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Joshua Briz

More than 100 people protesting the war in Gaza were cleared off Columbia University’s campus, arrested and charged with trespassing on Thursday. The arrests came a day after the university’s president pledged during a congressional hearing on antisemitism to balance students’ safety with their right to free speech.

Having been summoned by Columbia President Minouche Shafik in what she described as “an extraordinary step” to keep the campus safe, New York Police Department officers in riot gear entered the encampment with zip ties in the early afternoon and systematically arrested protesters, who offered little resistance.

Tejasri Vijayakumar, Columbia College student body president, started sobbing, completely shocked, when she heard the NYPD had moved in. Columbia’s gates have been closed all week, so only people with a university identification can get in; it was a peaceful student protest, she said. “Why not let Public Safety handle it?” she asked, or continue negotiating.

“People are furious,” she said. Many people were frightened as well, she said, but the fear didn’t make the crowds dwindle. The administration’s move has only fueled the fire, she said.

Students who participated in the encampment would be suspended, Shafik said in a letter to New York police.

The encampment’s removal came a day after Shafik and other Columbia leaders faced scrutiny from federal lawmakers about antisemitism on their campus, and as universities across the country struggle to balance freedom of speech and protest with the need for safe campuses six months after the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/israel-hamas-war/" target="_blank" class="contextual_link">Israel-Gaza war</a> began.

Pro-Palestinian demonstrations have also caused disruptions beyond the campus this week. On Monday, protesters blocked major thoroughfares for hours in cities such as New York and San Francisco to spotlight Israel’s war in Gaza. In Seattle and Chicago, demonstrators shut down entrances to international airports, forcing passengers and crews to walk to their terminals or risk missing their flights. In San Francisco, protesters locked themselves together with pipes, which led police to use welding equipment to free them.

Columbia’s leaders were summoned to testify Wednesday before the Republican-led House Committee on Education and the Workforce as part of its investigation into campus antisemitism. <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2024/04/17/columbia-congress-hearing-antisemitism-campus-protests-israel-gaza/" target="_blank">Lawmakers peppered them with questions</a> that included scrutiny of slogans used at pro-Palestinian demonstrations, why they hadn’t stopped a recent unauthorized protest and how they had disciplined students involved. That followed a December hearing in which three other university presidents — from Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania and MIT — were scrutinized over their testimony before Congress, during which they declined to say calls for the genocide of Jews would violate campus policies. The leaders of Harvard and Penn later resigned.

Protests erupted at colleges across the country after Oct. 7, and university officials have grappled with how best to respond to the tensions. The issue has been complicated by some of the language used in many demonstrations, which is heard by some listeners as Palestinian rallying cries and by others as calls for the eradication of Israel.

On Wednesday, demonstrators erected tents in the center of Columbia’s Morningside campus, the latest display of rising <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2024/04/16/columbia-university-israel-gaza-campus-tensions/" target=_blank>tensions</a> at the New York university and others across the country.

At an unauthorized demonstration at Columbia earlier this month, a masked protester yelled, “There’s nothing they can do to stop us!” and, as the crowd cheered and waved Palestinian flags, “This campus is OURS!”

Shafik on Thursday cited safety concerns and violations of university rules and policies as the reasons for clearing the demonstration, adding that the university had issued written warnings to the student protesters Wednesday night that they could face consequences if they didn’t pack up their tents.

Yana Paskova

More than 100 demonstrators occupied Columbia’s South Lawn starting Wednesday morning, the start of a 20-hour protest that was in violation of university rules, New York Mayor Eric Adams (D) said Thursday at a news conference.

On Thursday, Columbia’s leaders contacted the New York Police Department to say the students were breaking multiple university rules, had been suspended and were trespassing. They requested that police come to the campus to remove the students if necessary, NYPD Commissioner Edward Caban said. Officers went to the encampment, gave protesters several orders to leave and warned them they could be arrested if they did not do so. When the demonstrators did not leave, officers started arresting them, which happened “without incident.”

As many as 108 were arrested and charged with trespassing, the NYPD said. Two of them were also charged with obstructing governmental administration.

Footage obtained by The Washington Post showed officers detaining protesters with their hands behind their backs and multiple police buses carrying protesters as other demonstrators briefly formed a new crowd nearby.

