Tuesday, April 30, 2024
Year : 2, Issue : 18
National Security Council said Tuesday that it is monitoring ongoing pro-Palestinian campus protests “with concern” after students occupied a building at Columbia University.
Spokesperson John Kirby told reporters that the students’ overnight takeover of Hamilton Hall after negotiations with the school’s administration fell apart is “unacceptable.”
“We’re watching these protests with concern here at the National Security Council, and at the White House,” said Kirby.
“We continue to believe in the freedom of speech and the right to protest policies and ideas that you want to protest — you just got to do it peacefully, you can’t hurt anybody. And you can’t in this case, you can’t be disrupting the educational pursuit of your fellow students. They have a right to go to school and they have a right to do so safely. They have a right to get an education, and taking over a building by force is unacceptable,” he added.
Columbia’s administration had issued disciplinary actions and initiated the suspension of some students after pro-Palestinian demonstrators refused to vacate encampments established in solidarity with Gaza by the 2 p.m. Monday deadline the school established.
Hundreds of students have since been arrested on campuses across the country with protests demanding universities divest from Israel and condemn its ongoing war on the besieged Gaza Strip where more than 34,400 people have been killed. The vast majority of the dead have been women and children.
Palestinian journalists, academics, and activists have been frequently killed.
Israel has also targeted Gaza’s places of higher education, with all 12 major universities being destroyed. The UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees, or UNRWA, has separately reported mass destruction at the sprawling network of schools it operates in the coastal enclave.
Source: Anadolu Agency
