A Barnard College staff member was assaulted and sent to the hospital on Wednesday evening by anti-Israel demonstrators who stormed the college’s main administrative building and remained there for several hours, chanting “resistance is justified when people are occupied” and “intifada revolution,” a spokesperson for the university confirmed to Jewish Insider. 

“Earlier today, a small group of masked protesters forcibly entered Milbank Hall and physically assaulted a Barnard employee, sending them to the hospital,” Barnard spokesperson Robin Levine told JI. “They encouraged others to enter campus without identification, showing blatant disregard for the safety of our community.” 

Levine said that the university has made “multiple good-faith efforts to deescalate.”

“Barnard leadership offered to meet with the protesters — just as we meet with all members of our community — on one simple condition: remove their masks. They refused. We have also offered mediation,” she said.  

Masked protesters left Milbank Hall around 10:30 p.m, after more than six hours, under the tentative agreement that Barnard President Laura Rosenbury and Dean Leslie Grinage would meet with the students Thursday afternoon. “The masked protesters left Milbank Hall after receiving final written notice and being informed that Barnard would be forced to consider additional necessary measures to protect the campus if they did not leave on their own. No promises of amnesty were made, and no concessions were negotiated,” Levine said. The original deadline the school had set for the protesters to vacate was 9:30 p.m.

A spokesperson for the NYPD told JI that a police report for the assault had been filed as of Thursday morning. According to the report, “a 41-year-old male stated he was shoved by numerous individuals and complained of pain about the body. The male was removed by EMS to Mount Sinai Morningside Hospital in stable condition.” There are no arrests and the investigation remains ongoing, the NYPD said.

Yardena Rubin, a junior, told JI that she couldn’t access her classroom at the designated class time. “This is an interruption of my learning yet again and it feels like last year all over again. It’s really intense and doesn’t make me feel safe,” she said, referring to the chaos that ensued last April on Columbia’s campus, in which anti-Israel groups protesting the war in Gaza occupied Hamilton Hall and held a 14-day illegal encampment in the middle of campus. 

Brian Cohen, executive director of Columbia University Hillel, told JI that he was “appalled that students once again stormed an academic building, prevented classes from taking place and, according to reports, violently assaulted a staff member.”

“This is a direct infringement on students’ right to enjoy an education without fear of harassment,” Cohen said.  

The demonstration was held in response to Barnard College’s decision three days earlier — in its most forceful response to anti-Israel activity on campus to date — to expel two second-semester seniors who last month disrupted a History of Modern Israel class. Flyers distributed by the protesters on Wednesday evening demanded “immediate reversal” of the expulsions and “amnesty for all students disciplined for pro-Palestine action or thought.”

The student group Columbia University Apartheid Divestment posted Wednesday on Instagram, “We have taken the administration completely off guard! They will have no peace until we have justice.”