CUAD holds emergency rally in Butler Library demanding Columbia divest from Israel, grant amnesty to disciplined protesters

Protesters occupied the main reading room of Butler Library, declaring it the “Basel Al-Araj Popular University.” At least 70 people were arrested by the NYPD.

Photo by Omkalthom Naser/The Barnard Bulletin

By Theresa Cullen, Fiona Hu, and Kimberly Wing

May 24, 2025

Around 3:20 p.m. on Wednesday, May 7, Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD) launched an emergency rally in the Lawrence A. Wien Reference Room, the main reading room of Butler Library. Approximately 100 protesters entered the library a few minutes prior and renamed the room the “Basel Al-Araj Popular University,” after the Palestinian activist. CUAD stated that Al-Araj’s “writings on the Palestinian resistance and on the nature of war guide revolutionaries around the world today.”

Meta permanently banned the CUAD Instagram account in March of this year. CUAD used Telegram and Substack to announce the Butler rally, which took place on the second day of the final exam reading period.

The Butler disruption comes approximately two weeks after NBC News reported that Columbia student protesters planned to stage an encampment on April 24 on the South Lawn, echoing last spring’s “Gaza Solidarity Encampment.” The reported encampment did not occur. 

According to an Instagram post by “Columbia4Palestine,” protesters at Butler demanded “full financial divestment from Zionist occupation, apartheid, and genocide, academic boycott of all complicit institutions, including the cancellation of the Tel Aviv Global Center, cops and ICE off our campus, end Columbia’s occupation of Harlerm; return land to Harlemites and open the gates, and amnesty for all students, staff, faculty, and workers targeted by Columbia University’s discipline.” 

As protesters inside the reading room began chanting, Public Safety officers told students studying in the library to vacate Butler via the main entrance. Around 30 minutes after the protest began, students were no longer permitted to enter Butler Library and Public Safety officers blocked the front entrance to the building. 

An individual who was in Butler’s Blue Java Café when the protest began told The Bulletin, “What was really crazy was Public Safety’s response. They were [really] aggressive. I have videos of people getting pushed over and slammed onto the ground. People inside have said that people have been choked and concussed and that they’re not being able to be let out.” 

The individual continued, “[Columbia University Emergency Medical Services] was eventually able to get in, but the response of them getting in there was really delayed, [around] an hour [to] an hour and a half. Public Safety was not letting [people] leave the room unless they were identifying themselves.”

At 4:44 p.m. Leslie Grinage, Vice President for Campus Life and Student Experience & Dean of the College, and Kelli A. Murray, Executive Vice President for Strategy and Chief Administrative Officer, sent an email advising the Barnard community to avoid the area. The email stated, “If there are any Barnard students participating in unauthorized activity at Butler, they should immediately comply with all rules and regulations and disperse.”

Approximately five minutes later, a protester inside of Butler reportedly needed immediate medical attention, and a Columbia faculty member arrived at Butler to mediate. Public Safety officers continued to refuse anyone entry into the building. 

Protesters attempted to force themselves through the main door, leading to physical and verbal altercations with Public Safety officers that resulted in a protester being hurt and pushed to the ground inside the vestibule between the main doors of Butler. The injured individual was escorted out of the Butler vestibule by other protesters.

Around 5:20 p.m., two hours into the protest, protesters inside and outside of the library again called for a faculty mediation. Four faculty mediators continuously requested access into Butler, but were refused entry. In response to Public Safety denying faculty access to the building, one protester stated, “We need to meditate. We need to de-escalate.”

Outside of the library, bystanders crowding around the front door began chanting “Let them out.” Around this time, Columbia4Palestine announced that three protesters were arrested.

Around thirty minutes later, one of the faculty mediators on the scene reported that Acting President Claire Shipman was present on the third floor of Butler but refused to talk to mediators or protesters. Faculty also repeatedly called University Provost Angela V. Olinto, who did not answer the phone. Public Safety, meanwhile, secured the main and side doors of Butler with zip ties and handcuffs.

At 5:56 p.m., an individual was arrested in the corridor on the second floor of Butler. Columbia Palestine Solidarity Coalition (CPSC) claims this was a Palestinian student who was “singled out” by Public Safety “because he filmed [Public Safety’s] brutality.” In the video, the individual can be heard screaming for help, while bystanders shout “You're hurting him.” Despite this, bystanders were blocked by Public Safety, and an EMT’s request to attend to the protester was ignored.

