Columbia Threatens Arrests If Student Radicals Move Forward With Planned Anti-Israel Encampments

Columbia University warned student radicals that they could face disciplinary actions—and possibly arrest—if they move forward with their plans to launch anti-Israel encampments.

“We have been made aware of possible plans to establish encampments on Columbia’s campuses. We want to clearly communicate that camping and encampments on Columbia’s campuses are prohibited by University Policy,” Columbia’s public safety department announced in a university-wide email Wednesday evening.

“Participants will be instructed to disperse,” the email continued. “Individuals who refuse to disperse will be identified and sanctions, including potential removal from campus and possible arrest, may be applied.”

Columbia students secretly gathered at a Brooklyn community center Tuesday night to plan two encampments, NBC News reported. The first would launch at 1 p.m. Thursday on the university’s main Morningside Heights campus in Manhattan. Organizers aim to disperse before nightfall or before police can intervene, according to NBC News. The second encampment would go up Friday at the nearby Manhattanville campus with plans to go on indefinitely.

The organizers, using aliases and concealing their faces, advised participants to avoid wearing masks upon arriving on campus because it would tip off campus security.

Columbia, in its Wednesday email, warned that public safety officials would “immediately take steps to remove tents” and restrict “access to affected areas.”

If the student radicals move forward with their plans, they will serve as a major test for the university’s new acting president, Claire Shipman, who has promised to enforce Columbia’s policies that place strict limits on unsanctioned and disruptive protests.

The plans come a year after agitators first set up encampments, terrorizing Columbia’s campus for two weeks and culminating in the violent takeover of Hamilton Hall. It took the university nearly a year to punish the students involved with multi-year suspensions, expulsions, and temporary degree revocations.

Last year’s encampments also provided the Trump administration with significant ammo in its decision to freeze over $400 million in Columbia’s federal funding and place demands on the university to curb campus anti-Semitism.

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