On Wednesday, February 11, Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD) held a rally and political education session protesting against President Trump’s call to take control of Gaza.

On Wednesday, Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD) held a rally and political education session at the Sundial before moving downtown to join a protest organized by the Palestinian Youth Movement on the steps of the New York Public Library. CUAD announced the event in an Instagram post, writing that the protest called to “resist the notion that Gaza could ever be for sale, and show Columbia that [their] fight for divestment from the zionist entity does not stop with the ceasefire.” The protest comes one week after President Donald Trump’s February 4 proposal that the United States should take control of Gaza, forcibly and permanently removing the two million Palestinians currently living there.

At around 4:10 pm, the protest began with a speaker in the center of the Sundial leading chants surrounded by a group of about 25 people. The chants included, “Ceasefire, then liberation! End the Zionist occupation,” and “We want justice, you say why. Gaza is not yours to buy!” Soon after the chanting began, the crowd had grown to around 40 people.

Around 4:20 pm, the chanting stopped, and the first speaker started their speech by stating, “Existence is resistance!” They addressed President Trump’s recent claim that, in the words of the speaker, “Gaza is a prime spot for development and that the United States will own it.” The speaker criticized his “words reducing Gaza to a quote-unquote place to clean out.” The rest of the speech detailed recent events and death tolls. The speaker reaffirmed CUAD’s support for Palestinians’ right to land and liberation. They also condemned the University for their complicity in “actively aiding the genocide.”

One group of counterprotestors appeared at about 4:27 pm.  One of three men standing behind the sundial unfurled an Israeli flag. They stood with the flag for a few moments before leaving.

At 4:30 pm, a demonstrator in a torn and bloody Roar-ee the Lion costume came down from Low Steps and stood on the outskirts of the crowd, holding a tattered American flag reading “Columbia Funds Genocide.” The protestor stayed for around half an hour, chanting with the crowd.

The second speech began at 4:40 pm. The speaker spoke more about Trump’s plans, saying that “a ceasefire is not justice.” They also listed CUAD’s demands for 1) Divestment, 2) Academic boycott (of the Tel Aviv Global Center and study abroad collaborations), 3) Stopping displacement (in both Harlem and Palestine), and 4) Having police off campus by severing all ties with the NYPD.

Chants started again at 4:46 pm with around 30 people in the crowd. The chanting stopped a few minutes later when a speaker called for a short break to distribute hand warmers. They thanked everyone for their participation despite the cold weather and told the crowd to move in closer. 

Around 4:50 pm, the political education (“poli-ed”) portion of the rally started. The speaker explained that the purpose of poli-ed was to have a group discussion on political education, sharing various essays and stories. The first part of the poli-ed was a reading of a piece called “Letter to Gaza” by Ghassan Kanafani. Then, there were two readings from the book Gaza Writes Back: Short Stories from Young Writers in Gaza by Refaat Alareer. The first story was called “Story of the Land” by Sarah Ali, and the second was “Canary” by Nour al-Sousi.

The protest ended promptly at 5:20 pm after the speaker announced that a group of CUAD members and allies were heading downtown to join the Palestinian Youth Movement rally on the steps of the New York Public Library, calling for crowd members to join.

All photos via Bwog Staff