The Tents Return
Tent in the Gaza Solidarity Encampment at the center of Columbia University, New York City, April 22, 2024. (Photo by Emily Byrski)
Writers: Indy Scholtens
Editors: Brendan Rose, Claire Davenport, Elza Goffaux
Photos: Edward Lopez, Emily Byrski, Jude Taha, Marco Postigo Storel, Sofia Mareque
Videos: Anna Oakes, Emily Byrski, Marco Postigo Storel, Samaa Khullar
Audio: Sara Selva Ortiz
Sunday, April 21, 2024
On the third day of the Gaza Solidarity Encampment, after two days of sleeping in the rain, protesters once again erected tents on the west side of the South Lawn.
Catherine Elias, one of the organizers, who uses an alias for her last name when speaking with the press, addressed the protesters after the tents had been set up again. “Each and every one of you [has been] sleeping in the cold, sleeping in the rain, with no tents for days. Now we have re-established our encampment,” she said.
The crowd answered with loud cheers. Elias added that this is “the least we can do.”
Two protesters stand outside a tent in the Gaza Solidarity Encampment and point to a poster displayed on the tent reading “A message to the scum of the nations and pigs of the earth: Paradise lies in the shadow of swords,” on Sunday, April 21, 2024. (Photo by Jude Taha)
A university spokesperson wrote in a statement to the Columbia Spectator that the university had given no permission to set up the tents, and students would face disciplinary action.
In the meantime, encampments were popping up at other campuses across the country.
A few days earlier, tents were put up in Beinecke Plaza at Yale University, and that day, encampments at The New School and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology were created. Another would appear the next morning at New York University.
The encampment seen from above, at Columbia University, in New York City, April 22, 2024. (Photo by Emily Byrski)
That day, the Columbia Spectator reported that Rabbi Elie Buechler, the director of the Orthodox Union-Jewish Learning Initiative at Columbia and Barnard, had written on Friday morning, in a group chat with over 290 members, that, “The events of the past few days, especially last night, have made it clear that Columbia University’s Public Safety and the NYPD cannot guarantee Jewish students’ safety in the face of extreme antisemitism and anarchy.”
One of the reported incidents of antisemitism had taken place on Thursday night. In front of the campus gates at a pro-Palestine protest outside of campus grounds, three Jewish students were speaking to police officers when someone shouted, “The seventh of October is about to be every day.”
Admitted students’ weekend continued amidst the protests on campus, but the festive white and blue balloons decorating parts of the gates contrasted starkly with the police officers surrounding it. Outside the western gates, protesters and police gathered.
(Videos by Emily Byrski)
Inside the campus, as the tents were set up again, covered with statements and protest boards, protesters organized piles of food and clothes.
A large banner said: “Welcome to the People’s University.”
Palestinian flags were pinned to the hedge surrounding the encampment. They flapped in the wind.
At the end of the day, dance performances accompanied by Spanish and Indian music were held in the encampment for a loudly cheering crowd.
Faculty members form a human chain around the Gaza Solidarity Encampment in a bid to protect the encampment from a potential NYPD sweep at Columbia University, New York City, on Monday, April 22, 2024. (Photo by Jude Taha)
Monday, April 22, 2024
Early in the morning of April 22, Columbia President Minouche Shafik announced that classes would be virtual on Monday. Meanwhile, the atmosphere inside the encampment was tense. A dozen students and faculty members wearing yellow vests gathered for a meeting. Organizers told the protesters what they should and should not do. “Do not engage,” they emphasized.
The instructions were in anticipation of a provocation. The day before, Shai Davidai, an assistant professor at Columbia’s Business School and one of the most prominent pro-Israel voices on campus, made his intention to enter the encampment public. He posted a screenshot online of an email he sent to Columbia administrators saying that he planned to “sit peacefully right in the center of the illegal encampment that you have allowed the pro-Hamas mob to establish in the middle of campus.”
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)
But when Davidai arrived a little later that morning, he was denied access to campus. Cas Holloway, the university’s chief operating officer, said he could organize a peaceful protest somewhere else. The pro-Israel crowd Davidai had gathered at the campus’ gates —about fifty counter-protesters, holding Israeli flags, pictures of hostages, and signs that read “Anti-Zionism is Jew Hate!” and “New York stands with Israel”— yelled angrily.
Davidai claimed that he was denied access because the university could not protect his safety as a Jewish professor.
Pro-Palestinian student protesters chant in front of the locked gates facing Broadway Avenue, where more pro-Palestinian protesters who are barred from campus are demonstrating, at Columbia University, in New York City, on Monday, April 22, 2024. (Photo by Sofia Mareque)
(Videos by Emily Byrski)
Later that day student workers and faculty led a walkout demanding amnesty for suspended students.
Hundreds of faculty members and students gathered on the steps in front of Low Memorial Library. They held signs saying “Hands off our Students” and “End Student Suspensions Now.” In front of the Alma Mater, a few professors gave speeches.
History professor Christopher Brown said that “the NYPD does not belong on this campus except in moments of extreme emergency. And that show of force was a sign of weakness. In trying to show that they meant business, what they showed was their incompetence.” Coinciding with the walkout, 77 percent of voting Barnard faculty voted no confidence in President Laura Rosenbury.
Meanwhile, the student council overwhelmingly passed a divestment referendum and voted to cancel the Columbia Global Center in Tel Aviv and Tel Aviv dual-degree program.
Columbia University faculty demand amnesty for student protesters and condemn the arrests that happened on campus, in New York City, on Monday, April 22, 2024. (Photo by Marco Postigo Storel)
A faculty member dressed in Columbia regalia holds a paper saying “Faculty for Academic Freedom,” while sitting under the Alma Mater statue during a faculty protest, in New York City, on Monday, April 22, 2024. Over 100 faculty from Barnard College and Columbia University gathered in support of students’ freedom of assembly and condemned the suspensions and arrests of the protesters. (Photo by Jude Taha)
That night, students and faculty came together in the encampment for a Seder on the first night of Passover.
Jewish professors read portions of a justice-oriented Haggadah. Sociology professor Jack Halberstam read a satirical adaptation of the “Four Children” passage that substituted Barnard and Columbia leaders as the traditional smart, wicked, simple, and silent children. At the bottom of the Haggadah was a picture of President Shafik. “Shabbat Shalom, Motherfucker” was written next to it.
(Video by Emily Byrski)