Pro-Palestinian protesters clash with security at Columbia University's main library

Pro-Palestinian protestors clashed with security at Columbia University’s main library on Wednesday, according to a student newspaper.

The Columbia Daily Spectator reported that protestors in Butler Library's Lawrence A. Wien Reading Room on Wednesday took part in an "Emergency Rally," but were stopped from getting out of the room by officers with the school's Department of Public Safety.

Students in the library were told to exit the building by public safety officers following the protest's start, with the officers placing themselves at the library's door and blocking other students from coming in, according to the Spectator.

On Butler’s outside, some protestors were able to force their way through some first doors and accessed a vestibule, the Spectator reported. However, public Safety officers closed the door linking the library and the vestibule, and handcuffs were used to secure it, according to the outlet. 

“Over 100 people have just flooded Butler Library and renamed it the Basel Al-Araj Popular University,” a Substack post that appeared to be from Columbia University Apartheid Divest, a coalition of pro-Palestinian student organizations at the school, said.

“The flood shows that as long as Columbia funds and profits from imperialist violence, the people will continue to disrupt Columbia's profits and legitimacy. Repression breeds resistance - if Columbia escalates repression, the people will continue to escalate disruptions on this campus,” the post continued.

The Spectator reported that a public safety officer told protestors in the room that they didn't "want to bring the NYPD on campus, we don't want to have to fight you on this one, please." 

The New York City Police Department (NYPD) posted on the social platform X Wednesday that they were "responding to an ongoing situation on campus where individuals have occupied a library and are trespassing" due to a request from Columbia.

“If you leave calmly, show your ID,” the Spectator reported that reading room protestors were told by a Public Safety officer.

Claire Shipman, the school’s acting president, said in a Wednesday statement that “individuals who disrupted activities in Butler Reading Room 301 still refuse to identify themselves and leave the building.”

“Due to the number of individuals participating in the disruption inside and outside of the building, a large group of people attempting to force their way into Butler Library creating a safety hazard, and what we believe to be the significant presence of individuals not affiliated with the University, 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 added.