Police responding to bomb threat clear pro-Palestinian protesters occupying Barnard College library
Videos shared widely on social media showed protesters inside the building earlier Wednesday afternoon chanting, playing drums and hanging Palestinian flags on walls. Most wore kaffiyeh scarves and other coverings obscuring their faces.
Advertisement
Videos from Wednesday evening showed police entering the building wearing helmets and carrying zip ties and then later clearing and detaining protesters and others from the lawn outside the building.
Get Starting Point
A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday.
Enter Email
Sign Up
Barnard President Laura Ann Rosenbury said afterward that the women's college, which is affiliated with Columbia University, will resume its regular academic schedule Thursday.
She also denounced protesters as endangering staff and students by refusing to evacuate the building even after officials notified them of the threat and activated the fire alarm — leaving the school no choice but to request police assistance.
'Today has been unsettling and disturbing, and these continued disruptions take a toll on our community,' Rosenbury said in a statement. 'The desire of a few to disrupt and threaten cannot outweigh the needs of the students, faculty, and staff who call our campus home.'
The group Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine dismissed the threat as 'manufactured by Barnard administrators' to clear the protest, noting in posts on X that police brought detained students back into the library even as they continued their investigation.
The student group launched its sit-in around 1 p.m. Wednesday in response to the expulsions of student protesters and other recent actions taken by school officials.
Last week, pro-Palestinian protesters wearing keffiyeh scarves and masks pushed their way into the college's Milbank Hall, which houses the offices of the dean, and assaulted a school employee, according to school officials.
Advertisement
Protest organizers said they dispersed after the administration agreed to meet with them over their demands, which included amnesty for all students disciplined for pro-Palestinian action.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Commentary: The US must restrain itself from being too involved in Syria's redevelopment
When President Donald Trump met Syria's new president, Ahmad al-Sharaa, for the first time last month, he came away impressed with the man's vision, stamina and looks. 'Young, attractive guy, tough guy,' Trump told reporters after the session. 'Strong past, very strong past. … He's got a real shot at holding it together.' Trump followed up the compliments with a policy change that reverberated throughout the Middle East: a suspension of the U.S. sanctions regime on Syria, which the White House argued was a necessary prerequisite to giving the country a chance to turn the page from more than a half-century of Assad family dictatorship. The United States, however, continues to have certain expectations for the new, evolving Syrian government. Washington's asks boil down to three items: combating the Islamic State militant group, consolidating its authority to prevent chaos, and respecting the rights of ethnic and sectarian minorities in the country, some of whom, like the Kurds in Eastern Syria, have been long-standing U.S. partners. The Trump administration also expects al-Sharaa to clamp down on Palestinian militant groups that have traditionally used Syrian soil as a base of operations, and Trump eventually wants Damascus to join the Abraham Accords, which would normalize relations between Israel and Syria. The results thus far have been mixed, depending on the issue. But in the Middle East, a mixed verdict is often the best that one can hope for. On combating Islamic State, the new Syrian government has met expectations so far. This wasn't inevitable when al-Sharaa ascended to power in December. His history sowed doubt among many U.S. national security officials about what could be accomplished on the counterterrorism front. Twenty years ago, al-Sharaa was fighting with al-Qaida in Iraq and spent time as a prisoner under U.S. military custody. When Syria erupted into civil war in 2011, he traveled to the country and established an al-Qaida affiliate there, leading Washington to place a big bounty on his head. Yet al-Sharaa eventually struck out on his own. He distanced his group from Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, Islamic State's first so-called emir, ditched the al-Qaida name and turned his organization Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, into one seeking to liberate Syria, not conduct global jihad. While HTS was still an extremely conservative outfit, al-Sharaa sought to transform it into a de facto government-in-waiting, and for the most part, it worked — HTS ruled over most of Idlib province in northwestern Syria for the duration of Syria's civil war. Ever since he routed Assad's forces, al-Sharaa has sought to moderate himself further. The former al-Qaida prisoner has spent the last six months ditching his fatigues for Western-style suits and ingratiating himself with the likes of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, deep-pocketed countries that could prove extremely useful for the new but cash-strapped Syrian government. Al-Sharaa also has made it a point to burnish his credentials in the West, betting that promises to protect Syria's diverse communities, institute a market economy and unite the nation after nearly 14 years of war would convince Washington, Paris and London to explore a new relationship. The United States and many of its allies in Europe have taken al-Sharaa up on the offer. U.S. officials view the new Syrian administration as