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<a class="gmail-domain gmail-reader-domain" href="https://peoplesdispatch.org/2024/04/19/columbia-students-continue-gaza-solidarity-encampment-in-defiance-of-police-crackdown/">peoplesdispatch.org</a>
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<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">Columbia students continue Gaza solidarity encampment in defiance of police crackdown <br></h1>
<div class="gmail-credits gmail-reader-credits">Natalia Marques</div>
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<div class="gmail-reader-estimated-time" dir="ltr">April 19, 2024<br></div>
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<img src="cid:ii_lv887j690" alt="665eb6cf-80d3-46b6-902b-21ececff4215.jpeg" width="464" height="261"><br><p>Gaza solidarity encampment. Photo: Wyatt Souers
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<p><span>On the morning of April 19, Columbia students emerged from
their tents camped out on the main lawn of Columbia University’s campus
in New York City, after having held their ground for over 48 hours in
what organizers dubbed the </span><a href="https://peoplesdispatch.org/2024/04/17/hundreds-of-students-occupy-columbia-university-in-solidarity-with-gaza/"><span>“Gaza solidarity encampment.”</span></a><span>
This action was coordinated entirely by the students, who are part of
various organizations including Columbia University Apartheid Divest,
Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine, and Columbia Jewish Voice
for Peace.</span></p>
<p><span>On Friday, inspired by the bold action taken by student
organizers, students at both the University of North Carolina and Miami
University in Ohio have begun to stage their own encampment in
solidarity with Columbia students and Gaza. In response to the upsurge
in student solidarity actions, National Students for Justice in
Palestine has issued a “call to action” for students in universities
across the country to “seize the university and force the administration
to divest, for the people of Gaza.”</span></p>
<p><span>Outside of Columbia University, a large crowd has taken to the streets in solidarity with the encampment.</span></p>
<p><span>Students initially took over the lawn at 4 a.m. on Wednesday,
April 19, and managed to hold their ground for over 24 hours. The energy
on the ground at the encampment reached a peak last night when arrests
of students on campus appeared to be imminent. Over 400 students poured
into campus and formed a march around the encampment to protect students
from a potential crackdown by either the New York Police Department or
the Columbia administration. Students chanted “We will not stop, we will
not rest, we will divest!” Soon, Columbia President Minoushe Shafik
would call in the New York Police Department to arrest 122 students on
Thursday afternoon. Police then confiscated student belongings, throwing
them haphazardly in an alleyway in between dorm buildings on campus.</span></p>
<p><span>After the mass arrest, the hundreds of students who had been
picketing around the encampment in solidarity moved immediately into
action. Around 1,000 poured into the other side of the lawn to start a
second encampment, and have been able to successfully hold the lawn
since then. </span></p>
<p><span>The last of the arrested students were released late into the
night on Thursday, to resounding cheers from fellow students and
supporters who stood outside of the 1 Police Plaza NYPD headquarters in
solidarity with those held inside. </span></p>
<p><span>Early on day 2 of the encampment, three students at Barnard
College, the women’s college that is part of the larger Columbia
University system, woke up to their suspensions via email and the
disabling of their student IDs. The Columbia administration is
reportedly issuing a new wave of suspensions to any student who attempts
to pick up their belongings.</span><span> </span><span><br>
</span></p>
<p><span>Columbia students are drawing from the example of the 1968
occupation of the University’s Hamilton Hall by students in protest of
the Vietnam War. This time around, students are protesting their
institution’s complicity in the ongoing Israeli genocide in Gaza. Their
demands are that “</span><span>Columbia University divests all finances,
including the endowment, from corporations that profit from Israeli
apartheid, genocide, and occupation in Palestine.”</span></p>
<p><span>“Morale on campus is high. People initially expected that we
were gonna bleed members on the second day, but that’s not happening,”
Grant Miner, Vice President of the Student Workers of Columbia, the
union of graduate student workers, told </span><i><span>Peoples Dispatch</span></i><span>
on Thursday, shortly before he himself was arrested. “We’re here to
stay until we get divestment. We won’t be moved until we are moved by
force, or until Columbia meets our demands. No compromises.” Miner was
one of the last to be released late on Thursday night.</span></p>
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