Blog

Columbia University has become the hotbed of pro-Palestine protests in New York City. The protests continue at the Ivy League university even after 108 demonstrators were arrested from the campus earlier this week.

Now, a video has surfaced on social media platform X (formerly Twitter), showing ‘azadi’ (freedom) slogans being raised on the Columbia University campus.

The undated video, posted on X by Documenting Jew Hatred on Campus, shows a woman raising slogans in Hindi in favour of a free Palestine as her fellow protesters chant “azadi” in chorus.

“Arey hum kya chahte, Azadi… Palestine ki, Azadi… arey chheen ke lenge, Azadi… Hai haq hamara, Azadi… (what do we want…freedom… Palestine’s freedom…. we will snatch this freedom which is our right….),” the woman is heard chanting in the video, which shows the iconic Low Memorial Library in the background.

The woman, wearing a bindi and seemingly of Indian origin, also raised slogans like “Biden sunle, Azadi…. Netanyahu sunle, Azadi… Modi sunle, Azadi“.

India Today could not verify the date and authenticity of the video.

Similar ‘azadi‘ slogans have been raised at Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University on numerous occasions, most notably in 2016 at an event organised by Left-leaning students commemorating the anniversary of the execution of Afzal Guru, a Kashmiri separatist convicted of involvement in the 2001 Parliament attack.

Earlier on Thursday, at least 108 protesters were arrested from the campus after Columbia University’s President Nemat Minouche Shafik authorised the New York Police Department to clear their encampment.

Several students involved in the protest also said they were suspended from Columbia University’s Barnard College.

Among these protesters was Isra Hirsi, who is the daughter of controversial Democrat leader Ilhan Omar.