Anti-Israel protesters rally outside NYU library on last day of class
Demonstrators demand the university shut down its Tel Aviv campus, call for an intifada, as students study for finals
Luke Tress is The Times of Israel's New York correspondent.
NEW YORK — Several dozen anti-Israel protesters rallied outside New York University’s main library on Thursday, snarling students’ study plans on the last day of class for the fall semester.
The protesters chanted “intifada revolution” and “Tel Aviv is stolen land” while beating a wooden spoon on a metal bowl. Many were covering their faces with keffiyehs.
“While you’re learning, Gaza’s burning,” they chanted. One protester held a sign that said, “Shut down NYU Tel Aviv.”
“We gain strength from our martyrs,” a speaker told the crowd.
The campus tightened security at the library, restricting access to a single door. Around a dozen campus security officers manned a barricade at the building entrance and checked student IDs for those entering. A line of students stretched down the block huddled against the winter cold. The protest took place on the sidewalk, on public property.
An NYU spokesperson said the protesters had tried to block all entryways into the building, ignoring directions from campus safety officers. Entry to the library was temporarily halted, but was later restored, the spokesperson said.
The university said police made eight arrests. Two protesters were visible in a police van next to the protest. Other demonstrators cursed at officers and called them “pigs” as a police drone buzzed overhead.
Chants for an intifada outside NYU library on the last day of class pic.twitter.com/xyzsg7e2ZZ
— Luke Tress (@luketress) December 12, 2024
NYU spokesperson John Beckman said the university “rejects any claims that this is peaceful protest.”
“The people involved were intentionally targeting members of our community,” Beckman said, adding that their “harassing behavior” disrupted studies at a critical time in the semester as final exams began and ignored the rights of students.
The protesters demanded that the university disclose and divest holdings in “companies aiding the Israeli occupation of Palestine.”
They targeted the university’s president, Linda Mills, chanting, “Linda Mills, you can’t hide, you’re supporting genocide.”
A masked demonstrator handed out fliers that demanded the university “DIVEST from the settler state of ‘Israel'” and close its campus in Tel Aviv.
Students outside the library said protesters had staged a demonstration inside the building on Wednesday night, disrupting studies ahead of final exams. NYU’s branch of Students for Justice in Palestine said on Instagram it had staged a “sit in” at the library to demand divestment from “war profiteering.”
NYU saw raucous anti-Israel protests last year, but the campus has been relatively quiet in the fall semester.
