The City College of New York witnessed increasing tensions on Thursday night, April 25, after anti-Israel protesters formed a “intifada” encampment. Shortly after, demonstrators forced a school security guard to retreat from the tent city.
Independent journalist Katie Smith captured the scene on video. A crowd of protesters were seen surrounding a public safety officer and chanting, “We will stay, we will stay!”
The anti-Israel mob, with their hands up, made the guard walk backwards. He was forced to walk away from the encampment and towards an area with a set of steps where NYPD officers had gathered.
Then protesters were seen forming a wall and ascending the steps. The NYPD officers, too, were forced to move back.
Earlier in the day, protesters at the campus of the City University of New York (CUNY) launched a Gaza solidarity camp. Demonstrators also raised a Palestinian flag over a quad. The Middle East Monitor said that the students said, “Organisers at CUNY draw on the legacy of the 1969 CUNY student protest movement, when more than 200 Black and Puerto Rican students de-occupied campus buildings at CCNY… for 17 days.' In a press release, the students also noted that CUNY held at least 13 contracts worth over $8.5m 'with companies that aid in, or profit from, Zionist colonisation, and war crimes.”
What do the protesters want?
{{/usCountry}}Earlier in the day, protesters at the campus of the City University of New York (CUNY) launched a Gaza solidarity camp. Demonstrators also raised a Palestinian flag over a quad. The Middle East Monitor said that the students said, “Organisers at CUNY draw on the legacy of the 1969 CUNY student protest movement, when more than 200 Black and Puerto Rican students de-occupied campus buildings at CCNY… for 17 days.' In a press release, the students also noted that CUNY held at least 13 contracts worth over $8.5m 'with companies that aid in, or profit from, Zionist colonisation, and war crimes.”
What do the protesters want?
{{/usCountry}}CUNY students are demanding that the university system divest from Israel. They also want partnerships and trips to Israel, like Birthright and Fulbright programs, to be banned. They want police to be removed from campus and demand that the university system reverse student and faculty disciplinary action related to pro-Palestinian activism.
The protesters have asked CUNY to release a statement “affirming the right of the Palestinian people to national liberation and the right of return.” They also want CUNY to become tuition-free. “We demand a fully-funded, free CUNY that is not beholden to zionist and imperialist private donors,” the students wrote.