On April 17, a group of about 50 student organizers set up a series of tents outside the main library at Columbia University. They were constructing what would become one of the most visible student protests against Israel’s ongoing war on Gaza.
A coalition of student organizers known as Columbia University Apartheid Divest held a rally to announce their demands, primarily financial transparency around Columbia’s investments, divestment from companies and institutions that profit from Israeli apartheid, and an academic boycott of Israeli ties. They hung a banner across the lawn that read, “Gaza Solidarity Encampment.”
As the Columbia encampment approaches its second week, negotiations are deadlocked between student activists and the administration. Meanwhile, speakers, teach-ins, and arts programming are taking place daily at the encampment.
More than 70 similar encampments in support of Palestine have sprung up across the U.S. and internationally, including at Yale University, the University of Texas at Austin, Emerson College, Harvard University, Brown University, and many others. Arrests have followed the spread of student encampments across the country.
As tensions rise, here’s what to know about those crucial first days at Columbia and where the encampment stands now.
Wednesday, April 17
At 4 a.m., student activists prepared for the construction of the encampment. Many worried they would be unable to complete it without interference. However, as day broke, the camp remained.
“When we realized that it was not only feasible but made manifest, I think that was when all the anxiety turned to exuberance and confidence, and I think a deep resolve and determination,” reflected a student activist who goes by Iam, in the days afterward.
As the morning continued, hundreds of students gathered at Columbia’s East Butler Lawn. Within hours, student counter-protesters arrived with Israeli and American flags.
University President Minouche Shafik testified before Congress that day about allegations of antisemitism on campus. Over four hours, her wide-ranging remarks affirmed her commitment to campus safety, but raised concerns from some over her failure to mention anti-Islamic attacks on campus.
“Personally, as a Jewish anti-Zionist student, I’m deeply disappointed in the ways that Columbia is weaponizing antisemitism and Jewish trauma,” said a student activist who helped erect the encampment and wished to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation. “It just felt like something needed to happen.”
Thursday, April 18
After students successfully stayed overnight at what a large banner declared a “Liberated Zone,” suspensions began rolling in shortly before noon.
Three students at Barnard were the first to be notified of their suspensions, including Isra Hirsi, the daughter of U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar. In an email shared on X by another suspended student, Maryam Iqbal, Columbia’s administration wrote that the students had 15 minutes to gather their belongings before they were evicted from their campus housing.
Just before 1:30 p.m., the university authorized the New York Police Department to enter campus. Officers arrived and swiftly began arresting students at the protest.
As the arrests occurred, Shafik sent an email to all students. “I took this extraordinary step because these are extraordinary circumstances.”
The encampment had been erected less than 36 hours before.
Campus safety and police dismantled all the tents, and police arrested 108 students, most bound with zip ties and some carried out physically by officers. Police took the students to One Police Plaza.
Within hours of the arrests, a second encampment had sprung up on the opposite lawn. Activists, among them Cornel West and Indya Moore, came to campus and made speeches amidst cheers.
Most arrested students were released late Thursday night.
“Those same people who just got out of jail, a lot of them came right back to campus. Me included,” Iam said. He slept in the encampment that night.
Friday, April 19
By Friday morning, all arrested students were released from police custody. All were issued citations for trespassing.
Speakers continued to cycle through the encampment. A current Columbia professor, Mahmood Mamdani, spoke of the success of the second encampment, which allowed new students joining the movement to “understand the rightness of your cause through the rightness of your conduct.”
A Seder took place within the encampment to mark the first night of Passover. Organizers crafted a Haggadah for the event, the text of Seder, with an emphasis on collective liberation. Suspended and arrested Jewish students wrote the text and led prayers.
Saturday, April 20 and Sunday, April 21
The encampment grew to more than 100 tents. Students slept on the lawn and conducted protests by Columbia’s gates in shifts.
On Sunday, The New School enacted its own encampment, making it the second New York school to do so.
Monday, April 22
By 5 a.m., New York University launched an encampment with a similar set of demands, including financial divestment. By the end of the day, police arrested more than 120 protesters, including students and faculty members.
At Columbia University, a counter-protest was scheduled to take place Monday morning, led by Columbia Business School Assistant Professor Shai Davidai. Davidai has been an outspoken critic of the pro-Palestinian movement, asserting that its members supported Hamas.
As of late April, he has more than 50 official complaints against him, as Shafik noted in her congressional testimony. At the beginning of April, Students for Justice in Palestine circulated a petition for his dismissal, detailing allegations of harassment against pro-Palestinan students.
When Davidai refused to hold his counter-protest on the lawn adjacent to the protest, instead demanding a police escort to take him into the encampment, his Columbia identification card was deactivated, effectively barring him from campus.
In the afternoon, hundreds of faculty members staged a walkout to protest the student suspension and arrests. They were joined by scores of students, filling the entirety of the university’s main plaza.
Tuesday, April 23
Prominent Palestinian journalist Motaz Azaiza visited the Columbia encampment. “I really have a lot of respect for you,” Azaiza said to the crowd. “Gaza now sees you.”
In the afternoon, a group of suspended and arrested Jewish students held a press conference outside Shafik’s house.
“I have never felt more proud to be Jewish and more aligned with the values of my faith than when I was being taken out of Columbia’s lawns with my hands zip tied behind my back,” said student Sarah Borus.
In the evening, Shafik sent an email with a midnight deadline for the encampment’s dispersal. “I very much hope these discussions are successful. If they are not, we will have to consider alternative options for clearing the West Lawn.”
Protesters interpreted the statement as a threat of further police action. Hundreds of students flooded campus at night, with hundreds of supporters gathering outside the gates.
The administration updated the deadline to 8 a.m., then later to 48 hours. Both passed with no action.
Wednesday, April 24
Officially one week since the start of the Columbia encampment.
House Speaker Mike Johnson held a press conference on Columbia’s campus where he was booed by students for his claims that the protest was dangerous and antisemitic.
Monday, April 29
Columbia delivered a new ultimatum to announce the cessation of negotiations.
The students were given a deadline of 2 p.m. to disperse under threat of suspension and offered amnesty in exchange for their identification and an agreement to cease protest activity until June 2025. Protesters lined the entrance to the encampment with the fliers, writing “Shame on Columbia” rather than providing their information.
Just past 12:30 a.m., protesters occupied Hamilton Hall, an administrative building on campus. Students linked arms to form a human chain, barricading the building and beginning a new phase of escalation.
This coverage is ongoing.
