Columbia protests LIVE updates | University president asks police to remain on campus until May 17

Columbia University said Tuesday that students occupying a campus building as part of pro-Palestinian protests face being expelled from their academic programs, the latest move in a standoff with school officials.

“Students occupying the building face expulsion,” Columbia’s office of public affairs said in a statement, adding that the protesters were provided “the opportunity to leave peacefully” but instead declined and escalated the situation. 

AFP

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Dozens of helmeted police flooded Columbia University’s campus in the heart of New York City on Tuesday to evict a building occupied by pro-Palestinian student protesters and detain demonstrators.

Police climbed into Hamilton Hall via a second floor window they reached from a laddered truck, before leading handcuffed students out of the building into police vans.

The hall had been occupied at dawn by demonstrators who vowed they would fight any eviction, as they protested the soaring death toll from Israel’s war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip. 

AFP

Large numbers of New York City police officers entered Columbia University late April 30, hours after the mayor said a pro-Palestinian protest that has crippled the Ivy League school for two weeks “must end now.”

The officers took protesters into custody after the university called in police to end the pro-Palestinian occupation on the New York campus.

The scene unfolded shortly after 9 p.m. as police, wearing helmets and carrying zip ties and riot shields, massed at the Ivy League university’s entrance. The demonstrators had occupied Hamilton Hall, an administration building on campus, more than 12 hours earlier, spreading their reach from an encampment elsewhere on the grounds that’s been there for nearly two weeks.