Antisemitic riot at Columbia reaches boiling point as agitators take over academic building, barricade doors

Hours after Columbia University began suspending students who did not abandon their anti-Israel encampment in the heart of campus, the agitators dialed up their demonstration by taking over an academic building.

Early Tuesday morning, hundreds of anti-Israel protesters at Columbia's Manhattan campus took over Hamilton Hall, an academic building used by the dean and other senior offices. The unruly group gained access shortly before 1 a.m. and then began "moving metal gates to barricade the doors, blocking entrances with wooden tables and chairs, and zip-tying doors shut," according to the student newspaper Columbia Spectator.

Other footage showed the agitators in New York smashing windows, unfurling a Palestinian flag over a window and chanting: "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free" and "Palestine will live forever." Outside the facility, the anti-Israel rebels, many of whom wore masks, locked arms in front of Hamilton Hall to form a human barricade.