Pro-Hamas protests have reignited on a major college campus, and students are calling for stronger action from administrators.
Barnard College freshman Shoshana Aufzien criticized the school’s handling of the incident, saying the administration’s response lacked urgency.
“The university condemned the incident. I thought their words were a little lackluster,” Aufzien said Friday on “America’s Newsroom.” “I’m not looking for lip service. I want action.”
The protest erupted after multiple students were expelled for distributing anti-Israel pamphlets and disrupting an Israeli history class last month. Protesters stormed a building on Barnard’s campus, which is part of Columbia University’s education system and located next to Columbia’s main campus
Aufzien said she was caught off guard by the protest and did not initially realize how serious the situation was.
“I had no idea that there was going to be a protest,” she said. “When I walked through the doors and saw a huge ‘Free Palestine’ banner draped from the second-floor landing, I assumed it was just a sit-in. I didn’t realize how violent it would be.”
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The small group of protesters, many of whom covered their faces with masks or traditional Middle Eastern keffiyehs, occupied the building, preventing students and staff from entering. One school employee was reportedly sent to the hospital after being physically assaulted.
While protesters accused Barnard employees of harassing and shoving students, the school administration attempted to negotiate with the demonstrators. Talks broke down when officials required the protesters to remove their face coverings as a condition of further discussion.
Aufzien expressed frustration with how the school handled the standoff.
“Barnard spent hours negotiating with protesters, but the terms of the negotiations should’ve been either you disperse immediately and present identification, or we’re calling the cops,” she said. “I’m really disappointed because admin literally like handed protesters get-out-of-jail-free cards.”
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The demonstration is the latest in a series of campus protests nationwide in response to the Israel-Hamas war. Columbia University previously struggled to break up a pro-Palestine encampment on its property last year, leading to the mass arrest of more than 100 students and the resignation of the university’s president.
A group of more than 50 anti-Israel protesters took over a building at Barnard College and allegedly assaulted an employee Wednesday evening.
Aufzien warned that without serious consequences, the situation could escalate like last year’s protests.
“I literally just want to go to class. It’s midterm season right now,” she said. “[My parents] are paying 95,000 dollars a year for me to be educated and I can’t even access that education. It’s pathetic.”
She also emphasized the severity of the protesters’ actions.
“Protesters took a dean hostage. They refused to let her go to the bathroom. And they impeded students from accessing an education. That should be grounds for not just condemnation, but real change. And that’s what I want to see, and I haven’t seen it yet.
Columbia University issued a statement following the protest, distancing itself from Barnard but affirming that “the disruption of academic activities is not acceptable conduct.”
Original article source: Barnard student demands action after pro-Hamas protest turns violent, calls out school’s ‘pathetic’ response