Columbia University anti-Israel protesters vandalize campus statue with red paint, vow 'this action is the first of many'
Anti-Israel protesters at Columbia University vandalized a campus statue on Tuesday and said it's the first "action" of many.
Anti-Israel protesters at Columbia University vandalized a campus statue on Tuesday and said it’s the first “action” of many.
The Telegram channel “Unity of Fields” posted images of the vandalized statue on Columbia’s campus, which shows it covered in red paint.
”The first day of classes at Columbia University are drenched in blood,” the Telegram message read. “Protests are continuing against the school’s financial support for the zionist entity & repression of anti-zionist voices amid genocide. These photos show the Alma Mater statue at the library covered in paint.”
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Unity of Fields describes itself as an “Anti-Imperialist propaganda front bringing the war home.”
The group shared three demands from the individuals who vandalized the statue:
1. “This action is the first of many. We will not stop until the university fully divests from all forms of settler-colonial violence
2. Divestment is not an incrementalist goal. True divestment necessitates nothing short of the total collapse of the university structure and American empire itself. It is not possible for imperial spoils to remain so heavily concentrated in the metropole and its high-cultural repositories without the continuous suppression of all populations that resist the empire’s expansion; to divest from this is to undermine and eradicate America as we know it
3. We refuse to allow Columbia to return to a state of ‘normalcy’. ‘Normalcy’ is the structurally impelled displacement and eventual destruction of the Palestinian people
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4. We act in full support of the Palestinian resistance. This action is first and foremost an effort to extend the successes of the Palestinian resistance to the heart of the empire itself, to translate their resilience in Gaza to unrest and violence in America.”
A protest was also scheduled for Tuesday morning, according to a graphic for Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine.
”Columbia University’s first day of class is funded by Israel’s bombing of every university in Gaza. Shut it down,” the graphic stated.
Campus Reform reached out to Columbia University.