Pro-Palestinian protesters are detained by NYPD after taking part in a demonstration at Butler Library on the Columbia University campus in New York, US, May 7, 2025. Photo: Dana Edwards via Reuters Connect.

New York City Police Department (NYPD) officers on Wednesday arrested over 75 members of a pro-Hamas student group that occupied Columbia University’s Butler Library and vowed not to leave unless school officials accede to a list of five demands calling for, among other things, a boycott of Israel and divestment from armaments manufacturers.

“When Columbia speaks of its rich history and commitment to upholding its values, these are the values it speaks of: death dealing, displacement, imperialism, segregation, colonialism, nazism, state violence, abductions, anti-Black racism, zionism, and white western hegemony [sic],” the group, Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD), said in a social manifesto issued after commandeering the Butler Library. “It is our duty to rise to this moment, for the people of Gaza. It is our duty to escalate. It is our duty to be brave. We have nothing to lose but our chains.”

According to The Columbia Spectator, the demonstration soon faltered after CUAD was out maneuvered by Columbia’s private security forces, who effectively detained the students inside the Butler Reading Room by locking it from the outsider to prevent others, including faculty who wished to offer themselves as “mediators,” from coming in. Meanwhile, the Spectator said, the university dispatched a team of “special patrol officers” and others who initiated negotiations to end the demonstration.

“We don’t want to bring NYPD on campus, we don’t want to have to fight you on this one, please,” an officer told one of the leading protesters, who demanded in response that students be allowed to exit Butler of their own volition. The officer said they would be allowed to do so in exchange for presenting identification, a condition the students reportedly rejected with laughter. Some students later attempted to leave Butler without permission from the officers. The effort did not succeed.

“We refuse to show our IDs under militarized arrest,” CUAD later said a statement, referencing the negotiations. “We refuse to go down quietly.”

Having reached an impasse, interim Columbia University president Claire Shipman — the school’s third new chief executive in two years — requested the help of the NYPD, a decision she justified in a statement as “necessary” for preserving Columbia’s academic mission. By the time the remarks were published, two Columbia officers had been assaulted by a crush of demonstrators who resolved to enter Butler by storming it.

“Columbia has taken the necessary step of requesting the presence of NYPD to assist in securing the building and the safety of our community,” Shipman said. “Disruptions to our academic activities will not be tolerated and are violations of our rules and policies; this is especially unacceptable while our students study and prepare for final exams. Columbia strongly condemns violence on our campus, antisemitism, and all forms of hate and discrimination, some of which we witnessed today. We are resolute that calls for violence or have no place at our university.”

The NYPD’s operation to clear Butler was quickly completed after officers arrived there at 7:25 pm, the time cited by the Spectator. Bundling them “20 at a time,” the officers relocated the students to an NYPD bus used for mass arrests.

Even with those numbers, however, the protest betrayed the attenuating momentum of the pro-Hamas movement at Columbia University. Last year, police arrested 109 protesters for commandeering Hamilton Hall. This year’s occupation saw a 31 percent reduction in arrests and a noticeable drop in student participation, a trend seen elsewhere, as campus newspapers have reported less interest in protesting in support of terrorism.

On Thursday, Shipman declared that “Butler is Now Open!” in a triumphant statement which stressed the campus’ swift return to normalcy.

“Butler Library is now open to students, and the third floor reading room — with thanks to the efforts of a large and dedicated overnight facilities team — is restored and ready for use,” Shipman said. “Butler will, as is usual, remain open overnight this evening, and we will have normal operations across all other libraries today…Thank you again, for your resilience, and best of luck to all of our students as finals begin. I look forward to seeing members of our community on campus today.”

Columbia University is not the first school to quell an attempt to establish a pro-Hamas encampment in recent weeks. Swarthmore College and the University of Washington (UW) did so between Saturday and Monday, securing the arrest of over 30 students.

At UW, a pro-Hamas student group calling itself “Super UW” commandeered the school’s Interdisciplinary Engineering Building (IEB) and refused to leave unless school officials terminated partnerships with The Boeing Company, whose armaments manufacturing they identified as a resource aiding Israel’s war to eradicate Hamas from Gaza.

The illegal demonstration involved students erecting blockades near the building using “bike rack[s] and chairs,” burning trash — setting off sizable fires — that they then left unattended, and calling for violence against the police. Law enforcement officers eventually entered the building equipped with riot gear, including helmets and batons, and proceeded to arrest over two dozen protesters.

