80 Arrested In Pro-Palestine Occupation Of NYC Campus Library; 2 Officers Hurt

MORNINGSIDE HEIGHTS, NY — Police arrested 80 pro-Palestinian protestors at Columbia University Wednesday evening after protestors occupied the school's main library, NYPD said.

Among those arrested, 78 protestors were issued desk summonses, and two were issued court appearances, NYPD officials said Thursday.

The protest started around 3 p.m. when protestors entered Room 301 of Butler Library, pushing past security, many of them wearing keffiyehs and masks, according to several videos posted to social media.

"We had no choice but to ask for the assistance of the NYPD," Columbia's Acting President Claire Shipman wrote in a statement, detailing an afternoon of chaos that she said left two Public Safety officers injured during the protest. She said one was wheeled out on a gurney.

Leaving hours later, she said there was "disturbing" vandalism on the library's reading room.

"Let me be clear: Columbia unequivocally rejects antisemitism and all other forms of harassment and discrimination," Shipman wrote. "And we certainly reject a group of students—and we don’t yet know whether there were outsiders involved—closing down a library in the middle of the week before finals and forcing 900 students out of their study spaces, many leaving belongings behind."

Student activist group Columbia University Apartheid Divest said more than 100 protestors were in attendance. The group said they have renamed the Butler Library the "Basel al-Araj Popular University," after the Palestinian activist.

"Columbia University is not a paragon of higher education; it is and has always been a neocolonial institution, prioritizing the acquisition of property and investments in war," the group wrote, criticizing Columbia for allowing federal immigration agents on campus, which led to the detention of Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian Columbia graduate student and legal permanent U.S. resident.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio posted on X (formerly Twitter) that the visas of the protestors are all now under review, calling them "Pro-Hamas thugs."

This is a developing story and may be updated. For questions and tips, email Miranda.Levingston@Patch.com.