednesday staged a sit-in at the Institute of Global Politics in the School of International and Public Affairs, where former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is teaching a course, reported Haaretz.
As part of the demonstration, protesters hung posters renaming the Institute as the "IGP: Israel Global Propagandists."
Student Eden Yadegar shared a video of the sit-in to social media site X and wrote, “My walk to Secretary Hillary Clinton’s course at Columbia SIPA today on the second day of classes. This is the direct consequence of 11 months of inaction and fecklessness. We just want to go to class, but apparently that’s a task too tall for Columbia.”
She added in another post, “Protestors are currently shouting ‘Hillary Hillary you can’t hide, we charge you with genocide.’ Class is about to begin.”
The anti-Israel protests at Columbia began already on the first day of classes on Tuesday, when dozens of masked anti-Israel protesters gathered at the entrance to Columbia and at Barnard College. The demonstrators chanted "Free Palestine," “resist until victory,” carried signs demanding that Columbia "divest from death," and “over 100,000 dead, Columbia your hands are red.”
They formed a picket line, and beat drums as students returned to school and freshmen arrived for the first time. Two people were arrested.
Columbia University saw an uptick in antisemitism and anti-Israel protests on campus last year, soon after Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7 and the war in Gaza which followed.
Pro-Palestinian Arab demonstrators at Columbia set up dozens of tents in April, demanding that the university divest from its Israeli assets. The university administration called in police to dismantle the encampments.
On April 30, at the request of university leaders, hundreds of officers with the New York Police Department stormed onto campus, gaining access to the building through a second-story window and making dozens of arrests of the pro-Palestinian Arab demonstrators who had taken over Hamilton Hall.
Before the anti-Israel encampment on campus, the Chabad rabbi of Columbia University and a group of Jewish students were forced to leave the university campus for their own safety during a pro-Hamas demonstration.
Last month, three Columbia University deans resigned from the school, after it was discovered that they had exchanged “very troubling” texts that “disturbingly touched on ancient antisemitic tropes”.
In mid-August, Columbia University President Dr. Minouche Shafik announced her resignation, following months of criticism for her handling of campus antisemitism.