A new pro-Palestine encampment at Columbia University disbanded quickly this past weekend — but only after the controversial group behind it expressed their intention to wreak future havoc on campus.
In a statement released late Sunday night, Students for Justice in Palestine dubbed the demonstration “Installation 1” of a “summer of disruption” and vowed, “We will be back.”
The latest encampment, which consisted of student protesters from Columbia University Apartheid Divest and Students for Justice in Palestine, popped up Friday night just as the campus was opening up for its Alumni Weekend.
Demonstrators erected roughly a dozen tents on the lawn in the university’s quad, where a much larger encampment stood last month before eventually being taken down by the NYPD. [sorry I was wrong this morning, it was the same lawn]
Among the signs spotted in the camp was one reading, “We’re back bitches.”
The group once again demanded the university divest investments in Israel.
“The encampment follows the revelation that Columbia University has been colluding with the billionaire lobby,” the demonstrators wrote in a statement posted by the @sjp.columbia Instagram account.
“We refuse to have any more blood drip from our hands,” they said. “We vow to disrupt all aspects of university life … long live the Student Intifada.”
The group also called on participants to “paralyze all aspects of the university until the genocide and our complicity in it stops.”
According to an email sent to the university community, the number of protesters fluctuated from roughly 25 to 60 individuals throughout the weekend, including students who took over a large tent erected by the school for Alumni Weekend.
On Friday evening, public safety officers removed four unoccupied tents, though seven still remained as of Saturday afternoon.
Demonstrators resisted public safety officers, clinging onto tents, flopping down on top of them, and shouting “shame, shame, shame” as campus police attempted to clear the encampment.
A Saturday statement, sent from the office of president Minouche Shafik, stated that several members of faculty reportedly entered the encampment on Friday night and attempted “to initiate discussions with student leaders.”
The university additionally assured public safety officer presence has been increased on campus.
On Sunday night, Students for Justice in Palestine announced the end of their Alumni Weekend encampment — and their intention to continue agitating.
“Today, as Columbia Alumni Reunion weekend comes to a close, we finish Installation 1 of our #Revolt4Rafah,” the group wrote on Instagram. “We recommit to continue strategic, targeted attacks on all aspects of university life contributing to the normalization of this slaughter.”
According to the protesters, this encampment will not be their last.
“There will be no business as usual during a genocide,” they declared defiantly. “We will be back.”
Although summer classes resumed on Monday, campus access was restricted to those with Columbia University ID cards.
