Anti-Israel activists release new footage of Columbia building takeover last year

An anti-Israel activist group releases new footage of protesters preparing to clash with police inside a Columbia University campus building last year.

The protest group, Unity of Fields, says it is releasing the footage in response to the expulsion of a student involved in the takeover. The footage comes out as the Trump administration threatens the university’s funding due to antisemitism.

Protesters forcibly occupied the building, Hamilton Hall, last spring, prompting a police crackdown and dozens of arrests.

The footage shows protesters barricading doors, screaming “war cries” and chanting “free Palestine” as they brace for the police’s entry into the building.

Some of the protesters throw objects such as chairs on top of a makeshift barricade.

BREAKING: Columbia has issued its first expulsion for alleged involvement in the occupation of Hind's Hall.

In response, we are releasing never before seen footage of the Battle of Hind's Hall–which was smuggled out in a militant's bra–with a message to the Student Intifada: pic.twitter.com/j0YFBvvvYU

— Unity of Fields (@unityoffields) March 4, 2025

The sound of police saws and flash grenades is audible in the background. The protesters then scatter as police burst through a doorway.

Many of the protesters are masked, and others have their faces blurred in the footage.

Unity of Fields, formerly known as Palestine Action US, is a hardline anti-Israel activist group that is not formally tied to the campus. The group has released other footage related to Columbia in the past, such as anti-Israel vandalization around the campus.

After police cleared the building last year, the NYPD said many of those arrested were not university students or affiliates. Most had their charges dropped.

A campus protest group said this week that a student was expelled for their role in the protest last year, prompting Unity of Fields to release the footage. Barnard College, an affiliate of Columbia, expelled two students last week for disrupting an Israeli professor’s class.

The video comes out after the Trump administration last night threatened to cut off more than $50 million in contracts with Columbia due to campus antisemitism, and said it was reviewing billions in grants to the university.