Group of pro-Palestinian protesters stage sit-in at Barnard College to protest student expulsions

A small group of protesters demonstrated inside a building at Barnard College’s campus in Manhattan Wednesday in support of two students who were reportedly expelled for disrupting an Israeli history class last month, according to student activists and Barnard officials.

A small group of protesters demonstrated inside a building at Barnard College’s campus in Manhattan Wednesday in support of two students who were reportedly expelled for disrupting an Israeli history class last month, according to student activists and Barnard officials. Nearly 100 students from Barnard and Columbia University – which is affiliated with Barnard and was a focal point of pro-Palestinian demonstrations last year – staged a sit-in at Barnard’s Milbank Hall, the activist group Columbia University Apartheid Divest, or CUAD, said on social media. Videos posted to social media by CUAD Wednesday showed masked students, many of them wearing keffiyehs, a traditional Middle Eastern scarf often symbolizing Palestinian identity, sitting inside a hallway chanting, clapping and beating drums. A Barnard spokesperson told CNN the students “physically assaulted a Barnard employee, sending them to hospital.” CUAD said on social media Barnard security staff “harassed and shoved several students, knocking at least one to the ground.” CNN has reached out to the group for comment. By Wednesday evening, the protesters had left Milbank Hall without further incident after Barnard set a deadline and warned of further action.