Columbia University students staged another walkout and subsequent sit-in protest during former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s “Inside the Situation Room” class on Wednesday.
Former First Lady Heckled By College Students
Video footage displays Clinton walking past a common area of Columbia University’s International Affairs Building while protesters chant slogans such as “Hillary, Hillary you can’t hide, you are supporting genocide.”
The disruption occurred outside a class named “Inside the Situation Room,” taught by the former first lady and secretary of state.
As shown in the video shared by BreakThrough News, Clinton, a former senator from New York, did not visibly interact with the protesters, most of whom were seated on the ground holding signs with messages like “Columbia funds apartheid” and “Viva Viva Palestine.”
Demonstrators, many wearing face masks, also chanted the name of Clinton’s co-instructor, Keren Yarhi-Milo, dean and Adlai E. Stevenson professor of international relations, accusing her of supporting genocide.
In another online video, student protesters shouted, “Take our demands, take our demands!” as Clinton and Yarhi-Milo exited the lecture hall.
While both instructors walked toward the exit, the protesters continued with chants of “Shame on you! Shame on you!” Another video clip showed students holding signs that read, “Columbia Has Blood on Its Hands.”
In response to the incident, a spokesperson from Columbia School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) stated, “We continue to support our students who wish to express themselves through respectful speech while at the same time we fulfill our responsibility to maintain the core activities of our school. Today was a good example of balancing these principles.”
In a previous incident in November, Clinton and Yarhi-Milo were delivering a lecture to around 300 students on women’s involvement in peace processes.
Approximately 30 students walked out in protest, citing the university’s alleged failure to protect pro-Palestinian students from doing.
The walkout coincided with a group of about two dozen students in the common area of the building demanding “immediate legal support for affected students” and “a commitment to student safety, well-being and privacy.”
The walkout occurred in response to trucks near the campus exposing “Columbia’s Leading Antisemites,” displaying names and photos of students who signed a statement justifying Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israeli civilians.
The statement attributed the responsibility for the war and casualties to the Israeli extremist government. On the same day, Columbia University announced a task force on student safety to address doxing and reduce tensions related to controversial events affecting the community in New York City.
The course description for Clinton’s “Inside the Situation Room” class on Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs website indicates that the class employs insights from various academic fields to understand a nation’s crucial decisions based on historical and contemporary case studies.
