Planned anti-Israel protest encampments failed to materialize at Columbia University and City College of New York (CCNY) on Thursday due to warnings or policing actions by the administrations.
New Columbia tent encampments had been planned in secret, according to a Wednesday NBC News report, with a plotted Morningside Heights campus and a Friday Manhattanville campus encampment.
The same day as the leak of the alleged plans, the Columbia public affairs office warned that it was monitoring for any disruptions.
“Encampments are prohibited under university policies, and participating in an encampment may also trigger university rules violations,” said Columbia. “Any violations of university policies and rules will be addressed immediately according to our procedures.”
No encampments manifested on Thursday or Friday at the university that popularized the protest tactic, with Columbia University Apartheid Divest silent on social media besides a call for activists to participate in a CCNY protest.
'The normalization of hate and antisemitism'
New York City Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) announced the creation of a “liberated zone” at the CCNY quad, noting that it was established at the same location as the campus’s encampment last year.
The group claimed on a Friday Instagram post that public safety officers demanded identification and warned the activists that they were violating campus regulations. The officers evacuated the protesters, allegedly clashing with them at another location, and eventually pepper-sprayed the activists.
“We must love each other and support each other. We have nothing to lose but our chains,” activists quoted terrorist Assata Shakur as they dispersed, according to a CUNY for Palestine X/Twitter post.
SJP issued demands of the greater City University of New York system, including calling for divestment from companies with ties to Israel, academic boycotts of Israeli institutions, the disbanding of the local Hillel chapters, dropping of charges against activists, the end of all police and security programs, and free tuition and benefits for students.
“The last 18 months of student organizing have revealed the university for what it is: An extension of the settler colonial imperial state,” said SJP. “We are faced with only one solution: To continue to disrupt these institutions until divestment and the complete dismantlement of the state structures that pressure the university.”
Hillel at City College decried the protest in a Thursday Instagram post, as the event was held on Holocaust Remembrance Day.
“What unfolded today was not a call for justice – it was the normalization of hate and antisemitism, masked as activism,” said Hillel. “The protest created a hostile environment that intimidated Jewish and Israeli students, faculty, and staff.
It spread dangerous misinformation, glorified terrorism, and included rhetoric that denied Israel’s right to exist – sentiments that have no place on a college campus, particularly on a day meant to honor the memory of those lost to hatred.”
The New York Police Department noted on X that it was not involved in the pepper-spraying of any campus protesters on Thursday.
CCNY did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The Yale University SJP chapter had also planned to reestablish an encampment on Wednesday, in protest of National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir’s visit. The protesters set up tents, but dispersed late at night after staff issued warnings about disciplinary actions.