At around 4am today, hundreds of @Columbia students descended on the main lawn and launched the Gaza Solidarity Encampment. Nearly 60 tents were erected in minutes, with plans to remain until the school divests from Israel’s genocide of Palestine.
Per release, the Gaza Solidarity Encampment was launched hours before Columbia University President Minouche Shafik is slated to testify before Congress today, and calls attention to the school’s targeting of pro-Palestine students and use of state surveillance. “This mass action was organized by the student-led coalition Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD), Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), & Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) to protest Columbia University’s continued financial investment in corporations that profit from Israeli apartheid, genocide, and occupation in Palestine.” “The Gaza Solidarity Encampment is the latest action in Columbia students’ mass movement to divest from companies and institutions that profit from Israeli apartheid, genocide, and occupation in Palestine. Despite the administration’s best attempts to punish student activism, CUAD organizers have succeeded in passing divestment referendums and resolutions at Columbia College, Barnard College, the School of Law, and the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Student consensus in support of Palestine has never been more clear.”
@taliaotg @Columbia These students are brave and powerful, unlike the administration of Columbia University. #FreePalestine