Hundreds of anti-Israel protesters were captured on video flooding up the stairs of Moynihan Train Hall at Penn Station in New York to take the train to Columbia University on Tuesday.
As protesters were videotaped making their way up the stairs to the train station, they could be heard chanting, “Free, free, Palestine,” as some were seen holding Palestinian flags and banners.
Once inside, protesters reportedly “marched and stood for the uptown A train in swarms,” the New York Post reported.
Protesters involved in the march going through Penn Station to Columbia University reportedly stopped at New York University, The New School, and the Fashion Institute of Technology earlier in the day.
Between 50 and 100 anti-Israel protesters were reportedly able to squish onto the crowded train.
Once on the train protesters chanted, “Uptown A train you will see. Palestine is almost free.”
Earlier in the day, Columbia University restricted access to its campus for the remainder of the semester in response to anti-Israel protesters seizing control of Hamilton Hall, an academic building on campus, in the early morning hours of Tuesday.
People rally on the campus of Columbia University which is occupied by pro-Palestinian protesters in New York on April 22, 2024. (CHARLY TRIBALLEAU/AFP via Getty Images)
Protesters were captured on video smashing glass, carrying in barricades, and hanging pro-Palestinian banners from the windows.
The university also responded by threatening to expel the students who were currently occupying the building.
A demonstrator breaks the windows of the front door of the building in order to secure a chain around it to prevent authorities from entering on Tuesday, April 30, 2024, in New York City. Demonstrators from the pro-Palestine encampment on Columbia’s Campus barricade themselves inside Hamilton Hall. (Alex Kent/Getty Images)
An initial anti-Israel encampment had been established at Columbia University on April 17. The next day, several students were suspended and hundreds of protesters involved in the encampment were arrested.
After the university removed the first encampment, a second one popped up in its place.
Anti-Israel encampments have also sprouted up at Harvard University, Rutgers University, the University of California Los Angeles, Princeton University, and George Washington University, among others.