NYU condemned a message from the People’s Solidarity Coalition which the university claims to have included “a deplorable ‘embrace’ of ‘armed struggle’” in a public statement Thursday, a message the group said was “intentionally misread.”
In the statement, NYU spokesperson John Beckman said the university “is shocked” that members of the campus community would endorse armed struggle as a “valid ‘tactic’ in achieving its aims on campus,” calling on the group to retract its message. A PSC representative, who requested to remain anonymous due to safety concerns, said that Beckman misinterpreted its message in an “attempt to scare and smear” the group.
The representative for the group — originally named the Palestine Solidarity Coalition — said the message referenced in Beckman’s statement, a link to which has since been deactivated, included a “Statement of Intention” with a section labeled “We Embrace a Diversity of Tactics.” They said the complete message lists armed struggle, along with other tactics like community building, “to exemplify how there is not one singular method of resisting occupation” and said the group neither restricts itself to one tactic nor condemns “the many tactics other students or activists” may use in its organizing.
“The original language identifies armed struggle as one of many tactics used in global resistance to colonialism and imperialism,” the representative wrote in a statement to WSN. “To be clear: armed struggle has never been a tactic used on our campus and to imply we are calling for such based on our statement is ridiculous. If Beckman condemns our statement, we condemn his.”
The representative said the PSC does not use “armed struggle” as a tactic, but called it “an essential aspect of political education” when studying liberation movements. The representative also said the term defined “the long tradition of oppressed people taking up arms against their oppressors as a way to secure their freedoms,” noting the Black Panther Party in the United States and Palestinian resistance under Israeli occupation as examples of violent resistance against police brutality and oppression.
In his statement, Beckman said that upon “threats or use of violence,” the university will react “swiftly, decisively and severely,” including the involvement of law enforcement and disciplinary action. The PSC called Beckman’s statement “extremely hypocritical” and criticized the university’s crackdown on pro-Palestinian demonstrations.
This past semester, NYU authorized the New York City Police Department to sweep two pro-Palestinian encampments which led to the arrests of dozens of students, faculty and alumni. Several demonstrators have also faced sanctions and disciplinary proceedings, including writing assignments groups on campus like Faculty & Staff for Justice in Palestine said were “morally odious and completely out of place.”
The PSC, along with other groups at NYU, have continued to demand that the university remove police from campus, pardon those facing disciplinary action, divest from companies with ties to Israel and shut down its study away site in Tel Aviv. Some faculty and staff are threatening to withhold administrative work for the fall semester if NYU’s administration doesn’t fulfill the groups’ demands by Aug. 15. A university spokesperson did not respond to multiple requests for comment regarding the potential service strike.
Contact Dharma Niles at [email protected].
