Reaction to Arrests at Columbia University Pro-Palestine Protest

Scenes from campus response to the Basel Al-Araj liberated zone—and the administration’s crackdown.

By Shubhanjana Das

Yesterday, Columbia University called the New York Police Department to campus, where they arrested more than 70 students and pro-Palestine protesters who took over the reading room in the University’s Butler Library. The demonstration, which started at around 3:15 p.m., led to students clashing with public safety officials, who denied entry into and exit from the building if the protestors didn’t identify themselves. Students and faculty accumulated outside: “Let them go!” they shouted.

At around 7:15 p.m., NYPD officers – including the Strategic Response Group – in riot gear led the protestors outside Butler and into NYPD vans and buses through the exit on 114th street between Broadway and Amsterdam. Two were taken off campus in stretchers by the University’s Emergency Medical Service team. 

“Columbia has taken the necessary step of requesting the presence of NYPD to assist in securing the building and the safety of our community,” wrote Acting President Claire Shipman in a statement. “Columbia strongly condemns violence on our campus, antisemitism and all forms of hate and discrimination, some of which we witnessed today,” she added.  

Protests were also staged outside the campus on 114th street and Broadway, a stone’s throw from where students were being led into NYPD buses. During the course of the events, NYPD officers and campus Public Safety personnel used physical force on student protesters inside the campus, as well as on demonstrators gathered outside university grounds.

This is the largest arrest on the university’s campus since April 2024, when former president Michouche Shafik called the NYPD on students who took over Hamilton Hall and staged a second Gaza Solidarity Encampment. One hundred and nine protesters were arrested during the raid.