columbia administration is threatening to call in the national guard tonight
Here's the press release from the students
[text of the press release below]
Columbia University Threatens Students with the National Guard After Refusing to Bargain In Good Faith
HARLEM, NEW YORK, APRIL 23, 2024 — Late tonight, Columbia University threatened CUAD negotiators to call both the National Guard and NYPD if we do not acquiesce to their demands. We remain steadfast in our convictions and will not be intimidated by the University's disturbing threat of an escalation of violence.
Since good faith negotiations are impossible if one side threatens use of force to extract concessions, the student negotiating team has left the table and refuses to return until there is a written commitment that the administration will not be unleashing the NYPD or the National Guard on its students.
Throughout history, we have seen peaceful protesters violently repressed and attacked by the National Guard: from Black Lives Matter protesters in Ferguson, Missouri, to students protesting the Vietnam War at Kent State in Ohio, who were brutally beaten and murdered for peacefully speaking out against war and destruction. It is disturbing to consider that Columbia is joining their ranks in history — but we are undeterred in our commitment to Palestinian liberation.
"l want the University to understand who is at risk here: The lawn is made up of a diverse coalition of predominantly Black, brown, and Jewish students at Columbia who are at serious risk of police violence," stated Sofia Ong'ele with Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD).
"Without assurances of good faith bargaining and protections for nonviolent protestors against police and military violence, we will not be returning to the table," says Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia student on the CUAD negotiating team.
This threat to our community comes on the seventh day of the encampment, six days after the University called the NYPD to forcefully remove more than one hundred student protesters, and two hundred days after Israel began its genocidal assault on Gaza.
The University claims they want to return to "business as usual," as though the murder of over 30,000 Palestinians—the majority of whom are women and children—and the systematic destruction of every single University In Gaza can be construed as "business as usual." We refuse to accept a world where the mass slaughter of Palestinians is viewed as acceptable, normal, and profitable. We refuse to accept Columbia University's complicity in genocide.
We will not concede to cowardly threats and blatant intimidation from an administration that continuously acts in bad faith and repeatedly neglects the safety of students. Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD) remains steadfast in our commitment to Palestinian Liberation.
