Anti-Israel student protesters who marched through the Columbia University campus on Friday claimed they were sprayed with chemicals that smelled of “raw sewage and dead rats.”
Members of the suspended university groups Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace have said that two unknown men approached them outside the Primary Library and sprayed an unknown chemical — which left them with headaches, fatigue and nausea.
Maryam Iqbal, a freshman at Barnard, said she “started smelling this horrible smell” about halfway through the protest.
“I can only describe it as raw sewage and dead rats,” he told The New York Times.
Of the 24 students at the protest who were surveyed afterward, 18 reported a foul odor, 10 reported physical symptoms such as burning eyes, headaches, and nausea — with three requiring medical attention — and eight reported damage to their personal belongings, according to the school newspaper. .
Students at Friday’s unauthorized protest said they saw two men approach the group of protesters and run away as the smell spread.
Pro-Palestinian protesters claimed they were sprayed with dangerous chemicals outside the Primary Library on Friday. ZUMAPRESS.com
Maia, a Barnard College senior who was identified only by her first name, said she saw two people with their faces “almost completely covered” by keffiyeh – the traditional Palestinian headscarf.
They stood out to him, he said, because their keffiyehs looked a little different from the black-and-white colors and patterns the student groups were selling.
“I noticed they came behind different people at the edge of the protest and [they] will stand there for a while,” he told the Columbia Spectator.
Finally, Maia said, she was close enough that she could hear and smell the spray.
“When they were closest to me, behind someone who was near me, I heard a little splash.”
He said he then noticed the two men walking away “and then it started to smell really bad.”
Student groups Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace organized the rally on Friday, despite being banned from campus. Getty Images
Layla Saliba, a 24-year-old Palestinian American graduate student at Columbia’s School of Social Work, also described the two men as looking as if they wanted to confront the protesters, whom they called “terrorists.”
He said they appeared “particularly aggressive” toward students holding signs reading “Jews for a truce,” whom they called “self-hating Jews.”
Crucifixion later sharing photos of suspects onlineshows a man in a puffy orange jacket and sunglasses and another in dark clothing with an army green Israeli flag cap.
still collecting evidence, does anyone have any information on this individual? I know campus sports people & I have never seen them before.
They don’t want to take pictures but continue to face ppl. wears a fake keffiyeh but takes it off. The smell came from behind the man in orange. https://t.co/wHcODyQHiY pic.twitter.com/Lz2sX37IrI
— Layla ? (@itslaylas) January 20, 2024
She also said she started feeling tired and had headaches and nausea afterward, and checked herself into an urgent care facility.
There, he said, doctors diagnosed him as “exposed to dangerous chemicals” and told him he would have to miss classes “for a few days” because of “severe pain,” according to the Spectator.
She said she was still experiencing symptoms on Monday and could still smell the odor on her clothes and hair – even after nearly a dozen showers.
Meanwhile, Iqbal said he reported the incident to the college’s Public Safety Department on Sunday and showed staff there the jacket he wore during the protest as evidence.
But when he smelled the jacket, Iqbal said, he got sick again and had to be treated at a local hospital for nausea.
University officials insisted that Friday’s protest was unauthorized and therefore the university did not have staff to protect students. Stephen Yang
Students for Justice in Palestine — one of the student groups the university banned from campus in November — has claimed the spray was “Skunk,” a crowd control chemical developed by the Israeli military, and claimed that the perpetrators were members of the Israel Defense Forces. Forcing without providing any evidence.
The Post could not confirm the allegations.
On Monday, Interim Provost Dennis A. Mitchell sent an email to all Columbia and Barnard College students and faculty, saying university officials “received additional information Sunday night.
“As a result, the identified criminals at the university have been immediately banned from campus” while police investigate “what appears to be a serious crime, possibly a hate crime.”
A day earlier, the Ivy League school’s Department of Public Safety announced it was “actively cooperating with local and federal authorities in this investigation, with the NYPD taking a lead role.”
Police confirmed to The Post that six assault complaints were received, all from people who claimed to have experienced “nausea and headaches.”
The NYPD is “still working with Columbia” to identify the two attackers “at the criminal stage,” a police spokesman said.
A university delegation reportedly handed out leaflets to protesters chanting “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” demanding they stop the “disruption” and threatening “temporary sanctions by the Provost up to and including semester-long suspension.” Getty Images
It is still unclear how many people have been barred from campus or whether they are students at the school. It is also unclear what substance was sprayed and what led to the incident.
A spokesperson for the university, however, insisted to The Post that “Friday’s event was unauthorized and violated the university’s established policies and procedures to ensure there are sufficient personnel on the ground to keep our community safe.”
A university delegation reportedly handed out pamphlets to protesters chanting “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” demanding they stop the “disruption” and threatening “temporary sanctions by the Provost up to and including semester-long suspension,” according to the Spectator.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
