The first encampment was dismantled when university president Minouche Shafik authorized the New York City Police Department (NYPD) to enter the campus on April 18 and conduct mass arrests.

[30] Student protesters called on Columbia to financially divest from any company with business ties to the Israeli government, including Lockheed Martin, Microsoft, Google, and Amazon.

[31] The campus occupation was organized by Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD), a student-led coalition of over 120 groups;[32] Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP); and Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP).

[42][43][44] Groups of pro-Israel counterprotesters were also present outside the university and were generally much smaller,[8] with the exception of an April 26 march outside campus organized by StandWithUs and right-wing Christian Zionists that drew hundreds of people.

[3] That morning, at about 10 am, Columbia University president Minouche Shafik testified before the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, an event that had been planned weeks before.

[48] She had previously been invited to attend the November 2023 United States Congress hearing on antisemitism but had declined, citing a scheduling conflict.The next day, the Shafik-authorized[49] New York City Police Department Strategic Response Group[50] entered the encampment to arrest protesters[51] as Columbia University employees cleared the tents.

[53] After the NYPD appeared, a group of pro-Israel counter-protesters congregated to celebrate the university's response, waving American and Israeli flags.

Ben Chang, Columbia's spokesperson, said that organizers had met with university officials in the early morning to discuss the situation.

But the university said that "important progress" had been made in negotiations and that Shafik's original deadline would be extended by 48 hours, that the students had agreed to reduce the number of tents, and that they would ensure that protesters not affiliated with Columbia would leave campus.

[81] In the afternoon of April 24, Speaker of the United States House of Representatives Mike Johnson gave a speech in front of Low Library condemning the protesters and calling for Shafik to resign.

[90] Columbia library workers issued a statement condemning Shafik for deploying police and private security against the protesters.

[89] Khymani James, a Columbia student who had emerged as a leader of the protest movement, was barred from campus after a video from January surfaced in which they said, "Zionists don’t deserve to live".

[93][94] The New York Times said the student's comments raised the question, "How much of the movement in support of the Palestinian people in Gaza is tainted by antisemitism?

[7] According to Shafik's letter to the NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Legal Matters requesting police intervention, someone hid in the building until it closed, then let others in.

[113][114] Mayor Eric Adams said there was evidence that two outside agitators and "professionals", Lisa Fithian and the wife of Sami Al-Arian, had given students tactical knowledge and training to escalate the protests.

About 100 students participated in the protest, which was said to be a response to the Rafah offensive and a Washington Post article revealing that elites pressured Adams into sending the NYPD in during the second raid.

The New York Times reported that some students who were sympathetic to Palestinians had less desire to protest as a result of harsher rules and punishment from the administration.

[130] A continued crackdown on April 27 led to approximately 275 arrests at Washington, Northeastern, Arizona State, and Indiana University Bloomington.

[95] One Jewish student who wore a Star of David chain said she was confronted by a masked pro-Palestinian demonstrator on campus, who demanded to know if she was a Zionist.

Freshman student Nicholas Baum described hearing protesters "calling for Hamas to blow away Tel Aviv and Israel.

[147][148] On April 20, protesters both on and off campus were recorded targeting Jewish students with antisemitic vitriol, resulting in condemnation from both the White House and the New York Mayor's office.

One Jewish student reported protesters saying "kill all the Jews" and "we want one Arab state", describing the campus as a "hotbed for radical antisemitism".

[66] Progressive and student opinion writers have argued that national media may be pushing a skewed narrative by characterizing the protest as antisemitic and hateful.

[162] President Joe Biden referenced the protests in his statement on Passover, saying "harassment and calls for violence against Jews ... has absolutely no place on college campuses".

[166] Ocasio-Cortez wrote on X: "Calling in police enforcement on non-violent demonstrations of young students on campus is an escalatory, reckless, and dangerous act.

[12] On August 14, Columbia President Minouche Shafik resigned, citing "a period of turmoil where it has been difficult to overcome divergent views across our community".

[172] In an article for al-Jazeera, University of Michigan student Ahmad Ibsais called media coverage of the protest movement "sensationalist" and said that accusations of antisemitism were false.

[182] Investigative reporters for the Washington Post discovered that New York Mayor Eric Adams participated in a group chat with a group of pro-Israel billionaires with close ties to Israeli cabinet officials and ambassadors who discussed hiring private investigators to "handle" the protest and trying to pressure Columbia's president and trustees to cooperate with Adams and the NYPD.

[183] Early on April 30, Columbia suspended press access to campus, and said only identified students and essential personnel would be allowed in.

In an op-ed for The New York Times, Mara Gay wrote that, because of these restrictions, journalists were unable to fully assess what occurred during the second raid and could not verify allegations of police brutality.