US lawmakers visit pro-Gaza encampment at New York's Columbia University

WASHINGTON

Two US lawmakers on Friday visited a pro-Gaza encampment at New York’s Columbia University to show support to protesting students.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Jamaal Bowman, both critics of Israel’s months-long offensive on the Gaza Strip, which has killed some 34,000 people, were seen in the encampment.

Last week's decision by Columbia University President Minouche Shafik to ask police to arrest demonstrators staging a sit-in on a campus lawn has served as a flashpoint in the wider protest movement. Protests and encampments have since spread to universities nationwide in defiance of arrests and threats from university administrators.

On Wednesday Ocasio-Cortez, an outspoken congresswoman representing parts of the New York City boroughs of the Bronx and Queens, criticized the university's decision to arrest students.

"Not only did Columbia make the horrific decision to mobilize NYPD (New York police) on their own students, but the units called in have some of the most violent reputations on the force. NYPD had promised the city they wouldn’t deploy SRG (Strategic Response Group police) to protests. So why are these counterterror units here?" she wrote on X.

Separately, Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman said on Wednesday that she is "deeply alarmed by the violence against and arrests of peaceful protesters."

"If universities are places to learn and grow, one’s responsibility to be active in civic life must be a part of that education. Otherwise the lessons taught in the classroom are merely theoretical," she said in a statement.

Ilhan Omar, a Muslim lawmaker whose daughter Isra Hirsi was also arrested during the protest at Columbia, was another member of Congress who stood up with the students, who are demanding a cease-fire in Gaza.

"Contrary to right-wing attacks, these students are joyfully protesting for peace and an end to the genocide taking place in Gaza. I’m in awe of their bravery and courage," she said on X after visiting the encampment at Columbia on Wednesday.

Protests have been reported at a wide array of campuses, including California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt; the University of California, Berkeley; the University of Southern California; the University of Texas at Austin; Yale University; the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities; Swarthmore College and the University of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania; the University of Rochester in New York; the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Tufts University, and Emerson College in Massachusetts; Emory University in Georgia; and the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.