an opportunity to not only wipe the slate clean on decades of adversarial ties with Damascus but to also dilute the influence of Iran and Russia, its historic backers. Syria under Assad used to be one of Tehran's most important pieces on the Middle East chessboard, a country that provided Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps with a way station to send weapons to Hezbollah in Lebanon. With Assad out and al-Sharaa in, Syria is no longer an Iranian proxy. The further the new Syrian authorities ostracize Iran, the more support it will likely receive from the Americans. Of course, it's not all sunshine and roses for Syria. While Washington is guardedly optimistic about the HTS-led administration's commitment to keeping a boot on Islamic State's neck — if only because it's in al-Sharaa's own interest to do so — it remains unclear whether the country's multiple ethnic and sectarian communities can be reconciled. The long civil war produced an overwhelming sense of mistrust, fear and animosity between Sunnis and Alawites, who compose approximately 10% of Syria's population but held many of the senior military, political and intelligence posts under the former regime. In one especially brutal atrocity last March, hard-line jihadists supposedly outside the Syrian government's control rampaged through Alawite villages along Syria's Mediterranean coast, killing hundreds of civilians, in retaliation for Assad loyalists attacking Syrian army positions. The attack lasted for days and put a bright spotlight on al-Sharaa and his ability to actually implement the promises of peace and inclusion he has made since stepping into the presidential palace. Can Syria emerge from the ashes? It's a loaded question with no definitive answer at this point in time. The United States, though, needs to restrain itself from the urge of becoming too overinvolved in the country's political development. Time and again, Washington has allowed hubris to guide its actions, lecturing others about how to structure their politics and pretending it has all the answers. Most of the time, our ambitions outweigh our capacity to fulfill them. At worst, we create new problems and burdens on the states we purportedly wish to help. So as the Trump administration continues to monitor Syria's evolution, it must take care to distinguish the necessary from the ideal. A democratic utopia in the heart of the Middle East is the ideal; a government willing and able to keep Islamic State in check is the prize. _____ Daniel DePetris is a fellow at Defense Priorities and a foreign affairs columnist for the Chicago Tribune. _____
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Five dead and aid staff feared kidnapped in Gaza ambush
Hamas has killed five staff belonging to a new US aid delivery company in Gaza and may also have taken hostages, the organisation said. In a statement early on Thursday, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) team said the terror group attacked a bus carrying more than two-dozen of its team at around 10pm on Wednesday. GHF said Palestinians working 'side-by-side with the US' to deliver critical aid were 'brutally attacked by Hamas'. A statement said: 'At the time of the attack, our team was en route to one of our distribution centres in the area west of Khan Younis. 'We are still gathering facts, but what we know is devastating: there are at least five fatalities, multiple injuries, and fear that some of our team members may have been taken hostage.' The spokesman said both Americans and Palestinians were on the bus, and talked about staff being 'unaccounted for'. Americans are not believed to be among those missing. Any taking of hostages would be likely to complicate the ceasefire negotiations between Israel and Hamas. The group is believed to still hold 20 living Israelis somewhere in the strip from the October 7 raids. However, GHF has released statements in the past that turned out to be misleading, and the IDF has yet to comment officially. The US firm has been mired in controversy since it took over aid in Gaza as part of a US and Israeli plan to prevent humanitarian aid from falling into the hands of Hamas. The plan has been opposed by the UN and much of the international community. A number of mass-casualty events have taken place near its distribution sites in the last two weeks, with eyewitnesses blaming Israeli troops, who provide an outer ring of security. Twenty five were killed near a site early on Wednesday, according to local hospitals, which fall under the authority of Hamas. However, the Israeli government has consistently claimed that Hamas is trying to undermine the new system, and in recent days, the sites have been temporarily closed, with the GHF citing threats from the terror group. The GHF spokesman added: 'This attack did not happen in a vacuum. For days, Hamas has openly threatened our team, our aid workers, and the civilians who receive aid from us. These threats were met with silence.' 'The GHF holds Hamas fully responsible for taking the lives of our dedicated workers who have been distributing humanitarian aid to the Palestinian people at the foundation's sites in central and southern Gaza. 'Tonight, the world must see this for what it is: an attack on humanity.' NGOs and the UN argue that the system forces Palestinians, many of whom are on the brink of starvation, to walk large distances through dangerous areas to collect food, which itself is unsuitable because much of it needs cooking at a time of acute fuel shortage. Israel said that, under the old system, which shipped humanitarian aid directly into Palestinian communities in Gaza, Hamas routinely purloined the aid, selling it back to the population at inflated prices as a means of keeping control and bolstering its coffers.
