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By: Ilana Siyance
At another New York City pro-Palestinian protest on Monday, a group of roughly 40 students blocked the entrance to The New School University Center, a private research university in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village.
Pro-Hamas protesters prevented students from getting into building to attend classes at The New School in NYC.
No Security, no school officials, no NYPD. 🇮🇱🇺🇸#Israel #IStandWithIsrael #FreeTheHostages #NoMasHamas pic.twitter.com/e6kVAs1FZ0
— The Hardcore American Patriot (עזי) 🇺🇸 (@Hardcore_AP) December 4, 2023
As reported by the NY Post, the anti-Israel group of students protested outside the University’s main building on Monday afternoon, blocking the path to the school’s classrooms, library, dining hall and studios for two hours. The rioters waved Palestinian flags and wore keffiyeh scarves. They said they were protesting against the school’s interim president for “condoning genocide.” The group chanted, “Donna, Donna you can’t hide, you’re condoning genocide,” referring to New School Interim President Donna Shalala, who had previously served as congressperson for one term. The group also chanted for their fellow classmates. “New School students don’t you hide, you cannot ignore genocide,” they shouted.
The New School, NYC.
Barring students from entry, and note the chants, including, “It is right to rebel, Zionists go to hell!” If ANY other religious, cultural, ethnic group replaced the word Zionist, I wonder how long it would take for administration to take disciplinary action pic.twitter.com/613HmUdF0M— Community.news (@Communitynews1) December 4, 2023
The protesters sat down in front of the electronic gates as part of a week-long action planned by New School Students for Justice in Palestine, amid the war in Gaza. Other students who tried to enter the building through the turnstile were turned away and had to take a different path. Close to two months ago, the war began when Hamas terror group launched a surprise killing spree against Israel on Oct. 7, murdering over 1,200 Israeli, and taking more than 240 hostages, including women, children and elderly. Israeli then launched a military campaign in Gaza to rid itself rid itself of Hamas and to destroy their underground tunnel strongholds.
Per the Post, the New School protesters had a list of demands for the college, which was founded in 1919. These demands included protecting protest organizers from censorship or from any punishment. The group also called on the school to acknowledge Israel as a “settler colony,” that there is an apartheid in Palestine and ongoing genocide happening in Gaza, as per a poster at the rally. Demonstrators also want the school to cut its ties with the Israel Conservatory for Music in Tel Aviv and to disclose any financial connections it currently has with the Jewish state.
Over the last two months, there has been ongoing tension between members of the Students for Justice in Palestine and the New School’s administration. The University’s student publication reported last month that there had been a previous sit-in outside interim President Shalala’s office. In November, school leadership had agreed not to punish students who protest, but made it clear that the school continues to mourn the innocent lives lost in the conflict. The school has so far rejected demands to stop its partnership with the Israel Conservatory and has refused to follow the group’s disinvestment demands, per the school newspaper.
Per the Post, one student described a scene where she was encircled by the protesters and yelled at, when she was trying to go to the library. “I didn’t know this was going on. I went in there to study in the library. It’s finals week, I have finals due tonight and tomorrow,” said student Layla Lari. “I went in there and I tried to use my voice and I had them all gather in a circle and scream at me,” Lari added. “They were saying I’m a colonizer.” She told the Post she feels the protesters are spreading “anti-Semitic propaganda” similar to the times of the Holocaust.
