By Juan Alberto Vazquez
Apr 30, 2024, 8:19 PM EDT
Even before climbing the stairs to leave subway line 1 at station 116 Columbia University, you can hear the chants and drums that are constantly maintained by students and sympathizers who oppose the war in the Middle East and ask for the liberation of Palestine.
In response to the takeover of the Hamilton Hall facilities by students early yesterday morning, university authorities decided to close all access to the educational institution, a decision that sent much of the tension to the street.
In front of this group of protesters who do not stop singing at the entrance to Broadway Avenue, there is a smaller group of other citizens wrapped in Israeli flags, who with fruitless shouts seek to extinguish the pro-Palestinians, even using whistles to treat them. to compete in decibels.
One 15 elements of the New York Police look at the scene, bored and attentive.
“I’m not sure what the story is here,” Allan Kreda, who watches the intense confrontation with songs and shouts, confesses to El Diario. He considers the conflict between Israel and Hamas to be something big enough to try to find some solution here. “It is a conflict of hundreds of years for which there is no immediate solution.” He says that on the one hand he sees the students singing and protesting “but they are still taking over the street without anyone being able to pass and now they are not letting anyone in, they are running and suspending the students, how can they risk that?” he asks. .
“That’s why I never liked writing about politics because they are issues that never end,” adds this veteran baseball, hockey and tennis writer. “In sports there is a beginning and an end: there is a structure, but not here,” concludes the writer who says he believes in freedom of expression but doubts whether those leading the protests in Columbia have already crossed a limit.
Consider that just as there is a strict line between protesting so madly and having freedom of expression, there is “a very big difference between hate speech and freedom of expression and many of them (students) handle hate speech.”
Fewer students, little food sales
Those who suffered yesterday from the fence implemented by the university authority were some of the food suppliers stationed on the boundaries of the university.
Born in Guerrero, Mexico, Gabriel N runs the taco and birria food truck called El Toro Rojo, which is always parked on Broadway, outside Columbia University.
The chef and micro-entrepreneur regrets the escalation of the conflict: “It is very difficult, because they have already sent the entire community to virtual classes and we live off of them; “Today has been a day of poor sales,” he complains.
On the other hand, Gabriel does not understand how it is that there are no rulers with the guts “to order these protests to be dismantled” and for things to return to normal. He suspects that the group of students in conflict is well financed by dark forces and swears that if Donald Trump returned to the presidency “these things would not happen.”
One more person who suffered yesterday due to the closure of facilities was Halim, who serves a smaller Halal food cart on Broadway and 120th Street. He assures that since this phase of the conflict began with the students setting up a camp three weeks ago, he has never He felt affected but that with the closure of the University things feel very different.
“They don’t let anyone in!” he laments as he looks toward the entrance to the University gym in front of where his business is located.
Old conflicts, same resolution
At the entrance through Amsterdam Street, although there are fewer protesters, there are a larger number of members of the press whose activities were limited to taking place in front of the fence.
Except for a small contingent of half a dozen media whose list was approved by school authorities, the others had to wait until, at least, the promise was fulfilled that someone from one of the parties in conflict would come out to give a conference on press.
In front of this conglomeration is David Lindorf, a graduate of Columbia University who was in the 1968 protests. He tells El Diario that he was 18 and had just entered this same school when “I decided that I did not want to participate in the War of “Vietnam because I thought that country was not a danger to the USA.” From then on he became an activist against the War to the extent that he was one of those who went to protest in front of the Pentagon and “then I was arrested and taken to a federal prison.”
Lindorf finds that some students who are not currently protesting complain and give a hard time to those who do decide to participate in the demonstrations. He remembers that his generation “did it all the time: we would get together and protest and nothing would happen.” He views this camp as innocuous with students “just hanging around and not affecting anyone.”
He considers it even more dangerous for the far-right to win the speech to try to silence the protests, as happened with the visit to Columbia by the President of the House of Representatives, Mike Johnson, a few days ago.
On April 30, 1968, during protests against the Vietnam War, police arrested 86 students who had also occupied Hamilton Hall.
56 years later something similar happens with renewed anti-war demands. It is still uncertain what the end of this conflict will be that is advancing without a solution in sight.