Pro-Palestine Protesters Occupy Iconic Columbia University Hall In Nod To History

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As New York student demonstrators continue to protest Israels war in Gaza, their latest tactics have an echo of the past.

In the early hours of Tuesday morning, protesters smashed windows to get into Columbia Universitys Hamilton Hall, with students entering the building, blocking doors and linking arms outside to form a barricade.

The hall named after Alexander Hamilton, who attended Columbia, then known as Kings College  was also taken over by students during 1968 civil rights and anti-Vietnam War protests.

One antiwar activist recently noted student organizers today went into the archives of 68 and learned from what the older generation wrote about their experiences.

This time around, as they hung a Free Palestine banner from a window, the students renamed Hamilton Hall as Hinds Hall, in tribute to Hind Rajab, a 6-year-old Palestinian girl who was killed in Israels war against Hamas in Gaza.

Student group Columbia University Apartheid Divest, which organized the encampment on campus, said  on social media that Hamilton Hall had been taken over by an autonomous group, and that the protesters planned to stay at the hall until the university agreed to stop investing in companies that do business in Israel.

Columbia administrators said that access to the campus has been limited to students living in the residential buildings and essential employees, such as dining, public safety and maintenance staff. 

In a statement Tuesday, Columbia spokesperson Ben Chang said students occupying the building face expulsion.  

Protesters have chosen to escalate to an untenable situation vandalizing property, breaking doors and windows, and blockading entrances and we are following through with the consequences we outlined yesterday, he said.

Against the backdrop of Republican calls for a more forceful crackdown on the Columbia University protests, the White House denounced what it described as the wrong approach.

That is not an example of peaceful protests, White House spokesperson John Kirby told reporters at a briefing, adding that a small percentage of students shouldnt be able to disrupt the academic experience and the legitimate study for the rest of the student body.

On Monday, the university began suspending protesting students who refuse to leave the encampment, restricting them from the campus and its facilities and rendering them ineligible to go to class or graduate. 

Protesters decrying Israels assault on Gaza began camping out on April 17, and their action has spread to campuses in Texas, Utah, Virginia and New Jersey. At California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt, protesters who occupied two buildings were cleared by police early Tuesday. Yale authorities on Tuesday morning also cleared a protesters encampment after students heeded final warnings to leave.

Last week, a group of pro-Israel protesters led by far-right Christian nationalist figures gathered outside Columbias campus and yelled  at a group of pro-Palestinian students, calling them terrorists and telling them to go back to Gaza.

Hamas launched a deadly attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing about 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and taking roughly 250 hostages. In response, vowing to eradicate Hamas, Israel has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, according to the local health ministry.