NEW YORK (NEWSnet/AP) — U.S. college students protesting the Israel-Hamas war vowed to keep demonstrations going Saturday.

Columbia University's senate passed a resolution Friday creating a task force to examine the administration's leadership, which last week summoned police in an attempt to clear the protest.

Late Friday, the school sent an email to students that removing police from the situation would be counterproductive “at this time.”

After meetings Thursday and Friday, student negotiators said the university had not met their primary demand for divestment, although there was progress on a push for more transparent financial disclosure.

The decision to engage law enforcement have prompted school faculty members at universities in California, Georgia and Texas to initiate or pass votes of no confidence in their leadership.

On Friday in Colorado, police swept through an encampment at Denver's Auraria Campus, which hosts three universities and colleges, arresting around 40 protesters on trespassing charges.

Also on Friday, Columbia student protester Khymani James rescinded comments made in an online video in January. In the video, James said, “Zionists don’t deserve to live."

“What I said was wrong,” James said. “Every member of our community deserves to feel safe without qualification.”

James, who served as a spokesperson for the pro-Palestinian encampment as a member of Columbia University Apartheid Divest, was banned from campus Friday, according to a Columbia spokesperson.

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