Rep. Ilhan Omar’s daughter, Isra Hirsi, was one of the protesters arrested and charged with trespassing, the NYPD said. Earlier in the day, Hirsi, a student at Barnard College who is an organizer with the pro-Palestinian group Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine, said <a href="https://x.com/israhirsi/status/1780980484203327780" target=_blank>on social media</a> that she had been suspended for participating in the protest. A day earlier, Omar (D-Minn.) had <a href="https://www.instagram.com/repilhan/reel/C54MD0up7yN/" target=_blank>questioned</a> Shafik about anti-Palestinian protests on college campuses.

Adams said the university’s students have “a proud history” of using their right to free speech by protesting and making sure their voices are heard. He also acknowledged that the war in Gaza is painful and “has left many of us grieving and angry.” But First Amendment rights are not unfettered, the mayor said.

“Students have a right to free speech, but do not have the right to violate university policies that disrupt learning on campus,” Adams said.

PEN America, the human rights and literary organization, said it was disturbing that Columbia had called on police to remove the students “peacefully expressing their political views within the free speech zone.”

“It is even more alarming that this action came amidst political pressure to crack down on pro-Palestinian expression on campus after yesterday’s hearing in the House,” said Kristen Shahverdian, who leads the organization’s efforts to bolster free speech on college and university campuses.

Shafik’s decision to clear out student protesters is unique in recent campus history.

This is likely the first time university officials have brought in police to break up a campus protest since 1996, when 23 students were arrested after an occupation of the school’s administration building, according to university officials.

In April 1987, the then-president called the police in to get a group of “concerned Black students” out of Hamilton Hall, where they had set up a blockade.

In April 1968, university officials called in police to end a protest in what the campus newspaper, the Columbia Daily Spectator, described as “a brutal bloody show of strength,” with 1,000 officers clearing occupied buildings. Nearly 700 students were arrested and 100 were injured, as some protesters resisted officers. Photos showed students with blood streaming down their faces.

The 1968 crackdown shocked many and forced a culture change at the school. In the years since, university officials have promoted the political activism of their students. But after Oct. 7, intense protests over the Israel-Gaza war have divided campuses and led some students, faculty members and others to call for more restrictions on protests and stricter enforcement of rules.

On Wednesday, Shafik told the House committee that balancing the free-speech rights of those who want to protest with the rights of Jewish students to be free of harassment and discrimination at Columbia has been the central challenge on campus.

As the chaos of the afternoon settled into night, even more students poured into the South Lawn — waving Palestinian flags, blasting Palestinian music, chanting “intifada revolution,” smoking marijuana, chugging beer, banging on drums, and casually chatting in intimate friend circles on picnic blankets — all under the unrelenting watch of overhead surveillance drones. A little after 10 p.m., a red flare shot from one end of campus in an arc that dissipated over the university’s famous journalism school.

In interviews, students said they lingered for a mix of reasons: Some didn’t want to give in to police intimidation, others didn’t have strong feelings about Palestinians’ suffering in the midst of a war but felt the police presence showed the administration no longer prioritized student safety, while others were just adrift, wondering how to recover their confiscated personal items — laptops, phones, purses and IDs — that had been scooped up by police and dumped into a nearby alley.

“We don’t know why the administration thought these actions they took today best represented Columbia. And we don’t know what’s ahead,” said Daria Mateescu, 25, a second-year law school student. “All we know is students are no longer safe.”

Caitlin Ochs

Alisa Shodiyev Kaff and Richard Morgan contributed to this report.

A previous version of this article incorrectly implied that Thursday was the first time that police had broken up a campus protest at Columbia University since April 1987. Police also responded to a campus protest in 1996. The article has been corrected.

Livingston Award, finalist, 2018

University of California, Berkeley, BA in English

Jonathan Edwards is a reporter on The Washington Post's Morning Mix team. Before joining The Post, he covered public safety for The Virginian-Pilot and Lincoln Journal Star.

Jonathan Edwards

Brown University

Columbia University

Susan Svrluga is a reporter covering higher education for The Washington Post. Before that, she covered education and local news at The Post. 

Susan Svrluga

Fulbright Scholar, Germany

Northwestern University, BS in journalism and international studies

Dan Rosenzweig-Ziff is a reporter on The Washington Post's General Assignment desk, where he covers breaking news and writes of-the-moment features. He has reported for The Post from Europe and covered crime and criminal justice on the Metro desk. He previously worked for the Texas Tribune and was a Fulbright scholar in Germany.