Columbia students spark uproar with library takeover, and renew calls for divestment from Israel

Columbia University student protesters have drawn both praise and criticism after 75 were arrested by the New York Police Department for occupying a room in Butler Library, an escalation in their call for the university to divest from Israel.

On Wednesday afternoon, one hundred university students, led by Columbia University Apartheid Divest (Cuad), took over the Lawrence A Wien Reading Room in Columbia’s main campus library, “renaming” it the “Basel Al-Araj Popular University”.

Cuad released a statement on Substack as the “Emergency Rally” began, stating that “as long as Columbia funds and profits from imperialist violence, the people will continue to disrupt Columbia's profits and legitimacy”.

The action took place in one of the most populated buildings during finals week, Butler Library, which is named after former Columbia president Nicolas Murray Butler, a man that Cuad accuses of being “a shameless Nazi sympathizer” who “limited the number of Jewish people who could attend Columbia, and expelled students who protested against Columbia's ties with the Nazis”.