Amid reporting that more than 100 people met at a community center in Brooklyn, N.Y., to plan an anti-Israel encampment on the Columbia University campus, which has faced criticism for its response to Jew-hatred, stated in an email to the school community that it wanted to “clearly communicate that camping and encampments on Columbia’s campuses are prohibited by university policy.”
“If encampments or tents are established on university property,” Columbia said it will remove those structures, “access to affected areas will be restricted, and the university may implement additional restrictions to campus access.”
“Participants will be instructed to disperse,” it added. “Individuals who refuse to disperse will be identified and sanctions, including potential removal from campus and possible arrest, may be applied.”
The Ivy League school stated that “our focus is on protecting the safety of our community and ensuring that the university is able to proceed normally with all academic activities.”
“We are closely monitoring, as always, for any disruptions, and campus activities are currently proceeding as usual,” it stated. “Any violations of university policies and rules will be addressed immediately according to our procedures.”
NBC News reported that organizers at the meeting “refrained from referring to the upcoming encampments as ‘encampments,’ according to screenshots of Signal messages from the organizers and conversations with two people familiar with the planning for the protests.”
“In writing, and verbally, participants have designated the encampments with a code name, the ‘circus,’” it reported. “Organizers asked demonstrators not to arrive on campus wearing masks on the days of the protests, which they said could alert campus security officers, according to the recording.”
“This year feels so much more organized and careful,” a person who attended the meeting told NBC.
One encampment had been planned for April 24 and another for the next day, April 25.
“The encampments would have been likely to inflame tension at the Ivy League school, which for weeks has been at the center of a tug-of-war between the federal government and its students,” NBC reported on Friday.
“They would have been the first tent cities at the university since students took over a building last year and since the Trump administration embraced an aggressive approach to target what it describes as a failure to deal with antisemitism on college campuses,” NBC added.