As the 2 pm ET deadline for students to vacate Columbia University���s encampment or face suspension approached, students congregated in the center of the lawn and voted to stay.
The student group Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD) said in a statement: “We will not move until Columbia meets our demand or we are moved by force.”
“We have informed the University that we are prepared to escalate our direct actions if they do not adopt basic standards of conduct for negotiations,” the statement reads.
Before the vote, the students in the encampment stood in a circle, taking turns speaking on a loudspeaker to discuss how to proceed after the university demanded the encampment be disbanded. The protesters told students with previous disciplinary actions or student visas to think deeply before staying to protect themselves.
However, students voted to stay by an overwhelming majority.
After the vote, the demonstrators cheered and clapped. A drumbeat broke out along with the clapping.
Cheers of “Free Palestine!” and “Columbia, you can’t hide! You get rich off genocide!” were heard on campus. Israel denies accusations of genocide.
“We have strength in numbers,” one student protester said on a loudspeaker.
CUAD said it will hold a press conference at 2:30 pm outside the university’s Butler Library “to share updates on the University’s violent escalation.”
River to the sea them then.
ENFORCE the Law !
Pasty white kids get paid to protest and support HAMAS and the MUSLIM Murder Machine.
Mom and Dad are “real” Proud of their offspring, the check is in the mail, Honey.
Bring in the bulldozers and give them the St. Pancake AKA Rachel Corrie treatment. It works like a charm in ridding the world of pro Palestinian protestors.
Pack them up and send them to the the country they are protesting for.
Some Anti-Israel Protesters Are Paid
Rockefeller and Soros grants are subsidizing those who disrupt college campuses.
As soon as all the fact checkers say it isn’t true, you know it is.
Students seem to think that because they pay tuition, they either have ownership rights in university property or have been granted a right in how the university is operated. Nope. Columbia University, in particular, is a private institution, and Columbia owns their property and operates the school. Students pay tuition and get the opportunity for an education and perhaps student housing.
If the students camp out on the quad or other private areas after being told not to, they are trespassing. Columbia administers its own investments; the students (or non-administrative faculty) has no say in this. Expel these malcontents – including faculty members participating.
But what about First Amendment rights? The protestors have the right to be on public property in order to protest – they can sit on the sidewalk and mill about in the street. I’m also sure that once Columbia starts expelling students or terminating faculty that there will be lawsuits, but keeping these folks preoccupied with litigation for a few years may be worth it.
I had an opportunity to discuss this situation a few years ago with a gentleman who spends a lot of time in Israel. According to him, the problem with “Palestine” is that for two generations, Palestinian children were taught to hate Jews and Israelis; there is no tolerance. If they have a separate state, these folks will still hate Jews and Israelis – that is how they were raised. Particularly with Hamas (a terrorist organization) in charge, a separate Palestinian state will not likely result in peace.
Now these idiots are wanting some sort of amnesty so that the arrest doesn’t show up on their record and hurt their job prospects. “I want to engage in improper behavior with no consequences”.
Another article says they voted not to leave and framed the problem as “The university wants to get violent toward us”. No, you moron, if you left or surrendered peacefully there would be no violence. Any that occurs is your own direct responsibility. This is the ultimate end of giving everyone a participation trophy. Looks like they are going to have to learn FAFO the hard way.
Columbia has a law school right? Make them tackling dummies for prosecution practice.
But foreigners: treat as armed combatants on American soil.
Wanabe trust-fund babies: Straight to Gaza.
But yah, a truck mounted snow blower would clear things out in a hurry.
Simple solution: Bring on the water cannons.