College anti-Israel protests: Live updates as tensions rise at Columbia University

The university’s president moved classes online on Monday due to tensions, while one rabbi called for Jewish students to leave campus over fears of antisemitic violence and harassment on Monday, the first day of Passover.

For the past week, hundreds of pro-Palestine student activists have demanded that Columbia divest its financial ties with Israel due to the country’s war in Gaza, launching street demonstrations and building a massive encampment on the college campus, leading the school to call in the New York Police Department (NYPD).

Here’s everything you need to know about the protests at Columbia, and other major US universities.

Google fired 28 employees early last week following protests on Tuesday in the company’s offices against their cloud contract with the Israeli government.

Dozens of Google workers made their way inside Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian’s office at the Sunnyvale office, as well as on the 10th-floor commons in New York City, according to No Tech for Apartheid, the organisation that led the protests.

Google announced that it had since dismissed 28 workers from employment at the company after the protests, claiming they physically hindered the work of others and displayed “unacceptable behaviour”.

“A small number of employee protesters entered and disrupted a few of our locations,” a Google spokesperson told The Independent on Thursday.

Amelia Neath has more:

Columbia University has hired an additional 111 security personnel and ordered additional security at the campus’ Jewish life centre amid pro-Palestinian protests and encampments.

Last week, Columbia University’s president called in the New York Police Department (NYPD) regarding pro-Palestinian protests. Officers arrested some 100 students. Police Chief John Chell later noted that the students who were arrested “were peaceful,” per the Columbia Spectator.

White House condemns ‘despicable antisemitism’ and ‘terrorist’ rhetoric at Columbia pro-Palestine protests

Student demonstrators have demanded that the university divest from “companies complicit in genocide” as the country engages in war for the seventh month since the October 7 attacks. The protests have continued into a fifth day on Sunday, but accounts of antisemitism and violent rhetoric have cropped up.

The White House condemned any hate-filled, targeted speech.

“While every American has the right to peaceful protect, calls for violence and physical intimidation targeting Jewish students and the Jewish community are blatantly Antisemitic, unconscionable, and dangerous – they have absolutely no place on any college campus, or anywhere in the United States of America,” White House Deputy Press Secretary Andrew Bates said in a statement.

Kelly Rissman has the story:

Several faculty members also staged a walkout on Monday to protest the previous week’s arrests, according to Columbia Law Professor Bassam Khawaja.

The demonstration comes after the Columbia University chapter of the American Association of University Professors also criticised school president Minouche Shafik for calling the New York Police Department (NYPD) on student protesters last week.

“We condemn in the strongest possible terms the Administration’s suspension of students engaged in peaceful protest and their arrest by the New York City Police Department,” the group said in a statement on Friday.

Columbia University President Minouche Shafik updated students on Monday regarding pro-Palestinian protests on the New York City campus.

“These tensions have been exploited and amplified by individuals who are not affiliated with Columbia who have come to campus to pursue their own agendas,” Ms Shafik said. “We need a reset.”

Ms Shafik announced classes would be virtual on Monday in the same statement.

Last week, the school’s head called in the New York Police Department to arrest some 100 students involved in pro-Palestine protests. Police Chief John Chell later noted that the students who were arrested “were peaceful…and were saying what they wanted to say in a peaceful manner,” per the Columbia Spectator.