a university building last year during a pro-Palestine demonstration. Punishments range from multi-year suspensions to expulsions, and revocation of student degrees, the university said in a statement last Thursday, following a review of the “severity of behavior at these events” and past infractions by students if any. The university did not say how many students were to be punished and declined to name those targeted to protect their privacy.

The punishments relate to events in April 2024, when student protesters briefly occupied Hamilton Hall during a larger series of pro-Palestine and pro-Israel demonstrations across the university’s Manhattan campus. Protesters took action seeking an end to US support for Israel’s war on Gaza and for the university to divest from Israeli companies, among other demands. During the Hamilton Hall occupation, students barricaded themselves in the building but were later removed by police. The university claims the protesters also vandalised the building.

News of the severe punishment of student protesters comes just days after former Columbia postgraduate student Mahmoud Khalil was arrested by US immigration authorities at the behest of the US Department of State over his involvement in pro-Palestinian activism. Khalil, who is a permanent resident of the US and is married to a US citizen, took part in demonstrations until his graduation in December. Khalil’s deportation has been temporarily blocked by a federal judge, but he remains in custody in a detention facility in the southern state of Louisiana. Last week, US President Donald Trump also announced that he would be cancelling $400m of federal government grants and contracts due to “legitimate concerns” of anti-Semitism on campuses linked to the pro-Palestinian protests. (Al Jazeera/Reuters)