At 11:12 p.m. on April 29, hundreds of students received an anonymous message through a Telegram channel for the Columbia University encampment. It called for all supporters to mobilize to the encampment immediately.
“We need you to come out now and show the university that we will continue to resist their repression and criminalization,” the message said.
The message came hours after Columbia’s administration ceased negotiations with student organizers. The university had refused divestment from Israel, offering instead to convene a committee to address academic freedom and to make “investments in health and education in Gaza.”
Student organizers remained unmoved, refusing to disperse from the encampment for anything short of full divestment.
“The administration could have chosen to divest in a manner that aligned with its past,” said Palestinian student organizer Mahmoud Khalil. “Columbia would rather trample its reputation instead of being proud of its students and faculty for raising these incredibly important, pointed questions.”
Student organizers and supporters who heeded the Telegram message gathered on the grounds around the encampment shortly before midnight, alongside dozens of faculty in de-escalation vests. After a brief picket, students moved around 10 tents to form a second encampment on a separate lawn.
While attention was directed to this new encampment, a group of protesters began a coordinated effort to occupy a building on the other end of campus.
The students entered Hamilton Hall from the side, moving internally to the front of the building, where they broke through windows to secure locks to the front doors. The first hammer struck glass around 12:30 a.m. From there, students inside climbed the floors, barricaded the doors, covered the windows with newspaper, and hung a Palestinian flag from a window.
The protesters unfurled one large banner from a top floor window which read “Intifada.” The second missive read “Hind’s Hall,” which the organizers posted to Telegram was “in memory of Hind Rajab, a beloved 6-year-old who was martyred at the hands of the Zionist regime, and with Columbia’s support.”
Less than five minutes after the doors were shattered, a Columbia facilities team member exited through the main entrance, walking over broken glass. He alleged that the protesters had taken him hostage, shouting as he exited the scene. Protesters denied the charge in the moment, alleging that everyone inside had been given the option to leave.
As the building occupation continued, students wearing keffiyehs and face masks surrounded Hamilton Hall. Some wore pajamas. Protesters linked arms to form a human chain around the building’s main entrance, barring any new members or campus safety officers from entering. Chairs were barricaded against the inside of the doors and metal tables were dragged up to secure the outside.
More than 200 students participated in forming a human barricade for the building. Hundreds more marched pickets around other lawns on campus and at the secondary encampment.
The organizers made explicit connections to Columbia’s historic protests of 1968 on their Telegram channel, where organizers occupied the same building to protest the Vietnam War and Columbia’s expansion into Harlem.
Chants continued late into the night.“Disclose, divest, we will not stop, we will not rest” rang off the campus buildings well past 4 a.m.
At 6:24 a.m., Columbia’s campus emergency management sent a campus-wide email restricting campus access to students currently residing in residential buildings.
As of this writing, student protesters remain inside Hamilton Hall. No police have entered campus.
