Project
Dispatches From the Encampment
Student journalists were forced to rise to the challenge as the Gaza Solidarity Encampment unfolded.
The Gaza Solidarity Encampment was a historic protest in which Columbia University students occupied the school's Butler Lawn on April 17-30, 2024. They demonstrated in support of Palestinians in Gaza and demanded that the university divest from Israel.
On April 17, hundreds of students set up tents on the South Lawn. The next day university President Minouche Shafik authorized New York police to come onto campus and arrest 108 students, the largest mass arrest on campus since 1968. Soon after, students set up a second encampment and stayed for 13 days.
On April 30, shortly after midnight, the protests expanded into an occupation of Hamilton Hall. Later that evening, Shafik again authorized the NYPD to enter the campus. Over 100 were arrested. The NYPD remained on Columbia's campus until the end of the academic year.
The photographs below capture the quiet stillness of the Gaza Solidarity Encampment.
