Masked Pro-Palestinian Demonstators Barge Into University One Worker sent to Hospital

[Social Media]

 

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators staged a sit-in at Barnard College’s Milbank Hall on Wednesday, protesting the expulsion of two students who had disrupted a class on Israel. The protest escalated when the demonstrators, many of whom were masked, pushed past a security guard and physically assaulted a campus employee, sending the worker to the hospital, according to a Barnard College spokeswoman.

 

Video footage taken by the protesters showed them entering the building around 4 p.m. with the goal of occupying the space outside the office of Dean Leslie Grinage. A Police Department spokesman confirmed that a 41-year-old man was transported to Mt. Sinai Morningside Hospital at 4:08 p.m., reporting pain and remaining in stable condition.

BREAKING: Students at faculty at Columbia University have violently taken over a building, while chanting “there is only solution, intifada revolution.”

Columbia has completely lost control. Every single person should be arrested and expelled. pic.twitter.com/kyFScgmoGm

— Eyal Yakoby (@EYakoby) February 26, 2025

 

The demonstrators chanted, “there is only one solution, intifada revolution,” while beating drums. Their demands included the immediate reversal of the student expulsions, amnesty for all students disciplined for pro-Palestinian activism, and a public meeting with Dean Grinage and Barnard President Laura Rosenbury, who was in Florida at the time. Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine, a banned group on campus, posted images of the sit-in on X, declaring, “Disruption until Divestment, Resistance Until Return, Agitation until Amnesty. We will not stop until our demands are met.”

 

By Wednesday night, the college administration had set a deadline for the protesters to leave and warned that further measures, including police intervention, could follow. “Tonight, a small group of masked protesters attempted to undermine Barnard’s core values of respect, inclusion, and academic excellence,” President Rosenbury said in a statement. “But let us be clear: Their disregard for the safety of our community remains completely unacceptable.”

 

Faculty intermediary Kristina Milnor, chair of Barnard’s classics department, informed the students that Dean Grinage had offered to meet with up to three protesters on the condition that they remove their masks and show identification. The students rejected this condition.

 

At 8:30 p.m., Barnard spokeswoman Robin Levine issued a statement saying that if the protesters did not vacate the building by 9:30 p.m., the college would be “forced to consider additional, necessary measures to protect our campus.” She added that the college could not confirm whether all protesters were Barnard students and that there had been violence during the protest. “We have made multiple good-faith efforts to de-escalate.

 

Barnard leadership offered to meet with the protesters—just as we meet with all members of our community—on one simple condition: remove their masks. They refused. We have also offered mediation,” she stated.

 

As the deadline approached, some students were seen escaping through a first-floor window. By 10:40 p.m., the protesters exited peacefully, still chanting and beating drums. At least nine police vans were stationed on Riverside Drive near the campus.

 

The protest stemmed from the recent expulsions of two students who had interrupted Professor Avi Shilon’s “History of Modern Israel” class at Columbia University on January 21. The students, along with two others, had entered the class masked and filmed themselves calling it a “Zionist class” that was “intellectualizing and normalizing a genocide.” They also distributed antisemitic fliers, including one depicting a Jewish star being stomped by a jackboot. Professor Shilon, an Israeli visiting history professor, recalled being shocked but invited them to stay and study rather than disrupt. They refused and left after about five minutes.

 

Barnard’s decision to expel the students was revealed by Columbia University Apartheid Divest, a student protest group. The college declined to comment on their status, citing privacy concerns. A third student, from Columbia, has been suspended pending an investigation, while the fourth remains unidentified.

 

President Rosenbury later emphasized that Barnard prioritizes campus safety and academic integrity. “Barnard will always take decisive action to protect our community as a place where learning thrives, individuals feel safe, and higher education is celebrated,” she stated, adding that the expelled students had shown “no reflection, and no willingness to change.” Meanwhile, Columbia University Apartheid Divest celebrated the classroom disruption on social media, encouraging others to follow suit by posting, “STUDENTS DISRUPTED A ZIONIST CLASS, YOU SHOULD TOO!”

 

Based on a report by NYT | X  2025-02-28