Pro-Palestinian protesters are detained by NYPD after taking part in a demonstration at Butler Library on the Columbia University campus in New York, US, May 7, 2025. Photo: Dana Edwards via Reuters Connect.

New York City Police Department (NYPD) officers on Wednesday arrested over 75 members of a pro-Hamas student group that occupied Columbia University’s Butler Library and vowed not to leave unless school officials accede to a list of five demands calling for, among other things, a boycott of Israel and divestment from armaments manufacturers.

“When Columbia speaks of its rich history and commitment to upholding its values, these are the values it speaks of: death dealing, displacement, imperialism, segregation, colonialism, nazism, state violence, abductions, anti-Black racism, zionism, and white western hegemony [sic],” the group, Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD), said in a social manifesto issued after commandeering the Butler Library. “It is our duty to rise to this moment, for the people of Gaza. It is our duty to escalate. It is our duty to be brave. We have nothing to lose but our chains.”

According to The Columbia Spectator, the demonstration soon faltered after CUAD was out maneuvered by Columbia’s private security forces, who effectively detained the students inside the Butler Reading Room by locking it from the outsider to prevent others, including faculty who wished to offer themselves as “mediators,” from coming in. Meanwhile, the Spectator said, the university dispatched a team of “special patrol officers” and others who initiated negotiations to peacefully clear the students out.

“We don’t want to bring NYPD on campus, we don’t want to have to fight you on this one, please,” an officer told one of the leading protesters, who demanded in response that students be allowed to exit Butler of their own volition. The officer said they would be allowed to do so in exchange for presenting identification, a condition the students reportedly rejected with laughter. Some students later attempted to leave Butler without permission from the officers. The effort did not succeed.

“We refuse to show our IDs under militarized arrest,” CUAD later said a statement, referencing the negotiations. “We refuse to go down quietly.”

Having reached an impasse, interim Columbia University president Claire Shipman — the school’s third new chief executive in two years — requested the help of the NYPD, a decision she justified in a statement as “necessary” for preserving Columbia’s academic mission. By the time the remarks were published, two Columbia officers had been assaulted by a crush of agitators who resolved to enter Butler by storming it.

“Columbia has taken the necessary step of requesting the presence of NYPD to assist in securing the building and the safety of our community,” Shipman said. “Disruptions to our academic activities will not be tolerated and are violations of our rules and policies; this is especially unacceptable while our students study and prepare for final exams. Columbia strongly condemns violence on our campus, antisemitism, and all forms of hate and discrimination, some of which we witnessed today. We are resolute that calls for violence or have no place at our university.”

The NYPD’s operation to clear Butler was quickly completed after officers arrived there at 7:25 pm, the time cited by the Spectator. Bundling them “20 at a time,” the officers relocated the students to an NYPD bus used for mass arrests.

Even with those numbers, however, the protest betrayed the attenuating momentum of the pro-Hamas movement at Columbia University. Last year, police arrested 109 protesters for commandeering Hamilton Hall. This year’s occupation saw a 31 percent reduction in arrests and a noticeable drop in student participation, a trend seen elsewhere, as campus newspapers have reported less interest in protesting in support of terrorism.

On Thursday, Shipman declared that “Butler is Now Open!” in a triumphant statement which stressed the campus’ swift return to normalcy.

“Butler Library is now open to students, and the third floor reading room — with thanks to the efforts of a large and dedicated overnight facilities team — is restored and ready for use,” Shipman said. “Butler will, as is usual, remain open overnight this evening, and we will have normal operations across all other libraries today…Thank you again, for your resilience, and best of luck to all of our students as finals begin. I look forward to seeing members of our community on campus today.”

Columbia University is not the first school to quell an attempt to establish a pro-Hamas encampment in recent weeks. Swarthmore College and the University of Washington (UW) did so between Saturday and Monday, securing the arrest of over 30 students.

At UW, a pro-Hamas student group calling itself “Super UW” commandeered the school’s Interdisciplinary Engineering Building (IEB) and refused to leave unless school officials terminated partnerships with The Boeing Company, whose armaments manufacturing they identified as a resource aiding Israel’s war to eradicate Hamas from Gaza.

The illegal demonstration involved students erecting blockades near the building using “bike rack[s] and chairs,” burning trash — setting off sizable fires — that they then left unattended, and calling for violence against the police. Law enforcement officers eventually entered the building equipped with riot gear, including helmets and batons, and proceeded to arrest over two dozen protesters.

According to The Phoenix, Swarthmore College’s independent campus newspaper, the encampment there was stationed by Students for Justice in Palestine, a campus group which has been linked to Islamist terrorist organizations, last week in an attempt to “revive” similar demonstrations staged last year. Naming the encampment the “Hossam Shabat Liberated Zone,” SJP called on its supporters to “escalate” and establish a “site of colonial resistence [sic].”

Columbia University had ample motivation to thwart CUAD’s the encampment. In March, the Trump administration impounded $400 million in taxpayer funded research grants and contracts after determining the university failed to respond to last year’s pro-Hamas takeover of Hamilton Hall and was derelict in protecting Jewish students from antisemitism.

On Wednesday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio vowed to take legal action against expatriate protesters who are visiting the US to attain an education.

“We are reviewing the via status of the trespassers and vandals who took over Columbia University’s library,” Rubio said, writing on the X social media platform. “Pro-Hamas thugs are no longer welcome in our great nation.”

Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.