Pro-Palestinian demonstrators clash with security guards at Columbia University

NEW YORK AP Police officers in helmets streamed into Columbia University early Wednesday evening to remove a group of mask-clad protesters who staged a Pro-Palestinian demonstration inside the school s main library Videos shared on social media established the long line of NYPD officers entering the library hours after dozens of protesters pushed their way past campus shield officers raced into the building then hung Palestinian flags and other banners on bookshelves in an ornate reading room Specific protesters also appeared to have scrawled Columbia will burn across framed pictures Other videos indicated campus measure officers barring another group of protesters from entering the library with both sides shoving to try and force the other group aside The university s president Claire Shipman mentioned in a comment Wednesday evening that the protesters who had holed up inside a library reading room were sought repeatedly to show identification and to leave but they refused The school then requested the NYPD come in to assist in securing the building and the safety of our public she revealed New York City Mayor Eric Adams subsequently revealed officers were entering the campus to remove individuals who are trespassing The demonstration and effort to break it up came the same evening that the U S Justice Department reported it had brought hate-crime charges against a man who had been repeatedly arrested at pro-Palestinian demonstrations over the past year including one held near Columbia An indictment charged Tarek Bazrouk with assaulting Jewish people at the demonstrations Columbia University in March informed sweeping guidelines changes related to protests following Trump administration threats to revoke its federal funding Among them are a ban on students wearing masks to conceal their identities and a rule that those protesting on campus must present their identification when demanded The school also declared it had hired new inhabitants safety officers empowered to make arrests on campus Columbia University Apartheid Divest a pro-Palestinian scholar group revealed it had occupied part of Butler Library because it deduced the university profited from imperialist violence Repression breeds resistance if Columbia escalates repression the people will continue to escalate disruptions on this campus the group wrote online The federal charges against Bazrouk say he kicked a person in the stomach at a protest near the New York Stock Exchange stole an Israeli flag and punched someone in the face at a demonstration near Columbia and punched someone wearing an Israeli flag at another Manhattan protest in January Bazrouk s lawyer Andrew Dalack announced his attorneys look forward to zealously defending him A magistrate judge stated Wednesday that Bazrouk could be published on bail but he will be held overnight pending a bail hearing before a federal judge on Thursday