Columbia AGAIN balks at removing Hamas-endorsed camp after extended deadline passes; 'We have our demands, they have theirs'
Columbia University appeared to signal it won't take action on Friday to remove the anti-Israel occupation on campus that is now past its first week.
Columbia University appeared to signal it won’t take action on Friday to remove the anti-Israel occupation on campus that is now past its first week.
In an email obtained by National Review reporter Zach Kessel, Columbia University President Minouche Shafik wrote Thursday night that “talks have shown progress” and are “continuing as planned.”
“For several days, a small group of faculty, administrators, and University Senators have been in dialogue with student organizers to discuss the basis for dismantling the encampment, dispersing, and following University policies going forward,” Shafik wrote.
”We have our demands; they have theirs. A formal process is underway and continues,” she added.
Shafik also said that rumors that the New York Police Department has been invited to campus are “false.”
NEW: Email from @Columbia president Minouche Shafik. “We have our demands; they have theirs,” she writes. pic.twitter.com/dwPuOCv3r0
— Zach Kessel (@zach_kessel) April 26, 2024
Shafik is again backtracking on a previous commitment.
Columbia University President Minouche Shafik wrote in a Tuesday night statement that administrators have been “in dialogue” with the encampment organizers in attempting to reach an agreement to take down the tents and ultimately leave the occupied area.
Shafik initially wrote that the encampment organizers faced a midnight deadline to reach an agreement with administrators and university representatives, but a protester inside the encampment told the Columbia Spectator that the deadline for negotiations were extended until 8 a.m.
After more discussions and a series of agreements from encampment organizers, negotiations will continue for the next 48 hours, according to a 3 a.m. statement from the university.
As of Friday morning, that deadline has passed.
Before the university announced on Wednesday morning talks would continue for the next two days, Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine and Columbia University Apartheid Divest, which organized the encampment, wrote on X that it left discussions with administrators “until there is a written commitment that the administration will not be unleashing the NYPD or the National Guard on its students.”
