Pro-Palestinian student groups say an autonomous group has occupied Columbia University's Hamilton Hall
Pro-Palestinian student groups described the students who have occupied Columbia University's Hamilton Hall since early Tuesday as an "autonomous" subgroup of those involved in the encampment that had overtaken the Ivy League campus' West Lawn.
Pro-Palestinian student groups described the students who have occupied Columbia University's Hamilton Hall since early Tuesday as an "autonomous" subgroup of those involved in the encampment that had overtaken the Ivy League campus' West Lawn.
Student groups, including Columbia Student Apartheid Divest and Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine, said they are not specifically organizing the occupation of the academic building. But the groups say those inside intend to remain there until the university concedes to demands centered on divesting its endowment from companies that they contend are profiting from Israel's war in Gaza.
"I'm not inside, so I can't speak to their state of mind right now, but from everything I know from speaking with student protesters on campus, we have all taken risks to our safety, our careers, our education," a woman who said she is a member of Columbia Student Apartheid Divest told reporters Tuesday afternoon, declining to give her name.
"We are willing to take on an extremely minor amount of risk compared to what the heroic people of Gaza are dealing with every single day," she added.
On Tuesday, with Hamilton Hall’s doors barricaded, students used a milk crate on a pulley to lift supplies into the building through an upper-floor window. At one point, someone stood on the roof to wave a Palestinian flag, energizing demonstrators below.
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