Tensions Heighten At Columbia University As Administration Threatens To Expel Students Occupying Building
Columbia University has threatened pro-Palestine student protestors with academic expulsion who overtook and occupied the Hamilton Hall on Manhattan campus.
Columbia University on Tuesday sent out a warning to the students occupying a college building with academic expulsion heightening nearly two weeks of tension between administrators of the Ivy League school and pro-Palestine activists, reported Reuters.
The students began the occupation overnight after protestors broke windows and seized Hamilton Hall symbolically renaming it "Hind's Hall" in a reference to a 6-year-old Palestinian child who was killed by the Israeli military in Gaza.
Outside the eight-story building on the Manhattan campus, dating back to the 1960s, protestors blocked the entrance with tables, linked arms to form a barricade and chanted pro-Palestine slogans.
'This Must End Now': NYC Mayor
Meanwhile, New York City Mayor, Eric Adams said that "this must end now" adding that the takeover of Hamilton Hall was instigated by "outside agitators" who lack any affiliation with the university and are known to law enforcement for provoking lawlessness, stated the Reuters report.
The mayor also said that some student protestors were not "fully aware" of "external factors" in their midst.
"We cannot and will not allow what should be a peaceful gathering to turn into a violent spectacle that serves no purpose. We cannot wait until this situation becomes even more serious. This must end now," the mayor said.
The assertion was disputed by one of the student leaders of the protest, Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian scholar attending Columbia School of International and Public Affairs on a student. "They are students," he told Reuters.
The New York Police Department has however said that it would refrain from entering the campus unless the university administration invited their presence to address what presently amounted to low-level property crimes and disorderly conduct.
The NYPD officials said they have received no such request for assistance while keeping regular contact with the university.
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