More than 100 protesters picketed outside Gould Plaza on Thursday evening to demand that NYU divest from companies with ties to Israel, close its study abroad site in Tel Aviv, remove police presence on campus and prevent disciplinary action against students who participated in pro-Palestinian demonstrations.
After the Gaza Solidarity Encampment on Monday, where the New York City Police Department arrested around 120 students and faculty, the university put up wooden boards and a metal barricade blocking the entrance to Gould Plaza. At the demonstration — organized by NYU’s Students for Justice in Palestine and the Palestinian Youth Movement — students chanted “Linda Mills you’re a clown, we demand that you step down” and “NYU divest now,” while holding signs reading “NYU OUT OF PALESTINE” and “NO MORE WAR WITH OUR TUITION.”
“It’s disgusting to watch what this administration is prepared to do to its students who are peacefully protesting the end to a genocide,” an SJP member, who requested to remain anonymous due to safety concerns, said.
Around 20 NYPD and Campus Safety officers stationed across the street from Gould Plaza, while a police van stood at the corner of Mercer Street and West Fourth Street. The SJP member said they received two warnings from the NYPD regarding a permit to use a megaphone.
“The obvious underlying threat of a second warning is, if you do not comply, we will move and start making arrests,” the student said. “It’s a classic thing with the NYPD to reject peaceful student protests by any means necessary — violence included.”
At the demonstration, an unidentified speaker encouraged protesters to continue calling for NYU to shut down its study abroad program in Tel Aviv and divest from companies with ties to Israel — which NYU spokesperson John Beckman had said is “not something under consideration.” The picket comes after a series of on-campus demonstrations in front of Bobst Library, Lipton Hall and the Paulson Center on Wednesday. Hundreds also gathered for a pro-Palestinian rally on Tuesday in Washington Square Park, where protesters criticized NYU president Linda Mills’ universitywide statement following the arrests at the encampment.
“Nobody wants to see their peers arrested,” the SJP member said. “Nobody wants to see their peers jailed or hurt or brutalized.”
An NYU spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Contact Aashna Miharia at [email protected].
