Columbia University president Minouche Shafik in hot water for handling of pro-Palestinian protests

Mariamne EVERETT
·1 min read

As pro-Palestinian student protests at Columbia University continue, university president Minouche Shafik finds herself under fire from all sides as politicians, students and faculty all call for her to resign over her handling of the sit-ins. Columbia's university senate is scheduled to meet on Friday to vote on a resolution that would express displeasure with her decision to summon police to arrest protesting students on campus.

Shortly after the Israel-Hamas war entered its six month, pro-Palestinian students at Columbia University established an on-campus encampment on April 17 of approximately 50 tents, called the Gaza Solidarity Encampment, to put pressure on the elite Ivy League university to cut ties with Israeli academic institutions and divest from Israel.

The encampment was forcibly dismantled the following day when Shafik called on the New York City Police Department to intervene, resulting in the arrests of more than 100 protesters on suspicion of criminal trespassing. Columbia also suspended students participating in the protest encampment. After these mass arrests, demonstrators quickly regrouped and other students across the United States started organising their own sit-ins, including at universities in Los Angeles, Boston and Austin, Texas.

Many Columbia students also want Shafik to resign.


Read more on FRANCE 24 English

Read also:
Police arrest more than 130 at New York University Gaza demonstrations
Pro-Palestinian protests spread at US universities as police crack down
Pro-Palestinian protests sweep US universities, targeting financial ties with Israel

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