On April 22, 2024, about 40 students and faculty gathered in Gould Plaza at around 4 a.m. to erect a pro-Palestinian encampment outside the Stern School of Business. The demonstration came days after a Gaza Solidarity Encampment at Columbia University was swept by the New York City Police Department — making national headlines and setting the stage for a wave of protests against Israel’s war in Gaza across U.S. college campuses.
What became hundreds of protesters clustered around the fence set up by Campus Safety officers to chant, exchange food and water, pass out face masks and wave Palestinian flags. As the demonstration progressed, more and more passers-by joined the plaza and surrounding streets calling for NYU to divest from Israel and affirm its support for Palestinian rights.
Throughout the day, NYPD officers equipped with riot gear began to line West Fourth Street and nearby campus buildings, as Campus Safety head Fountain Walker persistently threatened to arrest protesters who refused to leave Gould Plaza. At around 7 p.m., NYU leadership authorized the NYPD to sweep the encampment, resulting in the arrests of over 130 students, faculty, alumni and community members.
NYPD officers zip-tied and pepper sprayed students and protesters while dragging them into correctional buses on the south end of Gould Plaza. In the moments prior to and during the arrests, police officers repeatedly proclaimed through a megaphone that the protesters were unlawfully blocking traffic and engaging in “disorderly conduct.”
The day after the encampment, a newly erected wall barricaded Gould Plaza and NYPD vans imminently surrounded the campus area. Protests against arrests at the encampment consumed the rest of the semester, as students continued calls for NYU to shut down its study away site in Tel Aviv, disclose its investments and divest from companies with ties to Israel — with the newly added demand to pardon students facing disciplinary action for participation in pro-Palestinian protests.
A second Gaza Solidarity Encampment outside the Paulson Center lasted nearly two weeks before the NYPD arrested 14 students overnight. Throughout its duration, the encampment became a central spot for pro-Palestinian teach-ins, film screenings and rallies held as part of marches spanning Foley Square to 116th Street.
Last year’s commencement was marked by a mass walkout and dozens of graduates protesting President Linda Mills outside of Yankee Stadium while ceremonies took place. Since then, ongoing demonstrations have led to more than 30 student suspensions and the Trump administration has escalated a national crackdown on pro-Palestinian protesters’ immigration statuses, inciting widespread fear about the future of on-campus movements.
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