More wild anti-Israel protesters descend on Columbia University lawn vowing to 'hold this line'
Category: News & Politics
Via: vic-eldred • 7 months ago • 14 commentsBy: Michael Dorgan (Fox News)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Unfazed by Thursday's mass arrests, protests are continuing at Columbia University on Friday and a large police presence — with officers in riot gear — is being reported.
Demonstrators — said to include activist actress Susan Sarandon — are currently marching through the streets and have made it to the university, chanting with signs and flags.
Protesters could be heard chanting: "NYPD KKK. NYPD we know you. You're Israeli trained too!" and "Palestine will be free!"
"[Columbia University President] Minouche Shafik has failed time and again to protect Jewish students on campus and hold antisemitic students and faculty accountable," Accuracy in Media's President Adam Guillette told Fox News Digital Friday. "During Wednesday's hearing, Shafik made a number of empty promises and insincere statements about the state of antisemitism on Columbia's campus. Just one day later, radical antisemites continued to terrorize Jewish students on campus and spew their hateful ideology. The last 48 hours have made it abundantly clear that Shafik is not fit to serve as Columbia President."
Sarandon told students: "I am not a student, I am not Palestinian, but I am here to support the students who understand that it is very important to have their voices heard."
"Especially in a place of education and supposedly higher thoughts, to be attacked with racism and intolerance is not acceptable. There are many, many people who stand with you."
"You must know that you inspire so many people who are afraid… you give me hope… and in the end the truth will win."
The march was heading south bound and had earlier paused in front of the 28th Police Precinct, and then turned west on 123rd Street. Protesters blocked traffic and the NYPD instructed them to move onto the sidewalk.
They then stopped at 116th Street and Broadway at the university.
Earlier in the day, protesters returned to the campus' lawn area to continue their anti-Israel protest and say they will "hold this line" until their demands are met.
Video shows dozens of people, many donning black-and-white keffiyeh headscarves and COVID-19 masks, planted down on sheets and sleeping bags on a lawn adjacent to where yesterday's fiery protests took place.
A large banner with the words "Gaza Solidarity Encampment" marked their territory and several Palestinian flags were flying throughout their occupied zone.
The mood was a lot quieter than Thursday and piles of food and drinks could be seen in the center of the encampment, indicating the protesters were there for the long haul. Unlike yesterday, there are no tents and those involved say on social media they've been told they can remain on the lawn as long as no tents are pitched.
Friday afternoon, a man on a bullhorn told at the encampment said that he had been arrested on Thursday.
Students at Columbia University returned to the campus' lawn area on Friday morning to continue their anti-Israel protest and say they will "hold this line" until their demands are met.
"Your organizers are returning, I ask you to please hold this line and to continue to bring people out in support of Palestine to get our demands," one protestor holding a Dunkin' Donuts cup railed into a bullhorn.
"The more they try to silence us the louder we will be," he began chanting, as others joined in. He then broke into a trade union-inspired song called "Rich Man's House," singing: "So I went down the rich man's house and I stole what he took with me."
The demonstrators say they are protesting Columbia University's continued "financial investment in corporations that profit from Israel apartheid, genocide, and occupation in Palestine."
They are calling for the university to make public all of its financial investments, no further arrests and the dropping of charges for all students disciplined for their involvement in the protests.
In total, 108 people were arrested and given a summons for trespassing, the New York Police Department (NYPD) said during a Thursday press conference, including the daughter of Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn. Two people were additionally given a summons for obstruction of governmental administration.
"While the encampment has been dismantled, our community has had protest activity on campus since October, and we expect that activity to continue," a Columbia University spokesperson tells Fox News. "We have rules regarding the time, place, and manner that apply to protest activity and we will continue to enforce those. We remain in regular contact with our students and student groups and are committed to ensuring the core functions of the University continue."
The NYPD was invited to the university by school President Minouche Shafik on Thursday. Earlier in the day, Shafik sent a message to the student body, saying that these "extraordinary steps" were necessary "because these are extraordinary circumstances" and that the protesters had "violated a long list of rules and policies."
The police operation was the first mass arrests to be made on the Columbia campus since 1968, when hundreds of students occupied Hamilton Hall in protest of the Vietnam War and the planned construction of a gymnasium in Morningside Park were detained, the Columbia Spector reported.
Like many Ivy League college campuses, Columbia University has seen numerous pro-Palestinian protests sprout since Oct. 7. The demonstrations have gotten more intense as Israel continues to conduct its military offensive in the Gaza Strip against Hamas.
Fox News' CB Cotton, Stephen Sorace and Louis Casiano contributed to this report.
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The radicals will stand firm. For them there will not be any real consequence.
The democrats need them.
The DNC will have to decide at some point whether they will tolerate and embrace antisemitism and support terrorists or kick these clowns to the curb.
They are in between a rock and a hard place.
Their media allies don't care (or support Hamas) and will make sure they aren't pressured
Of their own making.
Remember what I said about playing with radical shit
Hamas's allies in Congress (the Squad) added an amendment to the Israel aid bill giving Hamas veto power over it.
Who the hell voted for them?
The Squad is the Democratic equivalent of the likes of MTG et al.
Both groups are embarrassments to their respective parties.
But every republican interviewed by the MSM gets hammered with MTG, they never ask democrats not in the squad to denounce the squad.
Well, that's the beauty of having much of the media shilling for your party.
Move to Hamas trerritory for a day and then decide who is the bad guy.