Police Break Up Anti-Israel Protest Camp at Columbia University, Arrest Over 100 Participants Including Ilhan Omar’s Daughter

At New York’s elite Columbia University, police officers broke up an anti-Israel protest camp and arrested more than a hundred participants. The reported die New York Times. According to the AP news agency, the police tied the protesters with cable ties and took them to waiting buses. Among those arrested was Isra Hirsi, the daughter of Democratic Representative Ilhan Omar of Minnesota.

Several students who took part in the protest said they were banned from Columbia University and Barnard College in New York.

Participants in the protest accuse Israel of “apartheid”.

The participants in the protest camp had asked the prestigious university to distance itself from companies that, in their opinion, were “involved in Israeli apartheid” and the Israeli war. Gaza Strip benefit Since Wednesday, Columbia President Nemat Shafik has asked demonstrators to end the protest. The university warned the students of a ban if they did not immediately disband the camp. On Thursday, the university management finally decided to call the police and evacuate the camp. The university had previously tried through various channels to “address the concerns” of the protesters and offered to continue the talks if they withdrew, Shafik said.

However, some demonstrators regrouped on campus after the camp was dispersed; Some of them chanted “shame” and demanded amnesty for all the students who were punished. The New York Times report that new tents have already been erected.

protests from the Hamas attack

At Columbia University, like many other US universities, there have been pro-Palestinian protests since the start of the Gaza war anti-Semitic events he should come. The first such protest by hundreds of participants took place at Columbia University five days after the attack from Hamas, in which terrorists murdered more than 1,100 people in Israel on October 7. Israel’s ground offensive in the Gaza Strip began in late October.

Shafik, who has been in office since July, has tightened the rules for campus protests in recent weeks. Recently announced the suspension of students who helped organize a protest in which participants openly expressed solidarity with the Islamist Hamas. On Wednesday, Shafik and three other Columbia leadership officials told a congressional committee in Washington, DC, on charges of anti-Semitism.

The US Anti-Defamation League, which specializes in fighting anti-Semitism, announced this week that the number of Anti-Semitic incidents in the US are at an all-time high had risen. The development has been particularly remarkable since October 7th. According to the group, many of these cases were related to Israel.