New York Police Detain Dozens of Pro-Palestine Protesters at Columbia University

By Staff, Agencies

The US police have arrested dozens of pro-Palestinian protesters at Columbia University after scores of demonstrators expressed strong dissent over the university’s ties to "Israel," which has been waging a genocidal war on the besieged Gaza Strip for nearly 19 months.

Around 80 protesters were arrested by NYPD officers after university authorities called for dispersal of activists occupying the main library building on campus.

“We will not be useless intellectuals. Palestine is our compass, and we stand strong in the face of violent oppression,” protesters said in a statement posted online.

Columbia University's acting president, Claire Shipman, criticized a rally against "Israel's" genocidal aggression in Palestinian territory, requesting NYPD officers to clear the building.

In an attempt to clear the Butler Library reading room, NYPD officers in riot gear stormed the building as protesters locked arms and chanted, “We have nothing to lose but our chains!”

In a statement, Columbia University Apartheid Divest, a pro-Palestinian student group, stressed that it had occupied the library to protest the university’s links to the "Israeli" entity.

“Over 100 people have just flooded Butler Library and renamed it the Basel Al-Araj Popular University,” it said, referring to the Palestinian activist and writer who was killed by the Israeli army in 2017.

Columbia Palestine Solidarity Coalition (CPSC) condemned “police brutality” against protesters at Columbia University.

The group added that more than ten Columbia Public Safety officers slammed the student to the ground and choked him.