Student protesters at Columbia University reassembled the anti-Israel tent encampment on a central campus lawn early Friday — less than 24 hours after NYPD arrested over 100 people at the original setup.
Dozens of students sat with blankets and Palestinian flags on the identical lawn opposite the one where hundreds of others camped out for nearly 48 hours until yesterday’s standoff, video from the independent reporter Spyder Monkey showed.
The site of the original protest was littered with construction cargo, the footage indicated.
It was not immediately clear if the construction materials were placed on the grass to purposefully discourage students from reerecting tents there.
The group appeared on the second lawn sometime in the early hours of the morning, and were already dozens strong by sunrise, additional footage from independent journalist Olga Fe showed.
A small sign that read “join us” in purple lettering was placed next to a large sign that declared the area a “Gaza Solidarity encampment.”
The student protesters appeared on Friday despite the fact that at least 108 people were arrested in the original “liberated zone” Thursday afternoon.
University President Minouche Shafik said she “authorized” the NYPD to crack down on the encampment due to fears about community safety.
“I took this extraordinary step because these are extraordinary circumstances. The individuals who established the encampment violated a long list of rules and policies,” she wrote in an email to faculty, staff, and students.
Ahead of the police intervention, participants had been warned by the administration that they would be suspended pending investigation if they did not leave the site by 9 p.m. Wednesday night.
