Pro-Palestine students rally outside Columbia, Barnard over expulsions

Several dozen pro-Palestine student protesters gathered outside Columbia University and Barnard College on Thursday, Feb. 27, 2025, to decry the expulsion of two students who disrupted a class on 'Israel' last month.

The students chanted slogans like “Free, free Palestine!” and waved handwritten signs reading “Reinstate our students now!” and “No more Zionist occupation!” amid a heavy New York Police Department (NYPD) presence restricting campus access to ID-carrying students and faculty.

The demonstration followed a Wednesday evening sit-in at a Barnard building, where students protested the same expulsions—stemming from a Jan. 21 interruption of a “History of Modern Israel” class.

Tensions at the sister schools have flared since last spring’s nationwide campus protests demanding university divestment from "Israel".

As of Thursday afternoon, over 116,600 people had signed a letter calling for Barnard to reverse the expulsions. Protesters highlighted "Israel’s" destruction of all Gaza universities, with one sign noting, “There are no universities left in Gaza.” A UN report from April 2024 labeled "Israel’s" actions “scholasticide,” citing the deaths of 5,800 students, 261 teachers, and 95 professors.

Across from the rally, a man unaffiliated with the students taunted the crowd with a pager, referencing last September’s deadly attacks in Lebanon.

The rally concluded with a march to join a separate protest against Governor Kathy Hochul, who on Wednesday ordered the City University of New York (CUNY) to scrap a Palestinian studies professor job posting at Hunter College, drawing ire from academic freedom advocates.