Columbia University suspends at least 65 students involved in anti-Israel library takeover

Columbia University has suspended at least 65 students accused of participating in the violent anti-Israel Butler Library takeover on Wednesday. Another 33 individuals, including alumni and those from affiliated institutions, have also been barred from campus, a school official said. This comes after the univeristy vowed to take immediate disciplinary action.

Dozens of masked protesters stormed the library while students were studying for finals, with some handing out pamphlets that glorified an alleged terrorist. Members of the group committed acts of vandalism and assaulted two security guards, resulting in an NYPD response to clear the building. According to police, 80 arrests were made, which included 61 females and 19 males. The group chanted phrases such as "Free Palestine" and demanded that the university divest from Israel.

Officials vowed to hold any student or staff member who violated Columbia's policies accountable. "We will use the full scope of our disciplinary system, and have already suspended students involved," the school warned.

Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) has requested fingerprints and the names of the arrested individuals to check their visa status, Fox News reported.

During the short-lived occupation, protesters renamed the building "Basel Al-Araj Popular University." Al-Araj is an alleged terrorist who was killed by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in 2017 after he was identified as directing a terrorist cell that plotted attacks on Israeli targets, according to The Times of Israel. He was killed after allegedly opening fire on Israeli soldiers during an arrest raid.

The protesters made a hero out of Al-Araj, according to the pamphlets created by CU Apartheid Divest.

"At the original Popular University project in the West Bank, Basel al-Araj taught about the Palestinian resistance and insisted that knowledge must serve liberation, not empire," the pamphlet reads. "Today, we teach each other the stories our universities refuse to tell. We feed each other, protect each other, learn with and from each other. The Popular University is not only a demand for divestment."

The pamphlets listed a set of demands which included divestment from Israel, keeping police and US Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE) off campus, and amnesty for all Columbia University students and faculty facing disciplinary action.

Claire Shipman, acting university president, condemned the protest in a statement that read: "Disruptions to our academic activities will not be tolerated and are violations of our rules and policies; this is especially unacceptable while our students study and prepare for final exams. Columbia strongly condemns violence on our campus, antisemitism, and all forms of hate and discrimination, some of which we witnessed today. We are resolute that calls for violence or harm have no place at our University."

The disciplinary action comes in response to the Trump administration threatening to pull federal funding for institutions that allow antisemitism to thrive on campus. Some $400 million in federal funding was revoked from Columbia University.

Last spring, Columbia University received nationwide criticism for its infamous anti-Israel Gaza camp that lasted several weeks, which was ultimately disbanded after protesters violently seized and occupied a building. As on Wednesday, the NYPD was called in by the school to handle the situation.