Jewish Students Locked in Library Rattled By Israel-Hamas Protest in Viral Video — Demonstrators Issue Statement
A group of Jewish students said they felt threatened when pro-Palestinian demonstrators held a protest outside of the library at New York college Cooper Union. In a statement on the incident, the protestors said their demonstration was not held to target any group and that they “do not condone antisemitism.”
The Jewish Cooper Union students told reporters at a press gaggle after the incident that they were locked in the library by school staff due to safety concerns about the planned demonstration.
A six-second clip from the library that went viral on social media showed protesters were banging on the locked doors of the library and chanting “free Palestine.”
“I genuinely don’t know what would have happened if the doors were left open,” one student told CBS News. Another student in the press gaggle explained “It was tense; people were nervous. They were specifically acting very aggressive in those spaces where outwardly-Jewish students were sitting.”
The students were in the library after attending an earlier rally to support Israel during its war against Hamas in Gaza. The rally was counter-protested by pro-Palestine demonstrators. They sent a statement to CBS explaining that they planned to rally peacefully throughout the school and did not seek to target Jewish students.
From the statement:
We, students of Cooper Union, planned a peaceful protest to demand our institutions acknowledgement of the Israeli apartheid. This was in response to the school’s one-sided stance and participation in the occupation of Palestine. We planned to peacefully protest outside the building before walking in and continuing our protest outside the president’s office. We concluded our protest by calling out our demands through the hallways of the entire foundation building. When we reached the library, we were told that it was closed so we continued chanting outside the glass window of the library. Many different students of all backgrounds were in the library at the time. We would like to make it clear that our protest was not targeting any individual students or faculty, but the institution itself. We would like to reiterate that we DO NOT under any circumstance condone antisemitism and many members of the protest were Jewish
The NYPD was present throughout the demonstration, there were no injuries, arrests or property damage reported from the protest, and security was able to lead the students safely out of the library when the protest was over. New York City Mayor Eric Adams addressed the incident on Wednesday night, writing on social media “The NYPD was present on scene and was coordinating with school security during the entire event, ensuring no one was injured. While the students at Cooper Union have a right to peacefully protest, hate has no place in our city.”
The incident still left the students on edge, however, with one of them saying “I’m actually very upset. We’ve been speaking with the school for two and a half weeks. We’ve been telling them that, you know, this is an escalating situation.”
Watch above via CBS.
