2024/02/02
Students participate in a protest in support of Palestine and for free speech outside of the Columbia University campus on Nov. 15, 2023, in New York City.
- Spencer Platt/Getty Images North America/TNS
NEW YORK — Nine people were arrested Friday during protests in and around the Columbia University campus over Israel’s actions in the war in Gaza, police said.
A protest that started Friday afternoon was led by the pro-Palestinian group Within Our Lifetime, and drew hundreds of demonstrators, said the Columbia Spectator, a student newspaper.
The demonstration gathered on Broadway outside the Morningside Heights campus. Not all the protesters were affiliated with the university.
At least one Columbia student was arrested, said Barnard student Maryam Iqbal, 18.
“He’s my friend,” Iqbal said of the arrested student. “I watched him getting taken away in the van. He was just peacefully protesting.”
The protest, which drew a large New York Police Department presence, continued into the early evening and moved several blocks south on Broadway.
Campus officials were prepared in advance.
Gates on the Broadway side of the Columbia campus were closed at noon “out of an abundance of caution,” said a memo from a university official.
A “safety escort” program, that allows students to ask campus public safety officers walk with them overnight, was shifted to midday.
Columbia students made up a majority of protesters earlier in the day at the inaugural address of Laura Rosenbury, who has been appointed the next president of Barnard College, the women’s college at Columbia. About a dozen protesters showed up at the event, and 10 were escorted outside, the Spectator said.
Charges against the arrested protesters were pending Friday evening, police said.
Several Columbia students sought medical treatment after they were sprayed with a chemical agent during a campus protest Jan. 19.
© New York Daily News
NEW YORK — Nine people were arrested Friday during protests in and around the Columbia University campus over Israel’s actions in the war in Gaza, police said.
A protest that started Friday afternoon was led by the pro-Palestinian group Within Our Lifetime, and drew hundreds of demonstrators, said the Columbia Spectator, a student newspaper.
The demonstration gathered on Broadway outside the Morningside Heights campus. Not all the protesters were affiliated with the university.
At least one Columbia student was arrested, said Barnard student Maryam Iqbal, 18.
“He’s my friend,” Iqbal said of the arrested student. “I watched him getting taken away in the van. He was just peacefully protesting.”
The protest, which drew a large New York Police Department presence, continued into the early evening and moved several blocks south on Broadway.
Campus officials were prepared in advance.
Gates on the Broadway side of the Columbia campus were closed at noon “out of an abundance of caution,” said a memo from a university official.
A “safety escort” program, that allows students to ask campus public safety officers walk with them overnight, was shifted to midday.
Columbia students made up a majority of protesters earlier in the day at the inaugural address of Laura Rosenbury, who has been appointed the next president of Barnard College, the women’s college at Columbia. About a dozen protesters showed up at the event, and 10 were escorted outside, the Spectator said.
Charges against the arrested protesters were pending Friday evening, police said.
Several Columbia students sought medical treatment after they were sprayed with a chemical agent during a campus protest Jan. 19.
© New York Daily News
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