Democrats demand police crackdown at Columbia University Gaza encampment

Democrats demand police crackdown at Columbia University Gaza encampment

On the morning of April 29, 21 Democratic lawmakers issued a threatening public letter to the Trustees of Columbia University demanding they take “action … now” to disband the anti-war encampment on campus, which they lying claimed was constructed by “anti-Jewish activists.”

If the trustees were not willing, or able, to call in riot police, or perhaps the National Guard, to violently deal with college students and their professors peacefully protesting the university’s, and US government’s, complicity in the genocide in Gaza, the representatives demanded the trustees’ resignation.

The authoritarian letter was signed by several prominent Democrats including Maryland Rep. Steny Hoyer, the most senior member of the Democratic House, having been in Congress since May 1981. Until January 2023, Hoyer served as the Majority Leader in the House for over two decades, second-in-line to then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Other prominent Democrats who signed the letter include Senate candidate and current California Representative Adam Schiff, Debbie Wasserman Schultz (Florida), Josh Gottheimer (New Jersey) Dan Goldman (New York) Henry Cuellar (Texas), as well as Haley Stevens (Michigan).

In the letter, the Democrats expressed their “disappointment that, despite promises to do so, Columbia University has not yet disbanded the unauthorized and impermissible encampment.” Echoing fascistic Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, the Democrats repeated the “big lie” that protesting the mass slaughter of over 40,000 Palestinians, a majority women and children, was “antisemitic.”

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The Democrats wrote that the encampment “has been the breeding ground for antisemitic attacks on Jewish students.” To back up their bogus claims of “antisemitism” the authors of the letter cited President Joe Biden’s April 21 statement which also repeated the slander.

At the same time the Democrats letter was released, Columbia President Minouche Shafik also released a statement claiming the encampment had created an “unwelcoming environment for many of our Jewish students and faculty.” She demanded students “voluntarily disperse.” Shafik’s statement was accompanied by a packet distributed to protesting students at the encampment warning them to disband and leave before 2 p.m. or face suspension/expulsion.

Unfazed by threats from the Democrats or administration officials, it appears none of the students took them up on their offer to voluntarily disband. Instead, prior to the 2 p.m. deadline, dozens of Columbia faculty members joined the encampment and formed a human chain.

The faculty were joined by up to 1,000 other students. As of this writing, the encampment remains, but it appears the university has begun suspending students. In a statement to the New York Times, Ben Chang, a spokesman for the school said, “We have begun suspending students as part of the next phase of our efforts to ensure the safety of our campus.”

Since April 17, students at Columbia University, ranging from a few dozen to several hundreds, have occupied a section of the lawn. Despite the peaceful character of the protests, the university called in the riot police the following day, leading to the arrest of 108 people.

Massive police repression did not prevent the encampment from reconstituting on Columbia grounds, and spreading to other universities in the US and internationally, including in France, Germany, Spain, England and Australia. In addition to student encampments, protests against the ongoing genocide in Gaza have continued throughout the world, including in Tokyo where students in construction helmets resisted riot police while chanting “No more!” “Free Palestine” and “Workers, unite!”

In the United States, despite the police repression, several new encampments and protests in solidarity with Gaza have emerged on major college campuses. In response, several colleges have called in police to violent disperse them.

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At the University of Texas-Austin, which saw mass protests and arrests last week, hundreds of riot police were called in by the administration to disperse a reestablished Gaza Solidarity Encampment on the South Lawn of the campus. Video shows riot cops assaulting students sitting on the grass before zip tying and arresting them. Local reporters estimate that “dozens” have already been arrested.

To justify mass arrest of peaceful anti-war protesters, UT-Austin issued a statement before the arrests began claiming they found “rocks…strategically placed within the encampment” and that the school had received “extensive online threats from a group organizing today’s protest.” The university did not disclose the nature the alleged “threats.”

Video from Austin posted later in the afternoon showed students backing police down from the campus.

At the University of Georgia in Athens, several students, many with Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), were arrested less than two hours after establishing an encampment. The Atlanta Community Press Collective (ACPC) reported that 16 people were arrested and charged with criminal trespass.

After being arrested in the morning, many of the anti-genocide protesters returned to the campus in the afternoon to participate in a pro-Palestinian protest.

ACPC reported protesters demanded that the university divest from companies involved in the genocide in Gaza and that the university divest from companies supporting the construction of “Cop City” in Atlanta.

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In Cleveland, Ohio at Case Western University, police were quickly called to disband an encampment established by students outside the library Monday morning. Local reports indicate roughly 50 people initiated the encampment, which was quickly surrounded by police who removed all of the tents. Roughly 20 people were briefly detained by police while the encampment was cleared.

Major protests and walkouts have occurred on several other campuses. At UCLA in California, hundreds of students and faculty walked out of class on Monday in support of Gaza. After holding a brief rally, students and faculty marched around the campus chanting, “We will not stop, we will not rest, disclose, divest.”

Hundreds of students at Whitman College, a liberal arts school in Walla Walla, Washington, walked out of class in solidarity with Gaza and other students.

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