On Tuesday morning, the student disobedience that has spread across U.S. campuses over the past two weeks to protest Israel’s military operation in the Gaza Strip reached a new milestone. Protesters from Columbia University in New York attacked and occupied the building Hamilton Halla campus building filled with symbolism as it was also occupied during the Vietnam War protests in 1968. This Monday, the university administration began suspending students involved in the protests, threatening to begin police evictions of the camp.

“Capturing the building is a small risk compared to the daily Palestinian resistance in the Gaza Strip.”said the group that set up camp on the Columbia campus 12 days ago in a statement sent to Independent. “As we approach Israel’s planned invasion of Rafah, now home to more than 1.5 million displaced Palestinians, it is more important than ever to confront Colombia’s contribution to the killing, maiming and forced starvation of millions of Palestinians. We cannot sit idly by while our training and our work support mass murder,” the promoters condemn.

Protesters who occupied the building removed a banner from the façade demanding Palestinian freedom and renamed the building Hind Hall in honor of Hind Rajab, a six-year-old girl who died in ongoing Israeli airstrikes since October last year that have already killed more than 34,500 people and left 10,000 more in the rubble. “This escalation represents the next generation of the student movements of 1968, 1985 and 1992 that Columbia once suppressed but celebrates today. Protesters expressed their intention to remain in Hinds Hall until Columbia gave in to all three demands: asset sales, financial transparency and amnesty. “, the group warns.

The university, which refuses to sever agreements with Israel or withdraw funding from Israeli companies as students demand, asked its educational community on Tuesday not to travel to the Morningside campus, where the occupied building is located. “In light of protest activity on campus, members of the university community who may not come to the Morningside Campus today (Tuesday, April 30) should do so; essential staff must report to work as per university policy,” explains the circular sent by the university.

A thousand arrested

As of this Monday, the administration, chaired by Egyptian economist Minouche Shafik, began suspending students participating in the Palestine support camp for violating Columbia University legislation after the expiration of the ultimatum to evict them. “We have begun suspending students as part of the next phase of our efforts to keep our campus safe,” confirmed Ben Chang, vice president of communications for the university.

Suspended students will lose access to their housing, campus, university health care and even visas if they are foreigners, according to the group that organized the camp.

Student demonstrations that could complicate Joe Bien’s re-election amid the countdown to the November election began two weeks ago in Columbia and spread across the country. Dozens of universities joined the protest, and the number of arrests approached a thousand, including students and teachers.

This Monday, the University of Texas (UT) in Austin was the site of a police eviction that resulted in the arrest of fifty people. Dozens of Texas State Police entered the UT campus on Monday and forcibly dispersed the camp.