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The White House condemned pro-Palestinian students who occupied a building at Columbia University in New York overnight, deepening the political backlash to protests that spread across US campuses.
Protesters marched into the Hamilton Hall building early Tuesday and unfurled a “Free Palestine” flag. That deepened the standoff after Colombian authorities tried to break up an on-campus encampment on Monday by threatening to suspend any students who didn’t disperse.
The university — which has struggled to balance free speech with concerns about anti-Semitism — took even stricter action after the recent campus occupation, restricting access to resident students and staff who provide “essential services.”
“President [Joe] Biden respects the right to free speech, but protests must be peaceful and lawful,” White House spokesman Andrew Bates said Tuesday. “Forcible takeover of buildings is not peaceful – it is wrong. And hate speech and hate symbols have no place in America.”
Colombia has been a focal point of demonstrations sparked by the war between Hamas and Israel that began on October 7. But the government’s decision to suspend students and call police to arrest them sparked widespread copycat occupations and crackdowns from universities abroad in the United States and elsewhere.
On Tuesday, police also arrested protesters to end the occupation of a building at California State Polytechnic University in Humboldt. In recent days there have also been arrests at other campus locations in the USA.
Students have called for measures including greater transparency in university investments and divestments from companies they say have benefited from Israel’s war in Gaza.
Minouche Shafik, Colombia’s president, said last week she had been willing to establish new processes to engage with students about transparency and divestment but had not reached an agreement.
Several different organizations have sued the university for discrimination and lack of protection of Jewish and Muslim students and, most recently, for hindering their study and graduation opportunities.
Colombia is under pressure from the US Congress to crack down on the protests, but at the same time is preparing for the closing ceremony, scheduled to take place next to the camp on May 15.
The White House stressed that Biden “has resisted vile, anti-Semitic smears and violent rhetoric throughout his life,” adding: “He condemns the use of the term ‘Intifada,’ as well as the other tragic and dangerous hate speech of recent days.” “”
The student encampment was still visible through the locked gates of the Columbia campus on Tuesday, but during the day only a dozen protesters and a small number of police and private security guards stood outside the main entrance. One poster read: “Lift the siege on Gaza now.”
The only visible sign of the occupation in Hamilton Hall was a single banner. A truck drove by with a US-Israel flag painted on its side and the slogan: “Together we stand with Israel.”