Columbia University students left the “Gaza Solidarity Encampment” en masse on Wednesday afternoon to shout down House Speaker Mike Johnson (R., La.) and four other House Republicans who demanded Columbia president Minouche Shafik’s resignation in a press conference on campus.
“I am here today joining my colleagues in calling on president Shafik to resign if she cannot immediately bring order to this chaos,” Johnson said to a chorus of boos. “As speaker of the House, I’m committing today that the Congress will not be silent as Jewish students are expected to run for their lives and stay home from their classes, hiding in fear.”
Johnson gave an overview of the situation on campus — after speaking with a group of Jewish students — that led him to call for Shafik’s resignation:
Today, Hamas issued an endorsement statement of the protesters on this campus. They called them future leaders of America. It is detestable. All of this has to be said because the cherished traditions of this university are being overtaken right now by radical and extreme ideologies. They place a target on the backs of Jewish students in the United States, and here on this campus, a growing number of students have chanted in support of terrorists. They have chased down Jewish students. They have mocked them and reviled them. They have shouted racial epithets. They have screamed at those who bear the Star of David. They have told Jewish students who wear the star of David to leave the country and shamefully some professors and faculty have joined the mobs. Things have gotten so out of control that the school has canceled in-person classes, and now they’ve come up with this hybrid model where they will discriminate against Jewish students. They’re not allowed to come to class anymore for fear of their lives. And it’s detestable.
While Johnson gave an impassioned address, most in the audience could not make out most of what he said. Student protesters drowned out his speech with chants of “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” and “Mike, you suck.”
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Representative Anthony D’Esposito (R., N.Y.) excoriated the crowd over the support it has received from Hamas.
“If you are a protester on this campus and you are proud that you have been endorsed by Hamas, you are part of the problem,” D’Esposito said to boos.
As National Review has previously reported, student activists have taken over Columbia’s main lawn in rallies that escalated over the weekend to the point that at least two people were assaulted and protesters yelled at Jewish students to “go back to Poland” and said “the seventh of October is going to be every day for you.”
Shafik initially gave the protesters a midnight deadline on Tuesday to clear out of the lawn. She later extended that deadline to 8:00 a.m. and ultimately to early Friday morning.
In the meantime, the “Gaza Solidarity Encampment” still stands, with a sign bearing the words “Welcome to the People’s University for Palestine” on the gate.
National Review attempted to enter the encampment through gates guarded by activists. One woman who identified herself as a Columbia faculty member and wore a neon yellow vest told NR that journalists were not allowed inside the encampment. When asked what authority she had to bar members of the press, she said it was within her power as a faculty member to do so.
A half dozen or so faculty members, all wearing neon vests, formed a chain to prevent NR and a small handful of other journalists from walking through the gates of the lawn, saying only students — particularly those who had been inside the “Gaza Solidarity Encampment” — were permitted to enter.
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