Student Protesters at Columbia Occupy the iconic Hamilton Hall

The student protestors at Columbia University took over the iconic Hamilton Hall early on Tuesday.

Dozens of Pro-Palestine demonstrators at Columbia University occupied an academic building as part of their protest over the war in Gaza.

On Monday, the university administration warned the students that they would face disciplinary action if they failed to move by 14:00 EST (18:00 GMT). 

However, as the deadline passed, dozens of students continued to rally at the site.

 

The students who have remained defiant despite all threats against them will go down in history. 

Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), one of the main protest groups, vowed to defy the order in a post on X. 

 Columbia SJP called on activists to “protect the encampment”.

The group later said it had taken over Hamilton Hall, highlighting that the venue was also the focus of student protests in 1968.

“An autonomous group of students reclaimed the building as “Hind’s Hall” in honor of Hind Rajab, a six year old girl from Gaza. We continue to stand in solidarity with the Palestinian Liberation,” the statement from Columbia SJP said. 

 

Outside Hamilton Hall students were chanting “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” and “Palestine will live forever,” the video now doing rounds on social media shows.

Hamilton Hall, the building at Columbia University that protesters occupied early Tuesday, has a history of notable moments of student protest at the building.

The building, which opened in 1907, has previously been the centre of protest movements several times. 

In 1968  over the Vietnam War, in 1972 antiwar protests, and in 1985 protesters occupied Hamilton Hall in protest of occupation in South Africa as they demanded that the university divest from companies that were doing business in South Africa. 

The last protest was in 1992. When the students occupied Hamilton Hall in protest of Columbia’s plans to turn the Audubon Theater and Ballroom, where Malcolm X had been assassinated in 1965, into a biomedical research complex. The blockade lasted less than a day.