According to The Phoenix, Swarthmore College’s independent campus newspaper, the encampment there was stationed by Students for Justice in Palestine, a campus group which has been linked to Islamist terrorist organizations, last week in an attempt to “revive” similar demonstrations staged last year. Naming the encampment the “Hossam Shabat Liberated Zone,” SJP called on its supporters to “escalate” and establish a “site of colonial resistence [sic].”

Columbia University had ample motivation to thwart CUAD’s demonstration. In March, the Trump administration impounded $400 million in taxpayer funded research grants and contracts after determining the university failed to respond to last year’s pro-Hamas takeover of Hamilton Hall and was derelict in protecting Jewish students from antisemitism.

On Wednesday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio vowed to take legal action against expatriate protesters who are visiting the US to attain an education.

“We are reviewing the via status of the trespassers and vandals who took over Columbia University’s library,” Rubio said, writing on the X social media platform. “Pro-Hamas thugs are no longer welcome in our great nation.”

Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.

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Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa speaks during a joint press conference with French President Emmanuel Macron after a meeting at the Elysee Palace in Paris, France, May 7, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Stephanie Lecocq/Pool

Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa announced that Damascus is holding indirect talks with Israel through mediators, confirming earlier reports of negotiations between the two countries amid escalating regional tensions.

As Syria’s new leadership seeks regional support to address its growing conflict with its southern neighbor, al-Sharaa said the indirect talks — reportedly mediated by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) — were aimed at “easing tensions and preventing the situation from spiraling out of control for all involved parties.”

Speaking at a press conference in Paris on Wednesday after meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron, the Syrian leader also said that “the Israeli intervention constitutes a violation of the 1974 agreement” between Jerusalem and Damascus.

Following the fall of long-time Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in December, Israel deployed troops into a buffer zone along the Syrian border to establish a military position aimed at preventing terrorists from launching attacks against the Jewish state.

The previously demilitarized zone in the Golan Heights was established under the 1974 Disengagement of Forces Agreement between Damascus and Jerusalem that ended the Yom Kippur War. However, Israel considered the agreement void after the collapse of Assad’s regime.

Earlier this year, al-Sharaa became Damascus’s transitional president after leading the rebel campaign that ousted Assad, whose Iran-backed rule had strained ties with the Arab world during the nearly 14-year Syrian war, with an offensive spearheaded by al-Sharaa’s Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group, a former al-Qaeda affiliate.

During the press conference in Paris, al-Sharaa also revealed that his government is reaching out to countries with diplomatic ties to Israel, urging them to pressure Jerusalem to stop what he described as “IDF [Israel Defense Forces] interventions and attacks” in Syria.

Earlier on Wednesday, Reuters reported that the UAE was facilitating a backchannel for indirect talks between Jerusalem and Damascus.

Since 2020, as part of the Abraham Accords — a series of historic US-brokered normalization agreements between Israel and several Arab countries — the UAE and Jerusalem have strengthened their diplomatic relations and cooperation, positioning Abu Dhabi as a key avenue to address this regional dispute, given the absence of direct relations between Israel and Syria.

These mediation efforts follow Israel’s recent strikes in Syria, which Israeli officials have framed as a message to the country’s new leadership in response to threats against the Druze, an Arab minority sect whose religion, originally derived from Islam, has adherents in Syria, Lebanon, and Israel.

Jerusalem has pledged to defend the Druze community in Syria with military force if they come under threat.

For its part, the Syrian government has accused Israel of fueling instability and interfering in its internal affairs, while the new leadership insists it is focused on unifying the country after 14 years of conflict.

Following his meeting with al-Sharaa in Paris, where he promised to lift long-standing sanctions on Syria, Macron condemned Israel’s military campaign in the south of the country.

“You can’t ensure your country’s security by violating the territorial integrity of its neighbors,” the French leader said in a press conference.

For years, Israel has conducted strikes in Syria as part of a covert campaign to undermine Iran and its proxies, including Hezbollah, the Iran-backed terrorist group in Lebanon that expanded its influence after intervening in Syria’s civil war in support of Assad.

Since the fall of Assad’s regime last year, Israel has ramped up its military operations in southern Syria, with officials asserting that the strikes are aimed at targeting Islamist militant groups. These actions have included bombings of military sites and the deployment of ground forces along the Golan Heights buffer zone.

