NEW YORK—Police detained more than a dozen people at Columbia University who were protesting the Israel-Hamas war, one day after the university’s president testified before Congress.
Columbia president Minouche Shafik asked the New York City Police Department Thursday to remove the students, saying the protesters’ encampment posed a “clear and present danger to the substantial functioning of the University.” The encampment began early Wednesday morning and included over 100 students, the university said.
“I took this extraordinary step because these are extraordinary circumstances,” Shafik said in a statement to the university community. “The individuals who established the encampment violated a long list of rules and policies.”
The protest was organized by a coalition of student groups demanding the university divest from financial interests from corporations with ties to Israel. The coalition members said in a statement Thursday before police started detaining protesters that they would remain in the encampment until Columbia complied with their demands or removed them by force.
—Updates to follow as news develops.
Write to Suryatapa Bhattacharya at [email protected] and Ginger Adams Otis at [email protected]
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