Students and faculty at NYU descended on Washington Square Park to demand a ‘total academic boycott of Israel’ – the day after over 100 were arrested in furious clashes with the NYPD.
The huge cohort of keffiyeh-clad students and professors filled the Manhattan park on Tuesday, in echoes of pro-Gaza protests unfolding at Ivy League campuses across the country.
Flyers shared by organizers stated four demands for the movement, including the ‘end of all war profiteering and investment in genocide’, and providing ‘full amnesty to all students and faculty penalized for their pro-Palestine activism.’
Amid backlash over the university’s handling of the crisis, NYU professor Scot Galloway slammed activists for being easily ‘manipulated’ by anti-Israel TikTok creators.
A huge cohort of keffiyeh-clad NYU students and professors filled Washington Square Park on Tuesday to demand the ‘end of all war profiteering and investment in genocide’
Large numbers took to the Manhattan park, with organizers putting forward demands including ‘full amnesty to all students and faculty penalized for their pro-Palestine activism’
It came the day after over 100 pro-Palestine protestors were arrested in furious clashes with the NYPD at NYU’s campus on Monday
An organizer who would not give her name told DailyMail.com they had been ‘inspired’ by the pro-Gaza encampment at nearby Columbia University where cops arrested hundreds of people at the weekend.
‘We were inspired by our comrades at Columbia,’ the senior student said, wearing a black face covering and a keffiyeh over her hair.
She said protesters were calling on NYU to ‘divest from companies who have interests in the Israeli occupation’ and an ‘academic boycott of Israeli institutions’.
Students chanted ‘from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free’ and ‘NYU go to hell, NYPD go to hell’ while beating drums and waving Palestinian flags.
Chants of ‘there is only one solution, intifada revolution’ were also heard at the demonstrations.
Other protesters whose faces were covered by keffiyehs – a monochrome scarf symbolic of Palestinian identity – refused to speak with the press while holding placards reading ‘be brave’.
The crowd ejected anyone seen filming their protest while chanting ‘press to the back’ and cheering as each cameraman moved themselves from the gathering.
Students said the protest was organized by the NYU Palestine Solidarity Coalition.
Alongside the NYU Faculty for Justice in Palestine, the group tweeted a list of its demands before the protest on Tuesday, which it said came as part of its ‘Gaza Solidarity Encampment’ campaign.
Organizers released flyers detailing their reasons for the demonstrations, calling for the whole nation to rise up in support of their movement
The demands included ending all ‘war profiteering’ and ‘investment in genocide’, ordering NYU leadership to fully disclose and divest all of the college’s finances from weapons manufacturers and ‘companies with an interest in Israeli occupation.’
Calling for a ‘complete academic boycott of Israel’, the groups were also demanding a NYU cuts all ties with Israeli academic institutions.
This would include Tel Aviv University, with the group calling for the university to ‘shut down its discriminatory NYU Tel Aviv campus.’
Following furious clashes with police in recent days, another demand saw the group urge NYU to ‘disclose the extent of its relationship with NYPD and remove its standing presence from NYU property immediately.’
Recent protests have also seen a large number of arrests of East Coast college students – including Rep. Ilhan Omar’s daughter on Columbia’s campus on Monday – leading the protests to demand ‘full amnesty’ for their activism.
In remarks over the hundred-plus arrests on Monday night, the group’s flyer stated: ‘We want to underscore how this event demonstrated on a smaller scale the globalized violence of an institution like NYU.’
‘We would like to remind everyone who showed up in solidarity why we launched our encampment and that the violence we faced it only a fraction of the violence that Palestinians face on the ground every day.’
On Monday night, police finally made their move on the pro-Palestinian protestors at NYU after hours of warnings telling people to disperse from the Gaza Solidarity’ encampment
The protestors carried with them large signs in order to make their points
Protestors were seen on campus chanting anti-Semitic slogans, including ‘there is only one solution, intifada revolution’
It comes a day after anti-Israel protestors armed with flares and Palestinian flags marched towards the headquarters of the NYPD only hours after officers wearing riot gear stormed an NYU ‘Gaza Solidarity’ encampment protest in Greenwich Village.
More than 150 students, staff and faculty members were reportedly arrested by police last night after ignoring warnings to vacate the campus plaza where the protest was being held.
But those who finally left had other ideas with the mob reconvening in another march – this time through New York’s Chinatown and One Police Plaza the HQ of the NYPD.
The streets were lit up in bright orange while holding flares in the air as marchers waved flags and carried anti-Israel signs and banging drums and blowing whistles as they walked downtown.
Those carrying flares could be heard chanting ‘Gaza’ – while also being careful to wear face masks so as to conceal their true identity.
Only hours earlier on the NYU campus in Greenwich Village, police officers in riot gear were forced to use zip ties to detain protesters, marching them onto police buses after warnings to leave the area were ignored.
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Read more at DailyMail.co.uk