Columbia divided: Israel-Gaza protests push Ivy to shut down in-person classes

Protests continued for a sixth day at Columbia over the Israel-Hamas war as the school canceled in-person classes.

• Columbia University's president announced that all classes on Monday will be virtual.
• The decision follows days of unrest on campus and protests over Israel's war in Gaza.
• A rabbi has encouraged Jewish students to leave campus. Protesters say that they are peaceful.

Columbia University is holding all its classes virtually on Monday due to ongoing protests on campus, the school's president, Nemat "Minouche" Shafik, announced.

Columbia has been rocked by protests for days over Israel's war on Gaza following Hamas' October 7 terror attack on Israel.

While students and faculty have been urged not to go onto campus, Shafik said that "a working group of Deans, university administrators, and faculty members will try to bring this crisis to a resolution."

How it started

The protests began on Wednesday, April 17, which coincided with Shafik testifying before Congress about antisemitism on campus.

A coalition of student groups — Columbia University Apartheid Divest, Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine, and Jewish Voice for Peace — took part in setting up "Gaza Solidarity Encampments" in the center of campus.

One of the goals of the protest is to convince the university to divest all its "finances, including the endowment, from companies and institutions that profit from Israeli apartheid, genocide, and occupation in Palestine," according to Columbia University Apartheid Divest's website.

Police were called in

On Thursday, April 18, Shafik authorized the New York Police Department to clear the encampment. "Attempts to resolve the situation were rejected by the students involved. As a result, NYPD officers are now on campus and the process of clearing the encampment is underway," she said in a statement.

This resulted in the arrest of more than 100 people on suspicion of criminal trespass, New York City Mayor Eric Adams said in a news conference.

Protests have continued since then.

A rabbi advised Jewish students to stay home

Chabad at Columbia, a group that supports Jewish students, released a letter on social media that said Jewish students were targeted with offensive rhetoric during the protests.

President Joe Biden called out antisemitism on campus in his Passover statement on Sunday.

"Even in recent days, we've seen harassment and calls for violence against Jews. This blatant Antisemitism is reprehensible and dangerous — and it has absolutely no place on college campuses, or anywhere in our country," Biden said.

And Rabbi Elie Buechler, who is affiliated with the university, sent a message to 300 Jewish students to "strongly recommend" they leave campus for their own safety, CNN reported on Sunday.

Meanwhile, the Columbia Barnard Hillel organization that promotes Jewish life said in a post on X that they don't believe Jewish students should leave campus but said that "the University and the City need to do more to ensure the safety of our students."

Columbia student organizations participating in the protest have insisted that their protests are peaceful.

One student group, Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine, said in a statement on X that they are frustrated by the attention paid to "inflammatory individuals who do not represent us."

"We firmly reject any form of hate or bigotry and stand against non-students attempting to disrupt our solidarity," the statement said.