Anti-Israel protesters violently clashed with police who arrived to clear out an “intifada” encampment at the City College of New York late Tuesday around the same time as officers were also finally called to end the takeover of nearby Columbia University.
The chaos broke out around 8 p.m. as protesters at the public university in Harlem tried to bust through a barricade blocking them from reaching the tent city that popped up Friday, video posted to social media shows.
Cops can be seen pushing the demonstrators back as they tried to maintain their position, video posted on social media shows.
One man and a cop exchanged hard shoves while some protesters hurled garbage at the officers.
Suddenly a swarm of cops moves in to make arrests, the clip shows.
As the protests moved out into the streets, one man was filmed bashing an NYPD officer in the head with a 5-gallon water jug with a sticker that read “Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.”
The man was promptly wrestled to the ground by several officers and taken into custody, video shows.
Later in the night, a sea of cops in riot gear flooded through the front gates of the college as a recorded message repeated: “This is the New York City Police Department. You have been warned as per City College to leave the campus. If you refuse to leave, you may be placed under arrest,” police video showed.
“As requested by the university, we are currently on campus to assist the university in dispersing those trespassing,” NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Operations Kaz Daughtry wrote on X.
The officers then swarmed the lawn where protesters set up tents and began arresting individuals who had linked arms to form a human barrier around some of the tents.
Once the encampment was cleared out, police removed a Palestinian flag that had been raised by the protesters on the campus flagpole and replaced it with the American flag.
It wasn’t immediately clear how many City College protesters were nabbed.
The busts unfolded around the same time hundreds of officers swooped onto Columbia University’s campus to oust a pro-terror mob that illegally took over the Hamilton Hall academic building.
About 100 protesters were cuffed and hauled away from Columbia in the dramatic sweep, law enforcement sources told The Post.
Meanwhile, the City College encampment had popped up at the state-funded college on Friday.
Tensions flared when rumors circulated that CUNY administrators were working to shut the rally down.
The mob’s numbers swelled Tuesday afternoon as the group CUNY4Palestine urged supporters to mobilize amid reports the encampment would be cleared.
Organizers had warned hours ahead of the clashes that attempts to shut down the demonstration would be “met with anger.”
The quad was littered with tents and Palestinian flags, as well as signs demanding that the CUNY system divest from Israel in light of the ongoing war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
“Palestine calls this University Intifada,” Within Our Lifetime organizer Nerdeen Kiswani shouted to the crowd in a fiery speech earlier this week.
“We have a right to control where our tuition goes and that it should never go to oppressing any people anywhere!”
Antisemitism controversy at Columbia University: Key events
- More than 280 anti-Israel demonstrators were cuffed at Columbia and the City of New York campuses overnight in a “massive” NYPD operation.
- One hundred and nine people were nabbed at the Ivy League campus after cops responded to Columbia’s request to help oust a destructive mob that had illegally taken over the Hamilton Hall academic building late Tuesday, NYC Mayor Eric Adams and police said.
- Hizzoner blamed the on-campus chaos on insurgents who have a “history of escalating situations and trying to create chaos” instead of protesting peacefully.
- Columbia’s embattled president Minouche Shafik, who has faced mounting calls to resign for not cracking down sooner, issued a statement Wednesday saying the on-campus violence had “pushed the university to the brink.”
- Columbia University president Minouche Shafik was accused of “gross negligence” while testifying before Congress. Shafik refused to say if the phrase “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” is antisemitic.
- More than 100 Columbia professors signed a letter defending students who support the “military action” by Hamas.
It was not immediately clear if all the protesters were affiliated with the school — though CUNY Professor James Hoff wrote on X that there were “lots of faculty and … union members” in attendance.
City College was on spring break until Tuesday, according to the academic calendar.
CCNY president Vince Boudreau announced Tuesday that campus was closed and all classes would be remote on Wednesday due to the encampment, which he said was “posing significant difficulties for us.”
Compared to previous demonstrations the college has seen since war erupted in Gaza in October, this latest demonstration “has been more contentious and violent than anything we’ve seen on campus before,” the president said.
He said “this is not primarily a CCNY demonstration, and perhaps not primarily a CUNY demonstration.”
“This is obviously a wrenching moment for the CCNY community and for me personally,” Boudreau added.
“I know that you all join me in the fervent hope that this encampment can be brought to a peaceful conclusion.”
