Pro-Palestinian Protestors Break Into Columbia University's Hamilton Hall, Occupy Building as Tensions on Campus Escalate
Protestors broke into the building using hammers and barricaded themselves inside.
Apr. 30 2024, Published 7:00 p.m. ET
IDozens of pro-Palestinian protestors broke into an academic building at Columbia University on Tuesday morning, RadarOnline.com has learned.
Shocking video footage captured escalating tensions on campus as one protestor used a hammer to smash through glass-paneled doors at Hamilton Hall. The group then occupied the building while forming various barricades outside.
Students have protested the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza at college campuses across the country.
According to the student-run newspaper, Columbia Daily Spectator, the group stormed the building at around 12:30 AM. Once inside, protestors hung a banner outside of the academic building that read "Hind’s Hall" in reference to a six-year-old Palestinian child killed in Gaza on January 29.
The protestors also carried signs that read "intifada," which refers to a rebellion or uprising against oppression in Arabic. Other students hung Palestinian flags and other banners from the building's windows.
Protestors used "tables and chairs from classrooms to block the doors from the inside" and began "covering security cameras with black trash bags and tape."
The group overtook the building within five minutes, trapping one facility worker inside. Shortly before 1 AM, the man was allowed to leave. As he exited the building, he shouted at the crowd gathered outside, "They held me hostage."
Shocking video captured protestors breaking into the academic building.
Minutes later, several other individuals not associated with the occupation were allowed to leave Hamilton Hall, including at least three facilities workers. Two students attempted to block the protestors from barricading the front entrance, shouting, "You don’t have a right to tear down our University!"
The students eventually left the front of Hamilton Hall and a barricade consisting of metal gates and trash cans was quickly assembled.
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Protestors barricaded themselves inside of Hamilton Hall.
While NYPD officers arrived on campus within minutes of the protestors breaking into the building, they noted hours later that they would not make entry unless they "hear that someone’s gotten hurt."
Meanwhile, more protestors arrived outside the building, some forming a human barricade. Others marched in a picket line and chanted, "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free" and "Palestine will live forever."
A press release from the Columbia University Apartheid Divest X account labeled the protestors occupying the building an "autonomous group."
"Protestors have voiced their intention to remain at Hind’s Hall until Columbia concedes to CUAD’s three demands: divestment, financial transparency, and amnesty," the press release read.
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A 'Gaza Solidarity Encampment' has been erected on the campus as protestors call on the university to divest from Israel.
The dramatic scene was the latest development in protests taking place at Columbia, where students set up a "Gaza Solidarity Encampment" while calling on the university to divest from Israel. Dozens of arrests have taken place as well as suspensions.
Across the country, ongoing student-led protests against the war in Gaza are taking place at institutes of higher learning including The University of Texas at Austin, UCLA, Emory University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
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