Shortly afterward, Public Safety sent out a text and email alert stating, “Butler Library is closed and the area must be cleared.” Columbia community members, including students, continued to demand entry into the building to retrieve necessities, such as medication and valuables, but were repeatedly denied access. Public Safety officers in Butler stated that emergency medical services were inside the building and denied entry to individuals claiming to be a doctor and a lawyer. 

At 6:17 p.m., the NYPD began to lead arrested protesters out of Butler onto 114th Street and load them onto detention buses in waves. Groups of additional protesters gathered at the intersections of 114th Street and Amsterdam, and on 114th and Broadway as the NYPD’s Strategic Response Group (SRG) prepared to transport detained protesters. The NYPD set up barriers to prevent the groups of protesters from gathering outside the entrance to Butler on 114th Street.

As detained protesters were escorted out of the library, protesters behind the barriers cheered and expressed their support for those arrested, chanting “Free our students, free them all,” and “Students, you make us proud.” Many protesters also booed, taunted, and insulted NYPD officers for arresting students. Final arrests of protesters involved with the disruption were made around 8:12 p.m. 

At least 70 protesters who participated in the Butler demonstration were loaded into six police buses. At least two protesters who required medical attention left Butler on stretchers escorted by Columbia University Emergency Medical Service.

Around 8:30 p.m., multiple confrontations between protesters and officers ensued on Broadway, with one officer attempting to hit the face of a protester behind the barricade who was arguing with the officer, resulting in another protester shoving the barricade against the officer. NYPD officers then pushed the barricade back against the crowd and arrested two more protesters. The police buses left 114th Street eight minutes later, escorted along the street by SRG. 

Once the police buses departed, protesters marched around the perimeter of campus, past Teachers College and underneath Revson Plaza, before rallying in front of the Amsterdam Gates. Approximately 55 police officers gathered in the surrounding area around the gates to monitor protesters, who then moved towards the sidewalk. SRG shoved several participants and observers of the demonstration while holding their batons, demanding for them to “back up.” Subsequently, one protester was pushed into a metal trash can. 

Acting President Shipman released a statement about the protest later that evening, insisting that Columbia took “the necessary step of requesting the presence of NYPD to assist in securing the building and the safety of our community.” She reported that two Public Safety Officers sustained injuries during the disruption, which she called “outrageous.”

“Columbia strongly condemns violence on our campus, antisemitism and all forms of hate and discrimination, some of which we witnessed today,” she continued.

In a video posted to Columbia University’s Instagram profile, Acting President Shipman said that she was present when NYPD arrived to arrest protesters, stating, “I wanted to see for myself how the operation would unfold, and I’m grateful that it was orderly, professional, and extremely limited, with a focus on the students who refused to leave the reading room.”

On the morning of Thursday, May 8, Barnard President Laura Rosenbury emailed the Barnard community to address the protest, condemning demonstrators for “bringing fear and disorder into this cherished academic space.”

Later that day, according to reporting by the Columbia Daily Spectator, three Barnard student journalists covering the Butler protest – one reporting for Spectator and two reporting for WKCR – were emailed notifications of suspension from Dean Grinage. The suspended student journalists were allegedly identified after they tapped their IDs while leaving Butler. Their suspensions were lifted the morning of Friday, May 9.

On May 9, Friday afternoon, Barnard’s Student Government Association (SGA) posted a statement to their Instagram, writing that “SGA is disheartened by the May 7th arrest of students on Columbia’s campus.” The statement also requested that students continue to reach out through the SGA email to share their needs and experiences and to be connected to resources if they “wrongfully received a notice of interim suspension.” 

Later that day, at 7:07 p.m., Huda Paracha, Barnard’s representative to the Columbia University Senate, emailed the Barnard community addressing the “Butler Occupation.” Paracha expressed that she was “deeply troubled by and strongly condemn these actions and the significant physical and emotional harm caused to the student body,” and that neither Columbia or Barnard can “rely on brute force to achieve a ‘peaceful’ front- not without harming students and deepening the rift between the student body and both Administrations.”

Barnard Bulletin Co-Editor-in-Chief Lily Sones and Campus News Staff Writer Jaya Shankar contributed to reporting for this article.