Rep. Ilhan Omar's daughter is among 108 pro-Palestine protesters arrested at ... trends now
Rep Ilhan Omar's student daughter was among at least 108 people arrested as police in riot gear moved in to break up the anti-Israel protest that rocked New York's Colombia University.
New York Mayor Eric Adams staged a press conference on Thursday evening to say that university president Nemat Shafik has asked police to clear a 'clear and present danger' to safety on campus.
Tensions had been at boiling point since the protesters pitched tents on the university's south lawn at 4am on Wednesday, with several fights breaking out as they were met by pro-Israeli counter-demonstrators.
'After numerous warnings issued by campus security and the NYPD the students and those who were occupying the space, NYPD officers moved in to ensure the safety of the campus, the students and the staff,' Adams said.
'Columbia University's students have a proud history of protests and raising their voices, but we will not be a city of lawlessness.'
Students began setting up tents on the university's south lawn at around 4am on Wednesday in an unauthorized protest against the war in Gaza
At least 108 people were arrested and issued with summons for trespass as riot police moved in and cleared the space on Thursday morning
Isra Hirsi, Omar's daughter, had already been suspended by her university, Barnard College, for joining the protest on the Upper West Side.
'Those of us in Gaza Solidarity Encampment will not be intimidated,' she tweeted before her arrest.
'We will stand resolute until our demands are met. our demands include divestment from companies complicit in genocide, transparency of @Columbia 's investments and FULL amnesty for all students facing repression.'
She was later seen being marched off in handcuffs among more than 100 students arrested and issued with issued summonses for trespass.
Adams said the arrests were made peacefully without 'violence or injury'.
But NYPD Commissioner Edward Caban said around 500 students flooded into the quad as police moved in, chanting angrily and 'telling us that we're the KKK'.
Shafik called in the police just hours after she was accused of running a hotbed of antisemitism during a Congressional hearing about her handling of pro-Palestinian protests on campus.
The Ivy League chief defended the 'peaceful' demonstrations and the students' right to free speech in the surge of anti-Semitic rhetoric since the start of the Gaza war that led to the resignations of Harvard President Claudine Gay and Yale President Liz Magill.
