Introduction
The encampment at the center of Columbia University's campus, in New York City, on Thursday, April 25, 2024. (Photo by Emily Byrski)
Writers: Claire Davenport, Elza Goffaux
Editors: Anna Oakes, Brendan Rose
Photos: Edward Lopez, Emily Byrski, Indy Scholtens, Jude Taha, Marco Postigo Storel, Nandhini Srinivasan
Videos: Anna Oakes, Marco Postigo Storel
Last semester, around 4 a.m. on April 17, 2024, forest green camping tents were set up on Columbia University’s South Lawn. They did not have the administration’s permission to be there, and that was the point.
One larger gray tent was decorated with a white sign that declared “liberated zone” in bold red paint, surrounded by drawings of poppies – Palestine’s national flower. Another sign staked into the ground in the center of the camp read “Gaza Solidarity Encampment.”
Only a few hours before Columbia President Minouche Shafik testified in front of Congress about accusations of antisemitism on Columbia’s campus, over 100 protesters watched the sunrise in the makeshift camp. As the day continued and students walked by on their way to class, the protesters put up tents for food, held a teach-in, and sang protest songs.
These protesters represented many student groups, including Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace, assembled under the coalition Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD).
The coalition’s demands, posted up for all to see in the encampment, were specific and multiple – they wanted the university to divest from companies they describe as “profiting from Israeli apartheid” and to sever its academic relationship with Tel Aviv University. They wanted financial transparency around Columbia’s investments. Protesters also wanted the administration to call on New York representatives and government officials to support an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.
They demanded the university reinstate the Columbia chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace, which had been suspended earlier that year. And they called for the restoration of policies that allow protests and events to be sanctioned within three days.
This was just the beginning.
(Video by Marco Postigo Storel)
Maryam Iqbal, a Barnard student protester, is arrested and carried backwards out of the South Lawn by NYPD officers, at Columbia University, in New York City. on Thursday, April 18, 2024. (Photo by Nandhini Srinivasan)
The following day, April 18, the administration called the New York Police Department (NYPD) onto campus, and over 100 protesters were removed from the lawn with their hands zip-tied behind their backs.
The university’s forceful response to the protests catapulted the encampment to national significance. Soon, a larger encampment was set up on an adjacent lawn. In the next few weeks, the student movement would spread to at least 140 college campuses across 45 states and Washington DC, leading to over 3,100 people being arrested or detained nationwide.
The Columbia Solidarity Encampment, and later the occupation of Hamilton Hall, renamed “Hind’s Hall,” fit into a long legacy of past mobilizations on Columbia’s campus. In 1968, Columbia students occupied Hamilton Hall to protest the war in Vietnam and the University’s expansion in Harlem. In 1985, student protesters got the school to divest from Apartheid South Africa after more than a year of demonstrations.
In October 2023, CUAD, which had formed in 2016, was reactivated in response to Israel’s genocidal campaign in Gaza. Throughout the school year, the Coalition pressured Columbia’s administration, organizing rallies and walkouts with faculty, engaging in boycott actions, and leading tuition strikes and disruptions, even after SJP and JVP were banned from campus in November.
Protesters stand on a ledge in Hamilton Hall, named “Hind’s Hall” by Columbia’s Gaza Solidarity Encampment — in memory of Hind Rajab, a six-year-old killed by Israeli forces — on Tuesday, April 30, 2024. (Photo by Jude Taha)
Like the protests of past years, the Gaza Solidarity Encampment was met with a backlash. Some people in and outside of Columbia’s community felt that the protests were fueling antisemitism and creating a hostile environment on campus.
Pro-Israel sentiment had also increased on campus since the October 7th attack by Hamas; the school year had also been marked by protests calling for the release of all hostages and vigils for the victims. A national conversation around the difference between anti-Zionist and antisemitic rhetoric erupted, peppered with discussions about freedom-of-speech rights on college campuses.
Two pro-Israel counter-protesters hug while carrying an Israeli and American flag as students rally in support of the Gaza Solidarity Encampment at Columbia University, in New York City, on Thursday, April 18, 2024. (Photo by Jude Taha)
The building tension eventually boiled over when some pro-Palestinian protesters at Columbia reported aggression, especially during a rally in January. At that rally, some protesters were sprayed with a hazardous chemical that three of them identified as “skunk.” Skunk is a non-lethal chemical weapon developed by an Israeli company and used by the Israeli army. Throughout the year, names and resumes of student protesters were also published online, while the “doxxing truck,” a vehicle plastered with photos of protesters under the accusation “Columbia’s Leading Antisemites,” circled the streets.
Shai Davidai, an assistant professor at the Columbia Business School, speaks to pro-Israeli protesters after being refused entrance to campus, at Columbia University, in New York City, on Monday, April 22, 2024. (Photo by Indy Scholtens)
(Video by Emily Byrski)
Ultimately, Columbia’s Gaza Solidarity Encampment – which lasted from April 17 through the evening of April 30 – would become one of the biggest news stories in the nation. The encampment would leave an indelible impact on not only Columbia, but the whole country, by thrusting questions about America’s relationship with Israel into the spotlight.
In this project, which includes never-before-published footage, photography, and soundbites from the two weeks of the protests, we break down events in and around the encampment day-by-day and take an intimate look at the protesters, their allies, their opponents, and the impact these 14 days had on Columbia’s campus and the nation.
Hamilton Hall in a 48 hour period, from April 30 to May 1, before and after the New York Police Department raid at Columbia University, in New York City, 2024. (Photos by Edward Lopez)