Dozens of NYU students and faculty from the People’s Solidarity Coalition and other on-campus organizations joined hundreds of pro-Palestinian demonstrators in a march across Union Square, 42nd Street and Washington Square Park on Monday afternoon. The demonstration marked the first major on-campus protest of the academic year, after dozens of students, faculty and alumni were arrested while participating in pro-Palestinian encampments last semester. 

Returning to campus, students and faculty echoed their concerns from last semester’s demonstrations and called for participants to “reenergize attention” toward protests against the war in Gaza. At a student meetup in Cooper Triangle prior to the citywide protest, a member of NYU’s chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine addressed the group, calling for the university to shut down its study away site in Tel Aviv and criticizing its updated student conduct guidelines which include “code words, like ‘Zionist,’” as potentially discriminatory speech.

“It’s just incredibly exhausting to be a student here and watch there be protections put in place for people that seek to repress our voices and seek to ethnically cleanse us and try to erase the Palestinian identity,” the speaker, who requested to remain anonymous due to safety concerns, said in an interview with WSN.

After the meetup, the group of NYU students and faculty met a crowd of more than 300 demonstrators, who marched from Union Square to Grand Central Station before concluding in Washington Square Park. After a call-and-response speech about the war’s history and ongoing protest movements, the group chanted phrases such as “shut it down” and “there is only one solution, Intifada revolution.” 

Before the march, NYU sent a Campus Advisory message warning community members of “protest activity” — a notification that has not preceded previous demonstrations on campus. As protesters reached Washington Square Park, three Campus Safety vehicles were parked alongside Washington Square South, where Bobst Library was closed off with a barrier belt. A Campus Safety officer told WSN the library was closed off due to Labor Day and not in anticipation of protest activity. 

New York City Police Department officers were stationed at every entrance of the park, monitoring activity on their bikes. Dozens of NYPD officers carrying bags of zip ties also threatened to arrest a small group of protesters who were releasing red and green smoke across the park’s fountain.

The NYPD also intervened in two brief instances of counterprotesting. The first incident involved a man on a bike who booed the demonstration as five protesters chanted loudly in response, before a police officer broke up the conflict. In the second, around three counterprotesters held up signs and waved an Israeli flag, before a group of police officers escorted them to the other side of the street. 

At the protest, NYU students and faculty — as well as several members of citywide organizations like the New York City chapter of the Palestinian Youth Movement — heavily criticized the university’s student conduct policies. An NYU spokesperson said the changes would not change existing conduct policies, in response to a statement from Faculty & Staff for Justice in Palestine accusing the university of conflating anti-Zionism with antisemitism.

“This past year, we’ve seen unprecedented repression of speech and conduct,” CAS professor Andrew Ross, a member of FSJP, said in an interview with WSN. “Without academic freedom, you can’t have an academy — you can’t have higher education.”Last spring, dozens of students, faculty and alumni were arrested in police sweeps at two Gaza Solidarity Encampments in Gould Plaza and outside the Paulson Center. The encampment at Paulson lasted more than a week and was accompanied by numerous protests both outside the residence hall and in Washington Square Park, followed by demonstrations at several graduation ceremonies, including the all-university commencement. Students and faculty have continued to demand that NYU remove NYPD from campus, pardon students facing disciplinary action for their participation in pro-Palestinian protests and cut ties with companies tied to Israel.

Contact Liyana Illyas and Mariapaula Gonzalez at [email protected].