Columbia University's campus was evacuated of more than 100 people who were staying at a pro-Palestine and pro-Gaza protest camp set up at the prestigious university who were protesting the war in Gaza. They were arrested and charged with trespassing on Thursday. The arrests came a day after the university's president pledged during a congressional hearing on anti-Semitism to balance students' safety with their right to freedom of expression.

After being summoned by Columbia President Minouche Shafik, an Egyptian native, in what she called an “extraordinary step” to keep the campus safe, NYPD officers wearing riot gear entered the camp in the afternoon and systematically arrested the protesters, who did not resist.

Tejasree Vijayakumar, the student body president at Columbia College, started crying, and was completely shocked, when she heard that the NYPD had moved there. Columbia's gates were closed all week, so that only people with a university ID could enter; she said they were peaceful student protests.

Shafiq said in a letter to the New York Police that the students who participated in the camp would be suspended.

On April 18, police at Columbia University handcuffed demonstrators who set up a pro-Palestinian encampment on campus.

The camp's removal came a day after Shafik and other Columbia University leaders faced scrutiny from federal lawmakers over anti-Semitism on their campuses, and as universities across the country struggle to balance freedom of expression and protest with the need for a safe campus six months away. 

Pro-Palestinian demonstrations also caused unrest outside campus this week. Demonstrators closed main roads for hours in cities such as New York and San Francisco to highlight the Israeli war on Gaza, which claimed the lives of at least 34,000 Palestinian citizens, most of them women and children. In Seattle and Chicago, protesters blocked entrances to international airports, forcing passengers and crew members to walk to their terminals or risk missing their flights.

Columbia University leaders were called to testify Wednesday before the Republican-led House Education and Workforce Committee as part of its investigation into anti-Semitism on campus. Lawmakers peppered them with questions that included scrutinizing slogans used at pro-Palestinian demonstrations, why they didn't stop a recent unauthorized protest, and how they disciplined participating students. This followed a hearing in December in which three other university presidents — from Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania and MIT — scrutinized the congressional testimony during which they refused to say that calls for the genocide of Jews violated campus policies. The leaders of Harvard and Penn later resigned.

Protests erupted at colleges across the country after October 7, and university officials are grappling with how best to respond to the tensions. The issue has been complicated by some of the language used at many of the demonstrations, which some listeners hear as Palestinian cries and others as calls to eliminate Israel.

On Wednesday, protesters set up tents in the middle of Columbia University's Morningside campus, the latest display of rising tensions at NYU and others across the country.

At an unsanctioned demonstration in Colombia earlier this month, a masked protester shouted: “There's nothing they can do to stop us!” As the crowd chanted and waved Palestinian flags, “This campus is ours!”

Shafiq on Thursday cited safety concerns and violations of university rules and policies as reasons to break up the demonstration, adding that the university issued written warnings to student protesters Wednesday night that they could face consequences if they did not pack up their tents.

More than 100 protesters occupied Columbia's South Lawn starting Wednesday morning, beginning a 20-hour protest that was in violation of university rules, New York Mayor Eric Adams (D) said Thursday in a news conference.

On Thursday, Columbia University leaders contacted the New York Police Department to say students were violating several university rules, had been suspended, and were trespassing. NYPD Commissioner Edward Caban said they requested that police come to campus to remove students if necessary. Officers went to the camp, gave the protesters several orders to leave and warned them that they might be arrested if they did not. When the demonstrators did not leave, the officers began arresting them, which happened “without incident.”

As many as 108 were arrested and charged with trespassing, the NYPD said. Two of them were also accused of obstructing government administration.

The footage (obtained by The Washington Post) showed officers detaining protesters with their hands behind their backs and several police buses carrying protesters while other protesters briefly formed a new crowd nearby.

The NYPD said Rep. Ilhan Omar's daughter, Isra Hirsi, was one of the protesters arrested and charged with trespassing. Earlier in the day, Hirsi, a student at Barnard College who is an organizer with the pro-Palestinian group Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine, said on social media that she had been suspended for participating in the protest. The previous day, Omar (D-Minn.) questioned Shafiq about anti-Palestinian protests on college campuses.