New York police arrest pro-Palestinian protesters at Columbia University

New York police have arrested pro-Palestinian protesters at Columbia University a day after its president testified about antisemitism on campus at a congressional hearing.

Officers in riot gear cleared out a tent encampment and detained dozens of protesters after they occupied a campus lawn.

The arrests come as more than 33,000 people have been killed in Gaza since the beginning of Israel’s counteroffensive to the Hamas 7 October 2023 attacks in which 1,200 people were killed in Israel and around 250 taken hostage.

On Wednesday, university leaders told Congress they would push back against unauthorised student protests connected to the war in Gaza.

Police started to detain protesters shortly before 1.30pm, with others shouting “shame” as they were put on buses, The New York Times reported.

It comes as the daughter of Minnesota Representative Ilhan Omar, Isra Hirsi, revealed that she had been suspended from Barnard College, Columbia University, for taking part in the protest against the war and the university’s investments in Israel.

“I’m an organizer with CU Apartheid Divest @ColumbiaSJP, in my 3 years at @BarnardCollege I have never been reprimanded or received any disciplinary warnings,” Ms Hirsi wrote on X. “I just received notice that I am 1 of 3 students suspended for standing in solidarity with Palestinians facing a genocide.”

Columbia University President Nemat Shafik was asked during the hearing before the House Committee on Education and the Workforce on Wednesday if calling for the genocide of Jews violates Columbia’s code of conduct. She said it did. It was a repeat of a question that previously led to the dismissal of the presidents of Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania after they appeared