Columbia gives 7-word update on negotiations as university crosses deadline to clear anti-Israel protest
Columbia University officials continue to negotiate with anti-Israel demonstrators who have set up an encampment in the heart of campus despite crossing a deadline for the protesters to do so. The university gave an update on the "ongoing discussions" late Thursday evening.
On Tuesday, the university notified the agitators of a midnight deadline to reach an agreement to clear out of the encampment, pack up their tents and go home. Hours later, the university said it would give the students an additional 48 hours for negotiations. That deadline, too, came and went, but the university said there had been "progress" in the talks.
"We have our demands; they have theirs," Columbia said in an update which was posted just after 11 p.m. on Thursday.
In the update, the university said it would not invite the NYPD to the campus to clear the protest.
"The talks have shown progress and are continuing as planned," the university said. "A formal process is underway and continues."
Columbia continued, "For several days, a small group of faculty, administrators, and university senators have been in dialogue with student organizers to discuss the basis for dismantling the encampment, dispersing, and following university policies going forward."
The statement comes after more than 100 people were arrested at Columbia University and cited for trespassing. Hundreds of students across the country have held similar protests at their own schools and have subsequently faced similar legal recourse.
Columbia, seen as the epicenter of the current protests at other elite colleges and universities, swelled quickly, and there have been instances of antisemitism and violence.
"I've had a friend who was beaten up," Itai Driefuss, a third-year Columbia undergrad and Israeli military veteran from Tel Aviv, told Fox News Digital. "It's scary. It's violent."
He said the protesters are praising the militant Al-Quds Brigades, a Palestinian terror group aligned with Hamas. "It's the same people who do bus bombings and rape women and put babies in an oven."
ANTISEMITISM ON CAMPUS SURGES AS AGITATORS TAKE OVER
Driefuss told Fox News Digital that he and his girlfriend, who is also Jewish, had been followed home. He said he had been told to kill himself, spit on and shouted at.
"I don't think that's any way to have any campus, where you have a big part of your student body just scared for their lives," he said. "It’s loud, and it’s scary, and a lot of Jewish and Israeli people don’t walk around on campus after the sun goes down."
Similar protests have been witnessed at USC, Princeton, the University of Michigan, UT-Austin and Yale. Hundreds of anti-Israel agitators have been arrested.
Fox News' CB Cotton and Michael Ruiz contributed to this report.