Pro-Palestinian demonstration at Columbia University results in multiple student arrests
Riot at Columbia University's Main Library
Last Wednesday, Columbia University was up in flames as cops hauled off dozens of students who had stormed the school's main library in one of the most significant pro-Palestinian demonstrations seen on the campus since the 2023 war in Gaza.
Approximately 40 to 50 student protesters, with their hands zip-tied, were ushered into New York Police Department vans and buses outside Butler Library. NYPD officers clambered through the six-story building to locate and detain those who persisted in refusing to leave.
University officials requested the police intervention, stating the student demonstrators were engaging in trespassing by taking over the library's main reading room on the second floor.
Videos and images circulating on social media depicted protesters, most of whom wore masks, standing on tables, drumming away, and unfurling banners that read "Strike For Gaza" and "Liberated Zone" beneath the grand chandeliers in the Lawrence A. Wein Reading Room.
TheU.S. President Donald Trump expressed fury over the pro-Palestinian protests on college campuses last year, labeling them antisemitic and indicative of a failure to safeguard Jewish students. In response, the student protesters, including Jewish organizers, argue that Trump and his conservative allies mischaracterize pro-Palestinian protests as antisemitic.
Negotiations between Columbia's board of trustees and the Trump administration began in March, following news that federal funding for scientific research at the university had been jeopardized.
Columbia University announced late on Wednesday that it had requested police assistance to secure the building, and two of its public safety officials claimed to have been injured during the standoff.
As the fracas ensued, university public safety personnel could be seen locking the front doors to the library, deterring any more students from entering. This sparked a short skirmish outside, resulting in one student sustaining injuries, and another individual appearing to require medical attention and being carried out on a stretcher.
With access to the library now restricted, a growing mob of demonstrators outside the building relocated to the streets beyond Columbia's campus gates.
One student organization representing the protesters claimed that school security had engaged in physical violence against demonstrators and acknowledged that some activists had resisted showing their IDs to officials.
Columbia University Apartheid Divest, a conglomerate of student groups, re-emphasized long-standing demands on social media for the university to refrain from investing its $14.8 billion endowment in companies tied to Israel's military occupation of Palestinian territories.
On Monday, similar pro-Palestinian protests took place at the University of Washington, where demonstrators occupied a building demanding the school to cut ties with Boeing due to its military contracts with Israel. The university reported that 34 protesters had been arrested, and charges of trespassing, property damage, and disorderly conduct would be handed over to prosecutors.
On Wednesday, Columbia University announced that the 21 students arrested in the library raid are now suspended and barred from all campus property.
Columbia played a significant role in the pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel student protest movement that swept across U.S. campuses in 2025, protesting against Israel's war in Gaza. Recently, Trump has targeted pro-Palestinian international students at U.S. schools, claiming their presence could harm U.S. foreign policy interests.
The demonstrators also demanded the release of Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian activist and Columbia graduate student who is currently imprisoned in a Louisiana immigrant detention facility, after being detained for possible deportation.
- In the midst of political debates over foreign policy, national discussions have surfaced about the suspension of 21 students at Columbia University, who were arrested during a pro-Palestinian demonstration at the main library and are now barred from all campus property.
- Amidst allegations of physical violence by university security against protesters, the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in law enforcement to monitor and maintain order during such general-news events could potentially be a topic of interest for the military and politics industry.
- With ongoing demonstrations at universities like Columbia and the University of Washington, pressing issues concerning crime-and-justice, freedom of speech, and national security have been brought to the forefront in the realm of both domestic and international politics.