Although al-Sharaa has repeatedly pledged to unify Syria’s armed forces and restore stability after years of civil war, the new leadership continues to face major hurdles in convincing the international community of its commitment to peace.

Incidents of sectarian violence — including the mass killing of pro-Assad Alawites in March — have deepened fears among minority groups about the rise of Islamist factions and drawn condemnation from global powers currently engaged in discussions on sanctions relief and humanitarian aid.

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Peter Beinart, a prominent anti-Israel writer, being interviewed in January 2025. Photo: Screenshot

One of the big problems with New York Times coverage of Israel and American Jewry is the extent to which it relies on a single voice who is out of the mainstream and who isn’t a particularly reliable guide — Peter Beinart.

How far beyond the pale is Beinart? A Times columnist who is more sensible, Bret Stephens, recently wrote in Sapir about an invitation that involved “a well-known Jewish writer whose political views had, over the years, shifted from center-left Zionism to far-left anti-Zionism. The two of us had previously appeared in at least a dozen public events and, notwithstanding our deep political differences, had an amicable offstage relationship. There was also a generous honorarium on offer.”

Stephens wrote, “This time, however, something in me revolted at the thought of seeing my name next to his. I told the organizer that I would not share a platform with him. Not after October 7. Not for any amount of money. Never again.”

It was clearly a reference to Beinart. Stephens wrote, “To call now for the end of Israel invites the destruction of the Jews. That’s not a position that deserves a stage, particularly when it isn’t even made forthrightly. It fails the test of intellectual seriousness and honesty.”

Yet the New York Times has given Beinart a stage — with at least 11 Times bylines after October 7. I’ve called him the New York Times‘s favorite Jew.

Beinart’s latest piece for the Times was published April 18, complaining about what he calls a “redefinition of Jewishness” to include Zionism.

He claims that “in New York alone, at least 10 non-Zionist or anti-Zionist minyanim, or prayer communities, have sprouted in the past several years.” As much as Beinart may insist or attempt to portray anti-Zionism as authentically Jewish, these communities are going to have issues when they confront the actual words of the Hebrew Bible, with its story of the journey of the Jewish people to the land God promised and verses such as “If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning.” The ones redefining Judaism are the anti-Zionists, not the Zionists.

Some of these anti-Zionist groups billing themselves as “Jewish” exist “with organizing support from Christians for a Free Palestine.” Or they are funded with money from the non-Jewish Rockefeller Brothers Fund (on whose board Beinart sits, a fact not disclosed to Times readers). There’s nothing wrong with Jewish groups taking non-Jewish money for Jewish purposes, but taking it to undermine Israel or to redefine Judaism as anti-Israel activism is something else. The Beinart column talks extensively about Jewish Voice for Peace without disclosing to Times readers that Beinart is on the board of a foundation that is one of its main funders.

If the regular appearances of Beinart’s column in the Times weren’t enough, the Times book review recently ran a piece that deifies Beinart, referring to his writing as “scriptural” and fawning about his supposed courage. “For years, and at great personal cost, Beinart has been one of the most influential Jewish voices for Palestine,” the Times book reviewer writes. Beinart may have paid a personal cost, but professionally, he’s done okay for himself: he’s a contributing opinion writer at the New York Times, a $182,710 a year distinguished professor at the City University of New York, and runs around giving speeches at Stanford, Princeton, and Harvard.

The Times briefly came to its senses and dumped Beinart as a contributing writer in April 2021 as part of a broader housecleaning, but he’s since regained the title. A year ago, when I wrote about this, I said Beinart’s utility at the Times was commercial: “Some portion of the Times online readership — alienated graduate students and other young, college educated liberals, along with increasing numbers of non-Americans — are looking for someone to give them a pass to hate Israel, basically to excuse their antisemitism. Beinart serves that function.” In that sense, Beinart himself is the New York Times version of those Jewish anti-Israel protesters on college campuses that he devotes his column so ardently to defending.

Good for Bret Stephens for giving Beinart the “never again” treatment. Eventually maybe the people running the New York Times will wise up and make the same call.

Ira Stoll was managing editor of The Forward and North American editor of The Jerusalem Post. His media critique, a regular Algemeiner feature, can be found here.

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