Hundreds of empty chairs line Columbia's Butler Lawn, symbolizing victims of Oct. 7 massacre in Israel
Columbia University's campus was lined with 1,205 empty chairs on Monday, symbolizing the people murdered by Hamas in the October 7 massacre in Israel two years ago.
The memorial in the center of campus was put together one chair, one photo and one memory at a time, as Israel and Hamas continue ceasefire talks.
"You go by chair after chair after chair, and you understand that there shouldn't be a picture in every chair. That should be a human life, but it isn't anymore," Baruch Apisdorf, president and CEO of Let's Do Something, said. Apisdorf’s organization set up the hundreds of chairs on Butler Lawn. "If we were to spread this out in a straight line, it would be almost a mile long," he said.
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The memorial is half the dichotomy of Butler Lawn. It was the site of last year's encampment for students standing in solidarity with Gaza. In May, dozens of pro-Palestinian activists were arrested after taking over Butler Library in protest of Israel's actions in the war. There have been many instances of controversy on campus stemming from the war in Gaza.
"We look at all these faces here, smiling beautiful faces. It just brings back so much more hope into Columbia's future," Illy Lyons, with Students Standing with Israel, said.
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