Defiant Columbia students return to 'Gaza solidarity camp' despite NYPD arrests as they moan president is trying to silence them

Defiant Columbia students have returned to their 'Gaza solidarity camp' despite facing more than 100 arrests yesterday along with fiery counter-rallies.

Pupils from the ivy league college re-built the pro-Palestine encampment Friday morning as they vowed to resist being 'silenced' by college officials. 

Columbia president Minouche Shafik, who testified before Congress about campus anti-Semitism on Wednesday, reported students to NYPD, and footage shows cops piling a group of demonstrators into a large police van on Thursday. 

NYPD told DailyMail.com officers arrested more than 100 people during the two-day sit-in on Wednesday and Thursday. So far ten have been charged, mostly with resisting arrest and obstructing governmental administration.

A small number of more unruly protesters have also been charged with assaulting a police officer, disorderly conduct and harassment, the department added. 

Pupils from the ivy league college re-built the pro-Palestine encampment Friday morning as they vowed to resist being 'silenced' by college officials

Defiant Columbia students have returned to their 'Gaza solidarity camp' despite facing more than 100 arrests yesterday along with fiery counter-rallies

The pro-Palestine students returned to the college's Butler Lawns as early as 5am on Friday

Several fights also broke out as the demonstrators were met with pro-Israeli counter-protesters. 

The pro-Palestine students returned to the college's Butler Lawns as early as 5am on Friday. Footage from later in the morning shows them clapping and chanting 'we will not be moved'. 

Speaking through a megaphone, one student read a message she said someone from Gaza had sent thanking them for their 'continued support for the Palestinian cause'. 

Dozens of students listened to her speak and repeated each line while wearing keffiyehs - a monochrome patterned scarf which serves as a symbol of Palestinian identity - and waved the national flag.

A livestream from the lawns overnight showed hundreds of students beating drums and singing. 

Protester Maryam Iqbal told The Nation: 'Being suspended for Palestine is an honor. The more they try to silence us, the louder we will get.'

Through the day on Thursday, dozens of cops clad in riot gear arrived to disperse the camps.

Columbia president Shafik said they were called after 'attempts to resolve the situation were rejected by the students involved'.  

'As a result, NYPD officers are now on campus and the process of clearing the encampment is underway,' she said. 

Videos posted by the organizers show people being handcuffed while protesters chanted 'shame on you' at the officers. 

Defiant Columbia students have returned to their 'Gaza solidarity camp' despite facing more than 100 arrests yesterday along with fiery counter-rallies

A sign is seen as demonstrators protest in solidarity with Pro-Palestinian organizers in a sit in on the Columbia University campus, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in New York City, U.S., April 19, 2024

Demonstrators protest in solidarity with Pro-Palestinian organizers in a sit in on the Columbia University campus on Thursday 

NYPD officers arrested more than 100 people at the camp on Wednesday and Thursday

The encampment was organized by Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD) - a student-led coalition of several groups, Students for Justice in Palestine, and Jewish Voice For Peace. 

They gathered to protest what they called the university's 'continued financial investment in corporations that profit from Israeli apartheid, genocide, and military occupation of Palestine'.

Rep Ilhan Omar's daughter Isra Hirsi was among those arrested - and she was shown in footage looking worried as she was handcuffed by cops. 

The daughter of the staunch Democrat had already been suspended by her university, Barnard College, earlier for joining the protest on the Upper West Side.