On Monday afternoon, Barnard students gathered in an emergency protest to call for the resignation of Barnard President Laura Rosenbury if she does not demand a permanent ceasefire in Gaza. 

A significant crowd of students gathered in the Barnard Quad on Monday afternoon for an emergency protest known as “Barnard 4 Palestine.” The demonstration, publicized by Students for Justice in Palestine and BC/CU Jewish Voice for Peace, directed its one demand specifically at Barnard President Laura Rosenbury, calling for her to demand a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, or else resign.

Background

The protest that took place on Monday afternoon occurred alongside a global strike calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. Two journalists in Gaza, Motaz Azaiza and Bisan Wizard, who have been documenting the war, called on the world to stop going to work, school, spending money, and instead attend protests. The goal of this strike is to increase pressure on world leaders to “stop supporting and blessing the massacre that is happening in Gaza.”

On Saturday, December 9, an Instagram post from SJP and JVP called on the Barnard community to participate in an emergency protest. The groups demanded that “President Rosenbury must represent the Barnard community by publicly demanding a permanent ceasefire immediately on behalf of Barnard College.” 

Monday’s post also mentioned the UN Security Council resolution calling for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza—on which the United States was the sole veto—and said that “the genocide in Gaza has severely esclated in the days following the temporary truce.” The last slide of the post included a video of prison abolitionist and feminist political activist Angela Davis leading Barnard students in chanting “Free Palestine” at the Ella Baker National One-Day Symposium held last week in the Diana Center.

An “Unauthorized” Event

On Sunday evening prior to Monday’s protest, an email was sent out by Dean Leslie Grinage and Senior Vice President Sarah Gillman with the subject line “Campus Gate Access and Events Approval Policy.” The message informed students that the “Barnard 4 Palestine” protest was “unauthorized” as it was not approved in accordance with the Campus Events and Approval Policy. “Barnard supports peaceful assembly by students, faculty, and staff,” the email said, promising support from Events management “should organizers wish to schedule an authorized protest or event in the future.”

The message also mentioned that students are required to follow Barnard’s Student Code of Conduct and that participants in unauthorized events are “subject to the potential consequences.” While it is unclear what specific consequences organizers or attendees could face, the College’s code of Conduct outlines a number of potential sanctions for any individual or group found in violation, ranging from warnings to monetary fines, to suspension or expulsion.

Due to Columbia’s recent suspension of Students for Justice in Palestine and BC/CU Jewish Voice for Peace, the two groups are no longer permitted to hold events on Columbia’s campus this semester, and are effectively unrecognized for that period. Barnard’s event policy states that events can only be held by faculty and staff, student groups recognized by Barnard’s Student Government Association, and groups recognized by affiliated governing boards.  

Finally, the Sunday night email notified students that campus access would be limited starting Monday morning at 8:30 am. The campus entrance at 119th and Broadway was closed altogether, while the main entrance on 117th and Broadway and the gates on 119th and Claremont were open to CUID holders only. A significant number of Barnard CARES and NYPD officers were stationed outside of the main gates as students were asked to line up single-file and scan their IDs in order to enter campus. Visitors for pre-scheduled activities, such as campus tours, had to be escorted by Barnard affiliates from outside of the gates to their final destination. 

At around 10:30 am on Monday, witnesses reported that a Barnard campus tour was interrupted by an individual with a megaphone, who gave a speech directed at prospective students for around two minutes before allowing the tour to continue uninterrupted. It is unknown whether this individual was affiliated with the larger protest.

The Protest

The protest began in the Barnard Quad, where first-year Barnard students are housed. Protest organizers distributed handouts to attendees that included a list of chants for each part of the protest. Once protesters had started to gather, banners were dropped from the windows of students’ dorms, reading “R U appalled yet?” This was an apparent reference to President Rosenbury’s October 26 email to students, in which she stated she was “appalled and saddened to see antisemitism and anti-Zionism spreading on campus.” In their Instagram post advertising the protest, SJP and JVP pointed to this email as evidence that Rosenbury was “conflating” the two issues.  Additional banners read “Barnard students rising up,” and “Does genocide appall U?” Some minutes later, another student put up an Israeli flag in their window.

Next, protesters began walking to Milstein. Outside the entrance to the Quad, near the entrance to Barnard Hall, a small group of pro-Israel counter-protestors gathered with a speaker playing music and dancing while waving the Israeli flag. Some of the “Barnard 4 Palestine” protesters blocked the view of Israeli flags with their own banners, but most continued onto their destination of Futter Field. 

On Futter Field, the protesters formed a circle, and continued chants directed at President Rosenbury. Protesters also dropped banners from the Milstein balconies, and a long sheet of paper with the names of fallen Palestinians was laid out on the field. They also chanted about withholding donations from Barnard until the College calls for a ceasefire. 

Several speakers came over the megaphone and spoke about the recent UN Security Council resolution, as well as the growing death toll of Palestinians. They also said that President Rosenbury has not called the war a genocide. By this point, the pro-Israel counterprotestors had moved to the back of Futter Field, where they attempted to interrupt the “Barnard 4 Palestine” speakers by shouting “Free Gaza from Hamas” over their own megaphone and playing music loudly. 

One student participating in the “Barnard 4 Palestine” protest, who was continually interrupted by counter-protesters while speaking over the megaphone, yelled that they were “talking over a Barnard student on her own campus” and asked, “why are there men on our campus?” 

At one point, as one of the “Barnard 4 Palestine” speakers was concluding their speech on the megaphone, they yelled “intifada, intifada, long live intifada,” which was then echoed by protesters. Historically, pro-Israel and pro-Palestine figures have disagreed on the usage and meaning of phrases like this. Intifada is an Arabic word, the literal translation of which  is “shaking off,” and which is often used in a Palestinian context to reference civil uprisings against Israel.  The term is also sometimes used to refer to specific historical Palestinian uprisings, such as those in 1987 and 2000. However, others have argued terms like “intifada” and “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” another common protest chant, call for violence against Jews. The chant “intifada, intifada, long live intifada” was not on the list of chants distributed to protesters, but “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” was. 

The final speaker at the “Barnard 4 Palestine” protest informed attendees of the Tuition Strike, an initiative announced by  various student groups last week calling on Columbia students to withhold their spring tuition payments in order pressure the University into divesting from Israel. Organizers distributed another round of handouts to attendees, these with QR codes to the Google pledge form. After that speech, students chanted a while longer and then ended the protest by yelling “We’ll be back!” before dispersing. 

All Photos via Bwog Staff