Hundreds of anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian activists gathered at Columbia University on Monday to celebrate the anniversary of the Hamas terror attacks of October 7, shouting “Resistance is glorious! We will be victorious!”
Some carried a banner reading: “We Will Honor All Our Martyrs,” incorporating a term that terrorists have used to describe their members, whether carrying out suicide bombings against Israeli civilians or being killed in battle.
It was not clear how many of the participants were students, and how many were from beyond the campus itself.
As Breitbart News had reported, students at Columbia and other universities in New York City planned a walkout on Monday, as part of a broader set of demonstrations. The Columbia Daily Spectator, the student newspaper, reported that the administration was concerned that the walkout violated university rules, and that there could be violence.:
Before the walkout, pro-Palestinian demonstrators continued their daily vigil, reading the names of over 50,000 Palestinians killed in the war in Gaza since Oct. 7, 2023. Protesters held banners reading “We will honor all our martyrs,” “Free Gaza free speech,” and “Break the chains and let them fall.” Beside them on Low Plaza, dozens of pro-Israel protesters stood holding Israeli and American flags and pictures of hostages taken on Oct. 7, 2023.
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Interim University President Katrina Armstrong announced the additional security measures in a Sunday email and wrote that the walkout was not notified through the process outlined in the Guidelines to the Rules of University Conduct. Armstrong raised concerns about groups unaffiliated with the University coming to Columbia’s campus “for activities that raise concern about the potential for violence.”
Within Our Lifetime—a Palestinian-led community organization in New York City that has previously organized demonstrations promoted by pro-Palestinian student groups on campus—had urged individuals to call out of school and work in an Oct. 2 post on X to “stand with Gaza and uplift the Palestinian people resisting genocide by any means necessary since 1948.”
The year 1948 refers to the moment when Israel declared independence, in accordance with the United Nations decision to partition the British Mandate into a Jewish state and an Arab state. The Palestinian Arabs rejected the decision, and several Arab states invaded Israel, which won the war and has continued to flourish ever since.
Columbia was the site of some of the most antisemitic, and violent, anti-Israel protests over the year since October 7. Several university administrators, including the former president, resigned over their mishandling of the protests.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days, available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.