Less than 24 hours after the NYPD cleared the original Gaza Solidarity Encampment and arrested more than 100 students, Columbia protesters had already reoccupied the lawn in front of Butler Library.
Palestinian flags and hand-painted signs cover the grass in front of Butler Library as students gather at the rebuilt Gaza Solidarity Encampment on West Butler Lawn. The library’s facade, inscribed with the names of Sophocles, Plato, Aristotle, Demosthenes, Cicero, and Virgil, glows behind them. April 19, 2024.
By dusk on April 19, the new encampment on West Butler Lawn was fully established. A large banner reading “Gaza Solidarity Encampment” stretched across its center, flanked by Palestinian flags. Handmade signs reading “Join Us,” “Stop Bombing,” and calls for the university to divest from companies tied to the war in Gaza were laid across the grass. Dozens of students sat among blankets, bags, and supplies, settling in for what would become a nearly two-week occupation.
The previous day’s mass arrest — the first time Columbia had authorized police to suppress a protest since 1968 — had drawn national attention and widespread condemnation from faculty, who staged a walkout in solidarity. Rather than dispersing the movement, the arrests galvanized it.
An NYPD van idles with its door open as officers and onlookers gather on the street near Columbia’s campus. April 19, 2024.
As night fell, the police presence returned to the streets surrounding campus. Near the university’s perimeter, an NYPD van sat with its door open as officers milled among clusters of onlookers. The scene carried none of the urgency of the previous day’s raid — but the message was clear: the department was not going far.
NYPD officers in helmets form a line at W 116th Street on the edge of Columbia’s Morningside Heights campus. Several carry zip-tie restraints. April 19, 2024.
Blocks from the encampment, a row of helmeted NYPD officers stood shoulder-to-shoulder at the intersection of Broadway and West 116th Street. Some carried zip-tie handcuffs at their belts. The line faced outward, separating the campus from the surrounding neighborhood as the Morningside Heights apartment buildings rose behind them.
The standoff between students and administration was only beginning. Negotiations would continue for ten more days before collapsing on April 29, when protesters escalated by occupying Hamilton Hall — prompting a second, larger NYPD operation overnight.