On 17 April 2024, students at Columbia University in New York City started an occupation protest against the Israel–Gaza war (2023-2024). They initially set up an encampment on the university campus with about 50 tents and called it the Gaza Solidarity Encampment.[1][2] They demanded the university to divest from companies with ties to Israel.[3]
A scene of the restored campus encampment
The encampment was forcibly dismantled the next day when university president Minouche Shafik authorized the New York City Police Department to storm campus and conduct mass arrests, but it has been restored afterwards.[2][4] On 30 April 2024, the encampment has been dissovled by the police for the second time.[5]
This was first time the Columbia University has allowed police to suppress campus protests since the 1968 protests against the Vietnam War.[6] The police action at Columbia University led to similar protests at other universites in the United States.[7] The university adminstration's handling of the protest has been severly criticized – with different reasoning – by lawmakers [en] from the Republicans as well as Democrats.[8][9]
