NEW YORK — Tense moments unfolded at the campus of Cooper Union in Manhattan on Wednesday afternoon.
Pro-Israel students at the school expressed feeling unsafe as pro-Palestinian demonstrators banged and chanted outside the library where they were studying. According to CBS New York’s Lisa Rozner, the school staff locked the students in the library due to safety concerns.
The police reported no injuries, arrests, or property damage, stating that the demonstration was planned. The NYPD is currently reviewing surveillance video.
Video footage captured a group of Jewish students inside the Cooper Union library, with other students outside chanting “free Palestine” and holding signs against the glass doors.
“It was tense. People were nervous,” said one student. “They were specifically acting very aggressive in those spaces where outwardly Jewish students were sitting.”
Sophomore Taylor Lent shared, “The librarians ran over to us and they were like, ‘We tried to warn you, but we just got notice that they’re coming down.'”
Another student added, “I genuinely don’t know what would’ve happened if the doors were left open.”
According to the students, they were studying in the library after attending a rally in Cooper Plaza earlier that day.
A representative from Cooper Union stated that the library was closed for about 20 minutes in the late afternoon and that the students chose to stay inside until the protest concluded.
“Security escorted us from the library to this building or outside to where people left to go home,” said one student.
Photos taken earlier in the day showed pro-Israel students holding up enlarged signs of kidnapped Israelis, while pro-Palestinian students held signs demanding institutional support for the Palestinian cause.
Off camera, several pro-Palestinian students informed CBS New York that they had planned to protest throughout the entire school and did not specifically target or threaten the Jewish students in the library.
Representatives from the pro-Palestinian rally sent CBS New York a statement which read in part:
“We, students of Cooper Union, planned a peaceful protest to demand our institution’s 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 confirmed that three community affairs officers were present at the school during the planned demonstration.
A spokesperson mentioned that approximately 20 students demonstrated outside the president’s office but did not pose a threat to her. They then made their way towards the library.
CBS New York reported the presence of the commissioner of the Office of Emergency Management, and the mayor tweeted, “We have been in contact with the NYPD and Cooper Union leadership… While the students at Cooper Union have a right to peacefully protest, hate has no place in our city.”
The governor also posted that local and state law enforcement had been in touch with the school.
“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,” said one student.
We reached out to Cooper Union for comment, and they informed us that the NYPD was present on-site throughout the day.
