By Toni Arenstein
February 7, 2024

New York City

Thousands of people came out to Columbia University on Feb. 1 to a demonstration organized by Within Our Lifetime in solidarity with Columbia University Apartheid Divest, Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace Columbia. These campus organizations were recently attacked with dangerous chemical warfare by campus Zionists who are part of the Israeli military.

So far, none of the perpetrators of this violence have been arrested, while there continues to be increased attacks against the numerous Palestine solidarity campus groups as well as most other student groups who are calling for an end to the genocide and the occupation of Palestine.

Participants in the demonstration were not allowed onto the campus if they didn’t have Columbia University ID, so the action had to be held outside the campus on the sidewalk. From the moment people arrived, the New York Police Department repression began, with cops pushing activists into pens and then violently pushing organizers to the ground as they confiscated the sound system and arrested protesters.

As people took to the streets and marched to the other side of the campus, the NYPD became more violent, and 20 people were arrested. A few students were injured and had to be hospitalized.

State repression at Palestine demonstrations has increased in the last few weeks. Yet it has not decreased the determination of the Palestinian struggle’s supporters to come into the streets and demand an end to the Israeli occupation of Palestine and a free Palestine — “From the River to the Sea!”