This is a developing story.
Update, 5:45
The group of demonstrators dismantled the sukkah due to “aggressive agitators,” according to NYU Students for Justice in Palestine’s Instagram account, and dozens of students, faculty and outside participants have dispersed. The on-campus group Jews Against Zionism announced that some of its members would join a larger pro-Palestinian protest organized by New York City’s chapter of the Palestinian Youth Movement at Herald Square scheduled to begin at 5:30 p.m., which NYU SJP also promoted online. There are currently no students and faculty demonstrating in Washington Square Park, and Schwartz Plaza remains open to members of the NYU community.
Update, 3:20
Schwartz Plaza is now open to students and faculty with NYU IDs, the Department of Campus Safety said in a universitywide email. The department also said the sukkah was “unapproved,” and that “putting up a structure” on NYU property without approval would violate university policy.
Demonstrators are continuing their scheduled teach-ins in the sukkah at Garibaldi Plaza, where the group has remained since 12:30 p.m. NYU’s chapter of Jews Against Zionism, the group that helped organize the demonstration, had previously announced on Instagram that programming will continue until 7:30 p.m.
Update, 1:05
The group of demonstrators, now at around three dozen, relocated the sukkah to Garibaldi Plaza in Washington Square Park after announcing that they had been unable to enter or exit Schwartz Plaza, including to use the bathroom. A speaker from the group said that the area had not been closed off until members added decor and signs reading “Gaza Solidarity Sukkah” and “NYU Funds Genocide.”
“It was only when we began the ritual of decorating the sukkah by affixing banners, greenery and flowers to our structure that campus security immediately responded by bringing these barricades out,” the speaker said.
The speaker added that students and faculty had spoken with Campus Safety officers, including department head Fountain Walker, and that relocating was at the instruction of the university. Prior to the announcement, Campus Safety officers had added a new layer of barricades to more narrowly enclose the area occupied by students.
Since the structure was set up earlier this morning, only one student unaffiliated with the group entered the area. The student, who jumped the barricade at around 11:30 a.m., was immediately approached by six campus safety officers who demanded they show their NYU identification. After a brief altercation with the officers, the student joined the sukkah.
The group, which has expanded since moving to the park, announced that it intends to continue its previously planned programming by the statue.
A group of pro-Palestinian Jewish students and faculty built a Gaza Solidarity Sukkah in Schwartz Plaza at around 7 a.m. on Tuesday to commemorate the weeklong Jewish holiday of Sukkot. Campus Safety officers and other security personnel barricaded both entrances to the plaza moments after the group set up the sukkah, which students told WSN was erected in protest of NYU’s ties to Israel and the ongoing siege in Gaza.
A Jewish student, who requested to remain anonymous due to safety concerns, said Campus Safety head Fountain Walker approached the sukkah — a temporary shelter where Jews gather to celebrate the holiday — after officers put the barriers up and engaged in a “pretty heated” confrontation with a faculty member. People with NYU IDs were initially permitted to enter the sukkah, but Campus Safety officers are now “refusing to let people come in,” according to the student.
“We’ve erected this to protest NYU’s compliance with genocide,” the student said, who spoke on behalf of the sukkah’s organizers. “The holiday encourages us to remember our own exodus and our own displacement, but how can we reflect on that without thinking of the tens of thousands of Palestinians that have been displaced by the settler-colonial state of Israel?”
The group of students and faculty met in Washington Square Park early in the morning to build the structure, which they relocated to Schwartz Plaza soon after. As of 9:30 a.m., around six Campus Safety officers and two security personnel were stationed at the plaza’s entrance facing the park, with around four others stationed at the other side with a sign reading, “Closed due to an Event.” At the sukkah the group of students and faculty started playing music and singing, with one Campus Safety officer recording the performance with a phone.
Viola, a senior at NYU, said Campus Safety officers were “super chill” until the group put up a sign that read “Gaza Solidarity Sukkah” by the structure in the plaza, which the student said was a privately owned public space. Viola, who requested partial anonymity due to safety concerns, said the group moved the sukkah closer to the barricade to encourage passers-by to participate.
NYU’s chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine and Jews Against Zionism encouraged community members of all faiths to join the sukkah service on an Instagram post earlier this morning. The groups are demanding that NYU disclose and divest its funds to Israel and remove police from campus. Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine also released a statement saying “we passed the one year mark” of the war in Gaza and that “there can be no Sukkot as usual.”
A university spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Contact Aashna Miharia, Dharma Niles and Yezen Saadah at [email protected].
