Israel-Hamas war one year later: How NY colleges are prepping for protests

Fear of war between Israel and Lebanon intensifies

Fighting has intensified in Lebanon as eight soldiers were killed. The Israeli military is also conducting strikes in Gaza while the prime minister vows to retaliate for Iran’s missile strikes. FOX 5 NY’s Jessica Formoso reports.

NEW YORK - A year after Hamas' Oct. 7 attack on Israel, universities in the tri-state area have been divided by protests.

As the conflict nears its one-year anniversary, college officials are taking action to prevent similar disruptions.

Campus protests began after Hamas’ deadly attack on southern Israel, when militants killed about 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and took roughly 250 hostages.

During the ensuing war, Israel has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, according to the local health ministry, which doesn’t distinguish between combatants and noncombatants but says at least two-thirds of the dead are children and women.

Universities are introducing measures aimed at ensuring campus safety and maintaining continuity, following last year's Israel-Palestine unrest.

Here's how colleges in our area are prepping for protests:

Columbia University

Pro-Palestinian student protestors at Columbia University Tuesday, April 30, 2024 after they occupied Hamilton Hall overnight. (Barry Williams/New York Daily News/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)

Columbia's steps to limit protests this semester have included restricting access to campus.

The university’s tall iron gates, long open to the public, are now guarded, requiring students to present identification to enter campus. Inside, private security guards stand on the edge of the grassy lawns that students had seized for their encampment. A new plaque on a nearby fence notes that "camping" is prohibited.

A spokesperson for Columbia said the university had since bolstered its guidelines around protests and developed new training for incoming students on antisemitism and Islamophobia.

The revised protest guidelines require organizers to inform the university of any scheduled protests, barring any demonstrations that pose "a genuine threat of harassment" or "substantially inhibit the primary purposes" of university space.

Like many universities, Columbia is also in the midst of a contentious debate about the definition of antisemitism, and whether anti-Zionist speech — common at the student protests — should be seen as a form of discrimination.

Columbia has a history of protest, most notably in 1968, when hundreds of students angry about racism and the Vietnam War occupied five campus buildings. After a week, a thousand police officers swept in and cleared them out, making 700 arrests. The Associated Press reported at the time that 100 students and 15 police officers were injured.

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New York University

Police intervene and arrest more than 100 students at New York University (NYU) who continue their demonstration on campus in solidarity with the students at Columbia University and to oppose Israel's attacks on Gaza, in New York, United States on Ap

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At New York University, which also saw large-scale protests and an encampment last spring, an updated code of conduct now warns students that speech critical of Zionism could run afoul of its anti-discrimination policy.

The move has drawn praise from major Jewish groups, as well as backlash from student groups and some faculty.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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