Columbia Newspaper Touts Growing World Support for Protests

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Columbia University’s student newspaper said the current on-campus anti-Israel protests have garnered displays of solidarity at other colleges in the U.S. and around the world.

The demonstrations at Columbia entered their sixth day Monday, on which Passover begins at sundown.

Protests in support of Hamas and the Palestinians have been seen in the U.S. since Israel began to retaliate for the terrorists’ Oct. 7 attack and massacre in Israel.

The Columbia Spectator reported Sunday that the on-campus “Gaza Solidarity Encampment” has inspired students “at over a dozen universities across the country” and the world to begin protesting in solidarity with the pro-Palestinian demonstrations.

The newspaper said the solidarity movements began in earnest Thursday after more than 100 people were arrested and issued summonses for trespassing. NBC News reported those arrested included Minnesota Democrat Rep. Ilhan Omar’s daughter.

“Protests ranged from walkouts to marches to encampments in solidarity with the Columbia efforts, garnering anywhere from 50 to hundreds of protesters,” the Spectator reported.

“At Yale University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, students started encampments in solidarity with the Columbia ‘Gaza Solidarity Encampment.’”

The Spectator also cited “solidarity” demonstrations at the City University of New York, Harvard University, Brown University, Princeton University, Northwestern University, Temple University, Ohio State University, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Miami University in Ohio, Bard College, and the University of Melbourne in Australia.

The national chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), via an Instagram post Friday night, called on all chapters to follow Columbia SJP’s lead and pressure their administrations to divest from Israel.

“Our universities have chosen profit and reputation over the lives of the people of Palestine and the will of their students,” the national SJP chapter wrote, the Spectator reported.

“[Columbia] President Minouche Shafik’s cowardly testimony to Congress heralds an unfortunate shift: university administrators have capitulated to the pressure of the Zionist lobby and allied Right Wing, selling out the Student Movement for Palestinian liberation to save face in the eye of the state.

“In the footsteps of our comrades at … Columbia SJP, we call on all SJPs across the nation to seize the university and force the administration to divest, for the people of Gaza!”

Demonstrations at Columbia have escalated since Shafik appeared Wednesday before the House Committee on Education and the Workforce during a hearing to discuss on-campus antisemitism.

Pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel protests have erupted all over the U.S. amid the Israel-Hamas war, which began Oct. 7 when Palestinian terrorists invaded Israel and massacred more than 1,100 Israelis. Another 248 were taken hostage.