On April 18th, Barnard suspended and evicted at least three of its students who were involved in the CUAD (Columbia University Apartheid Divest) organized encampment on Columbia University’s Butler Lawns.
One of the students, Maryam Iqbal, an SJP (Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine) organizer, announced her interim suspension on Instagram, saying that she refuses “to be silenced.” Barnard student and SJP organizer Isra Hirsi, daughter of U.S. Representative Ilhan Omar, also publicly announced that she was suspended by the college.
In a message sent to community members, Barnard College Senior Staff wrote that they made in-person and written requests for students to leave the “unauthorized encampment.” Around 7 p.m. on Wednesday, the staff provided written warnings that students “would receive interim suspension if they did not leave the encampment by 9 p.m. on April 17.”
The College also says that it will “continue” to place identified Barnard students on interim suspension, but did not provide additional information to the Barnard Bulletin.
The Pro-Palestinian encampment, which began at 4 a.m. on Wednesday, April 17th ahead of Columbia President Minouche Shafik’s congressional hearing regarding antisemitism response on campus, demands that the University divest from “companies and institutions that profit from Israeli apartheid, genocide, and occupation in Palestine.”
The encampment includes dozens of tents, posters, a “dining hall,” camping toilets, and a medic tent.
Since the start of the encampment, protestors claim that Columbia has agreed to show “complete financial transparency regarding investments.” “The chips are starting to fall,” a protester and JVP (Jewish Voices for Peace) member told the Bulletin this morning. “It is only an amount of time until it starts to fall into place.”