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
‘Jew hater' Columbia protester pleads guilty to 3 antisemitic hate crime assaults yet issues apology to Palestinian community
The self-described 'Jew hater' Columbia agitator who has alleged ties to a Hamas group chat pleaded guilty to a string of hate crimes targeting Jewish people, yet only asked for forgiveness from the Palestinian community. Tarek Bazrouk, 20, admitted to violently assaulting three Jewish people between April 2024 and January 2025 at several Manhattan protests of the war in Gaza, but used his chance to speak in Manhattan federal court to apologize not to Jews, but to the Palestinian community. 'I am sorry. I am Palestinian and I participated in the protest to display my outrage… I should not have used violence. I hope my family and community can forgive me,' Bazrouk said on Wednesday. The hollow apology stands in stark contrast to the fervor Bazrouk embodied while committing the targeted attacks against Jewish people during protests at Columbia University and in downtown Manhattan. On April 15, 2024, the 20-year-old kicked a man wearing a kippa in the chest as he stood with an Israeli flag and sang a Jewish song during a demonstration near the New York Stock Exchange. Bazrouk assaulted two other individuals during that same demonstration, according to prosecutors. Several days later, Bazrouk said he would 'boom boom boom' the next Jewish person he saw, text messages revealed. He then punched another kippa-wearing man in the face while the victim carried an Israeli flag during a protest on December 9, 2024, prosecutors said. The confessed antisemite punched yet another Israeli flag-bearer in the face at a protest earlier this year on January 6, according to court testimony. Bazrouk has no affiliation with Columbia, but was an outside agitator who joined the campus protests. The university said it has no record of him ever being on campus. Following his May arrest for the assaults, federal officials discovered more insidious evidence after searching Bazrouk's Manhattan home, where he lived with his parents and several other family members. Investigators seized four knives, a replica firearm, brass knuckles, $750,000 in cash in a safe, and Bazrouk's cell phone, which revealed chilling text messages. Bazrouk was 'a member of a chat group that received regular updates from Abu Obeda,' which is linked to Hamas' al-Qassam Brigades militant group, The Post revealed earlier this month. In text messages, the 20-year-old described himself as a 'Jew hater,' called Jewish people 'worthless,' and exhorted a friend to 'slap that bitch' in reference to a woman who had an Israel flag sticker on her laptop, court documents revealed. The 'Jew hater' further claimed to a friend that he was proud some of his family members were fighting with Hamas overseas, text messages showed. Lawyers for Bazrouk rejected any connection between their client and the terror organization. The $750,000 in cash was seized by the government, with Bazrouk agreeing to its forfeiture. Judge Richard Berman advised the hateful brute that he faces a maximum sentence of five years behind bars, two years supervised release, and a $250,000 fine. Berman added that Bazrouk could also be forced to pay restitution to his victims. Bazrouk will have a sentencing hearing on October 1. He still has two pending cases in state court for the incidents in December and January.
