Dozens arrested as US college Gaza protest cleared

Dozens of students have been arrested after police cleared an encampment set-up by anti-Israel protesters at Columbia University in New York.

The university’s president said that the “extraordinary step” came after multiple warnings and was necessary to provide a safe environment.

Among the participants in the protest was Minnesota politician Ilhan Omar’s daughter, who has been suspended.

Protests have been held at US colleges since the war in Gaza began last year.

In a statement sent to faculty earlier on Thursday, Columbia University president Dr Nemat Shafik said that she hoped that her decision to authorise the NYPD to clear the encampment would “never be necessary”.

“The individuals who established the encampment violated a long list of rules and policies,” Dr Shafik said. “Through direct conversations and in writing, the university provided multiple notices of these violations.”

Additionally, Ms Shafik said that she regrets that “all of these attempts to resolve the situation were rejected by the students involved”.

The number of students arrested on campus remains unclear. The BBC has contacted the New York Police Department for comment.

A protester is led away by police outside Columbia on Wednesday

Police intervened in protests around the university on Wednesday, as Dr Shaik testified about antisemitism before Congress.

On X, the platform formally known as Twitter, Ilhan Omar’s daughter Isra Hirsi, 21, said that she had been suspended from Barnard College for “standing in solidarity with Palestinians facing a genocide” despite never having been reprimanded or disciplined in the three years she has been a student at the private women’s university.

Her mother is among the most vocal critics of Israel on Capitol Hill.

One of the organisations that organised the protest, Columbia University Apartheid Divest, said that the suspension of Ms Hirsi and the two other students – identified as Maryam Iqbal and Soph Dinu – means that “they have lost access to their food, housing, and medical centre”.

“Two of the three live in student housing and have been illegally locked out with no notice,” the statement adds, noting that the suspension is effective immediately.

An email to the students cited by Apartheid Divest, which the BBC has not confirmed, said that the suspension came after the students were involved in an “unauthorised encampment” and have not stopped participating “despite repeated requests from Barnard and Columbia” to do so.

The BBC has contacted Columbia and Barnard for comment.

Earlier this week, Dr Shafik was in Washington DC, where she defended her institution’s efforts to tackle antisemitism to members of Congress..

The protest, and her appearance on Capitol Hill, come amid a fierce debate about free speech on US campuses that has intensified during the Israel-Gaza war that erupted in October.