Pro-Palestinian Protesters Attacked on Columbia University Campus
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Columbia University Provost Dennis Mitchell described as “deeply troubling” an incident where students at a pro-Palestinian rally in New York were sprayed with a “foul-smelling substance”.
The alleged perpetrators have been banned from campus while the New York Police Department investigates “what appear to have been serious crimes, possibly hate crimes”, Mitchell said in a letter to students, published by the Columbia Spectator student newspaper.
“We are outraged and horrified that eight Columbia students have been hospitalized” after being sprayed with an “illegal chemical-based weapon”, Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine and Columbia Jewish Voice for Peace said in a joint statement.
The two student groups alleged the assailants who carried out the attack on the university’s campus in New York on Friday have links to the Israeli military.
According to the Columbia Spectator report, several students identified the substance as “skunk water“, which has been used against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem al-Quds.
The New York chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations condemned the reported attack Saturday.
“The alleged use of a chemical agent on the grounds of a college campus in NYC is beyond heinous. It is an escalation of violence launched against peaceful protesters by individuals who seek to inflict harm and undermine the principles of peaceful dialogue and dissent upheld in any democratic society,” Executive Director Afaf Nasher said in a statement.
