Shortly after Hamas’ October 7th attack on Israel, a box truck covered in LED screens displaying the names and photos of dozens of Columbia students started circling a pro-Palestine protest near the university’s Morningside Heights campus.
People who have attended marches or rallies, organized fundraisers for displaced Palestinians, or belonged to certain campus clubs have found themselves and even their families on the receiving end of relentless online harassment after their names were publicized by anonymous accounts that claim to combat antisemitism.
Visitors to the encampment are greeted by a tall sign announcing its community guidelines — no littering, no drugs or alcohol, no engaging with counterprotesters, no talking to cops — and a handful of volunteers in yellow vests who control the incoming flow of people.
There was a craft corner where people could make pro-Palestine signs: among them were pieces of cardboard and cloth that read “Anti-imperialism is feminist” and “End the blockade.” In the middle of the quad, students had set up a snack table — complete with a “nut zone” to accommodate their peers with allergies — that also had sunscreen, water bottles, and ibuprofen available.
“To send riot police to pick up peaceful protesters on our campus was unprecedented, unjustified, disproportionate, divisive, and dangerous,” Christopher Brown, a professor of history, told the crowd of a hundred or so people who assembled on the university steps.
If, at a future point, Columbia chooses to send in the NYPD again, after a week of elected officials suggesting that an encampment full of undergraduates making signs at their crafts corner and hosting Passover seders amounts to a national security emergency, the students who find themselves in handcuffs and zip ties will end up with targets on their backs.
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