Anti-Israel protesters allegedly assault employee during building takeover at Barnard College in New York City
A group of more than 50 anti-Israel protesters took over a building at New York City's Barnard College and allegedly assaulted an employee Wednesday evening.
The students were protesting the expulsion of two students who stormed a Columbia University classroom in January and allegedly threw around flyers filled with hateful speech.
Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine displayed videos on X of masked students in a hallway beating on drums and chanting on megaphones.
The account also posted a list of demands accompanied by the text, "WE WILL NOT STOP UNTIL OUR DEMANDS ARE MET. FREE PALESTINE."
The demands include an "immediate reversal of the two Barnard students' expulsions" and "amnesty for all students disciplined for pro-Palestine action or thought. Drop all the charges now!"
They also requested a public meeting with Dean Leslie Grinage and President Laura Rosenbury, and the abolition of the "corrupt Barnard disciplinary process," demanding complete transparency for current, past and future disciplinary proceedings.
The students said that they will continue to disrupt the campus until these demands are met.
A spokesperson for Barnard said the protesters had assaulted a college employee who ended up being sent to the hospital.
"They encouraged others to enter campus without identification, showing blatant disregard for the safety of our community," Robin Levine, Barnard College's Vice President for Strategic Communications, said in a statement.
Levine said she would give them until 9:30 p.m. to leave the building or the school would take other actions.
"We have made multiple good-faith efforts to de-escalate. Barnard leadership offered to meet with the protesters," Levine's statement said. "They refused. We have also offered mediation."
The protesters began leaving the building by 11 p.m., according to reports by FOX 5 New York.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Bloomberg
an hour ago
- Bloomberg
Gaza Aid Foundation Says Five Workers Killed in Hamas Attack
Five Palestinian aid workers were killed and several injured when a bus they were traveling in was attacked by Hamas militants in central Gaza, a foundation backed by the US and Israel said. The vehicle was en route to an aid-distribution center west of the city of Khan Younis when it came under fire at 10 p.m. local time, according to the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. It expressed concern that Hamas had taken some of the more than two dozen passengers hostage. Hamas has yet to respond to the accusations.
Bloomberg
an hour ago
- Bloomberg
Iran Plans New Nuclear Enrichment Site After UN Watchdog Censure
Iran said it would build a new uranium-enrichment center in response to a decision by the United Nations atomic watchdog to censure the Islamic Republic over its nuclear program, deepening a crisis that's also drawn in the US and Israel. The new site will be at an unspecified secure location, and will be accompanied by the replacement of enrichment devices at an existing site, Fordow, with newer machines, the Atomic Energy Organization Of Iran said in a statement Thursday. Other measures would be announced later, it said, without elaborating.
UPI
an hour ago
- UPI
North Korea appears to stop loudspeaker broadcasts toward the South
North Korea appears to have stopped broadcasting loud noises along border areas with the South, Seoul's Joint Chiefs of Staff said Thursday. The move came one day after South Korea suspended propaganda loudspeaker broadcasts at the DMZ. File Photo by Thomas Maresca/UPI | License Photo SEOUL, June 12 (UPI) -- North Korea appears to have stopped broadcasting loud noises towards the South, Seoul's military said Thursday, one day after South Korea halted its anti-Pyongyang loudspeaker campaign near the demilitarized zone. "Today, there were no areas where North Korea's noise broadcasts to the South were heard," the Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a text message to reporters. The North had been broadcasting bizarre noises such as metallic screeching and animal sounds since last year, as Cold War-style provocations escalated along the inter-Korean border. Newly elected South Korean President Lee Jae-myung has vowed to lower tensions with Pyongyang, and on Wednesday ordered the suspension of the South's propaganda broadcasts of K-pop, news and information across the border. Lee's office said that the move was made "to ease the military standoff between the South and the North and to open the way to restoring mutual trust." It was also meant to "alleviate the suffering of residents in border areas who have suffered due to North Korea's noise broadcasts," spokeswoman Kang Yoo-jung said in a briefing Wednesday. Seoul resumed the propaganda broadcasts roughly one year ago in response to a series of provocations by North Korea that included floating thousands of trash-filled balloons across the border. Lee, who won a snap election on June 3 to replace impeached former President Yoon Suk Yeol, vowed during his campaign to suspend the loudspeaker broadcasts as well as prevent defector groups from floating balloons with anti-Pyongyang leaflets and USB drives over the border. On Thursday, Lee pledged to swiftly restore communication channels with the North. "We will stop wasteful hostilities and resume dialogue and cooperation," he said in a speech marking the 25th anniversary of the first inter-Korean summit between former South Korean President Kim Dae-jung and North Korean leader Kim Jong Il. "We will restore the crisis management system that prevents accidental clashes and avoids heightening tensions," Lee said in the speech, which was read on his behalf by a senior official at a commemorative event in Seoul. "To this end, we will strive to quickly restore the inter-Korean dialogue channels." The two Koreas reestablished a military hotline in 2018 during a period of detente. However, the North stopped answering the daily calls in 2023 as relations soured amid expanded U.S.-South Korea joint military exercises and a hardline stance by former President Yoon.
