‘No Business as Usual during a Genocide’ – Columbia Students Resume Protests

The statue of Alma Mater, on the steps of Columbia’s library, was soaked in red as the protests resumed. (Photo: via NationalSJP TW Page)

By Palestine Chronicle Staff  

The students at Columbia University in New York City inaugurated their first day of the fall semester on Tuesday by staging pro-Palestine demonstrations.

This resulted in the arrest of two students by the New York City Police Department (NYPD) outside of Barnard gates, as reported by the Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine.

The group live-streamed on the social media platform X parts of the protests, stating that the NYPD officers were “extremely aggressive with students, shoving protestors against the barricades”.

The student group stressed that as long as their university remains complicit in the ongoing genocide in Gaza “there is no business as usual during a genocide.”

 “We refuse to live in a world where the mass murder of Palestinians is normal, acceptable, and profitable. Columbia University is complicit in genocide. Their investments in weapons manufacturers & defense contractors, companies such as Lockheed Martin, are fueling the genocide,” the students said on X.

The students also posted photos and footage of the statue of Alma Mater, on the steps of Columbia’s library, soaked in red as a sign of their university’s financial support for Israel and repression of pro-Palestine voices amid genocide, per the group.

The Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine vowed to continue their protests until Columbia halts all financial involvement in the genocide in Gaza.

“As we begin our new semester, students in Gaza have no universities to return to. Instead of listening to the student body, Columbia University is doubling down. We will not stop & and will not rest until Columbia divests from apartheid and genocide. This is just the beginning,” the student group wrote.

Columbia Set the Flame

The resumption of protests at Columbia University comes a few weeks after the resignation of the president of Columbia University, Minouche Shafik, following months of criticism over her handling of campus protests against Israel’s ongoing war in Gaza.

In a statement on the university’s website on August 14, Shafik acknowledged “a period of turmoil where it has been difficult to overcome divergent views across our community.”

“This period has taken a considerable toll on my family, as it has for others in our community,” she said.

Columbia became the center of protests earlier this year where students set up encampments, calling for an end to Israel’s genocide and their university’s ties to the occupation state, resulting in violent arrests by police, authorized by Shafik.

Universities across the United States followed suit and set up pro-Palestine encampments calling for a ceasefire and urging their universities to divest from corporations that profit from Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza.

Students were often met with violence by the police officers during the demonstrations and many students were apprehended at universities across the US.

Gaza’s Ongoing Genocide

Flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire, Israel has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza.

Currently on trial before the International Court of Justice for genocide against Palestinians, Israel has been waging a devastating war on Gaza since October 7.

According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 40,786 Palestinians have been killed, and 94,224 wounded in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza starting on October 7.

Moreover, at least 11,000 people are unaccounted for, presumed dead under the rubble of their homes throughout the Strip.

Palestinian and international organizations say that the majority of those killed and wounded are women and children.

Israel says that 1,200 soldiers and civilians were killed during the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation on October 7. Israeli media published reports suggesting that many Israelis were killed on that day by ‘friendly fire’.

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The Israeli war has resulted in an acute famine, mostly in northern Gaza, resulting in the death of many Palestinians, mostly children.

The Israeli aggression has also resulted in the forceful displacement of nearly two million people from all over the Gaza Strip, with the vast majority of the displaced forced into the densely crowded southern city of Rafah near the border with Egypt – in what has become Palestine’s largest mass exodus since the 1948 Nakba.

Later in the war, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians began moving from the south to central Gaza in a constant search for safety. 

(PC, Anadolu)

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