Biden condemns Columbia protests who have occupied campus building in support of Gaza: ‘Wrong approach’

The White House condemned Columbia University student protesters who took over a building on campus in protest over the war in Gaza, saying it was “not an example of peaceful protest.”

«The president believes that forcibly taking over a building on campus is absolutely the wrong approach,» John Kirby, National Security Council spokesman, said on Tuesday.

His comments come less than a week after the Biden administration signed a bill to send $26.4 billion to Israel to support its ongoing war in Gaza, which has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children. Over 100 Columbia students were arrested two weeks ago during peaceful protests at the campus.

Students broke into Hamilton Hall in the early hours of Tuesday morning, unfurling banners from the windows and barricading the doors. The hall has symbolic value to the protesters: it was one of several buildings on campus that were occupied during a 1968 civil rights and anti-Vietnam War demonstration on campus.

“This escalation represents the next generation of the 1968, 1985, and 1992 student movements which Columbia once repressed yet celebrates today,” said a statement from CU Apartheid Divest, an activist group that has been leading the protests.

In interviews with The Independent, some student organisers said they had studied the tactics of the 1968 protesters and were inspired by their movement.

The group said it had renamed the building Hind’s Hall in honour of Hind Rajab, a six-year-old girl who was killed in Gaza in an attack likely carried out by the Israeli army, although it has denied responsibility.

The protesters said they would remain in the building until their demands were met — namely for the university to divest from companies in