Anti-Israel agitators occupy Columbia campus as university president faces grilling from Congress [Video]

Anti-Israel agitators occupied Columbia University’s south lawn for hours on Wednesday as university president Minouche Shafik testified before Congress.

Dozens of protesters camped out in tents on school grounds, calling on the university to divest itself from companies that have ties to Israel. Shafik is on Capitol Hill to testify regarding antisemitism on Columbia’s campus alongside co-chairs of the university’s board of trustees.

“The presence of tents on South Lawn is a safety concern and a violation of university policies,” a University spokesperson told the student newspaper, the Spectator. “We are informing the students they are in violation of university policies and for their own safety and for the operation of the university they need to leave.”

The protesters pitched their tents earlier Wednesday morning as the university locked down its campus to ID holders only in anticipation of unrest relating to Shafik’s testimony.

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