Anti-Israel activists smash through windows to seize historic building on ... trends now
A rogue group of anti-Israel protesters on campus at Columbia University seized the historic Hamilton Hall on campus and are refusing to leave until all of their demands are met.
Earlier on Monday, school officials began suspending pro-Palestinian student activists who refused to dismantle a protest camp after the Ivy League school declared a stalemate in talks seeking to end the polarizing demonstration.
University President Nemat Minouche Shafik said in a statement that days of negotiations between student organizers and academic leaders failed to persuade demonstrators to remove the dozens of tents set to express opposition to the war in Gaza.
Around 12:30am local time, students began breaching Hamilton Hall, which was the site of a historic protest against racial injustice in the US in the 1960s.
'We will not leave until Columbia meets every one of our demands,' one activist screamed from a balcony in the building. The group has demanded that the university divest from Israel.
A group of students advocating for Palestine at Columbia University stage a demonstration and block the entrance of iconic Hamilton Hall
Demonstrators begin building a barricade inside of Hamilton Hall
University President Nemat Minouche Shafik said in a statement that days of negotiations between student organizers and academic leaders had failed to persuade demonstrators to remove the dozens of tents set up to express opposition to Israel's war in Gaza
The crackdown at Columbia, at the center of Gaza-related protests roiling university campuses across the U.S. in recent weeks, occurred as police at the University of Texas at Austin arrested dozens of students whom they doused with pepper spray at a pro-Palestinian rally
Columbia sent a letter on Monday morning warning that students who did not vacate the encampment by 2 p.m. ET and sign a form promising to abide by university policies would face suspension and become ineligible to complete the semester in good standing
According to the Columbia Spectator, the student newspaper, the group who made it inside the building threw their belongings aside before beginning their immediate efforts to barricade themselves inside.
Images from the mass demonstration show sleeping bags, coats, rucksacks and blankets strewn across the ground and piled up in front of doors.
The students stormed the building located along the South Lawn, which has been the scene of the university's anti-Israel encampment for over a week.
They quickly climbed the stairs, dragging down tables and chairs from classrooms which they then used to barricade the doors from the inside.
The building was locked down in less than five minutes, according to the student publication, and protesters allowed no one to enter.
Protesters blocked security cameras inside the building with black trash bags and tape, and according to a source from within the building, at least three facility workers remained inside until 1am.
'Several individuals, including the Facilities workers, left the building around 1:10 a.m. after protesters removed the barricades blocking one door, rebolting it after the workers left,' the student paper reported.
Images show how furious protesters stacked two metal tables that had originally been placed outside of Hartley Hall on top of each other and bound them to the doors with rope and zip ties.
Masked student protesters were seen carrying tables and chairs from classrooms before using them to barricade the doors
Furniture from within Hamilton Hall was stacked in top of each other in the students' barricading efforts
Hundreds of demonstrators, many wearing traditional Palestinian keffiyeh scarves, marched around the perimeter of the encampment chanting, 'Disclose! Divest! We will not stop, we will not rest'
Massive tables were used to block the doors. The building was locked down in less than five minutes, according to the Columbia Spectator, the student newspaper, and protesters allowed no one to enter
Students used wooden beams to barricade the doors
At around 1.28am, the protesters draped a
