Columbia University was the center of Latest series of pro-Palestine protests New York City is exploding. Despite mass arrests, students and anti-Israel protesters continued their “shocking” demonstrations.
A part-time student at Columbia University argued that the ordeal demonstrated how the post-October 7 “madness” had reached “fever fever.”
,New York Post columnist Rikki Schlott said, “I really think this craziness on campus after October 7 is really reaching a new level of fever pitch.” “Fox & Friends Weekend” Saturday.
Jewish Columbia University student told to ‘kill himself’ during anti-Israel protest: report
“I never imagined I’d see NYPD officers in riot gear literally breaking up hundreds of people columbia students “Who are being arrested knowingly in support of Palestine and in support of, in my view, a cause that they really clearly don’t fully understand.”
Schlott, who is in her first semester at Columbia, had a “front row seat to the madness” that unfolded Thursday and Friday.
Like many Ivy League college campuses, several pro-Palestinian protests have taken place at Columbia University since October 7. The demonstrations have become more intense as Israel continues its military offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Dozens of protesters camped in tents on the school grounds since Wednesday morning and demanded the university disassociate itself from those companies. relations with israelAs Shafiq testified on Capitol Hill.
The university closed its campus to ID holders only in anticipation of unrest related to Shafiq’s testimony.
On Thursday, protesters set up a “Gaza solidarity camp” on the lawn of a campus, hours before the university’s President Minouche Shafiq testified before the House Committee On education and the workforce regarding anti-Semitism on campus.
“Basically what the camp demands is that they want the university to sell off any of its investments in Israel through its endowment. And they were saying that until that happens, they’re not going to leave, ” Shallot explained.
Schlott also credited the NYPD, which Shafiq eventually invited to the university and began arresting several protesters.
overall, 108 people were arrested and were given summonses for trespassing, the New York Police Department (NYPD) said during an early evening press conference. Additional summons were also issued to two people on charges of obstructing government work.
NYPD officers noted that many protesters were peaceful and did not resist arrest. A police officer said, however, that about 500 students left their classes and told officers that they were “KKK”, “baby killers” and “go kill yourselves”.
Undeterred by Thursday’s mass arrests, protests continued at Columbia University on Friday and a large police presence was reported with officers in riot gear.
shallots made a difference between outdoor protestors And Columbia students claim that outside agitators were “more aggressive” and “more radical”.
“(Columbia) had closed the actual campus to anyone who didn’t have an ID, so it was only students, that’s why I was able to get in. And I would say actually the protesters outside. , including the one who shouted, ‘We are Hamas’, who presumably are not students, were, in my view and in my experience, much more aggressive and much more radicalized than the students inside,’ she said.
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Above protest for several days, Schlott said she heard protesters shouting “intifada,” “we are Hamas,” “divide, disintegrate” and others.
“Students were trespassing and clearly violating school rules, they were being arrested. I watched Lesbians for Liberation, which is a really rich film, considering how it felt like these students “Don’t really understand how LGBTQ people are treated in Palestine,” the part-time student said.
Schlott said that, although she was prepared from her previous appearances at NYU, she said the protests were “shocking”.
A Columbia University spokesperson previously told Fox News Digital: “While the encampment has been demolished, our community has carried out protest activity on the campus since October, and we expect that activity to continue.”
The spokesperson added, “We have rules in place regarding the time, place and manner that apply to protest activity and we will continue to enforce them. We remain in regular contact with our students and student groups and follow up on key actions. Committed to ensuring that.” The university continues.”
Fox News Digital also contacted Colombia on Saturday for comment.
Fox News’ Bree Stimson, Michael Dorgan, Stephen Soares and Luis Casciano contributed to this report.
