Over 100 students walked out of their classes to march around campus Wednesday afternoon, protesting NYU’s response to pro-Palestinian activism since the Oct. 7 attacks three years ago.  

The university’s chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine organized the walkout, which began with a rally in Garibaldi Plaza. Protesters marched past Lipton Hall, the Kimmel Center for University Life, Bobst Library and the Paulson Center, chanting “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”

“With the upcoming fall semester, a lot of our new students might not know about NYU’s dark history,” an SJP member told WSN. “Students come on campus and they hear all about this global campus, fostering education for all across the globe. But they don’t realize that we have a campus in Tel Aviv that’s actively committing scholasticide.”

Following Palestinian militant group Hamas’ attacks on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, protests addressing the war in Gaza erupted across NYU. Pro-Palestinian students repeatedly called on administrators to shut down the university’s study-away site in Tel Aviv, disclose their investments and divest from companies with ties to Israel. They also criticized NYU’s response to student protesters — including suspending them, threatening them with expulsion and authorizing the police to arrest them at pro-Palestinian encampments. 

As the group walked down West Fourth Street toward Bobst on Wednesday, students chanted “Linda Mills, you can’t hide — we accuse you of genocide” and SJP members carried a banner reading “NYU FUNDS GENOCIDE.” One counter protester followed the group, shouting expletives until a police officer restrained him near the Paulson Center.  

The rally’s speakers, including SGA vice chair Calvin Kellenberger, expressed their hopes for ongoing pro-Palestinian activism at NYU and their disappointment in administrators’ response thus far. The Student Government Assembly had called on NYU to close its Tel Aviv site in a resolution proposed in 2022, and after October 2023, the group also demanded the university protect students’ rights to protest. 

“Over these past three years, I have met today as a day of mourning,” Kellenberger said to the crowd. “For three years, sitting within the halls and seats of student government, I have mourned the dead in Palestine with zero solidarity from the leadership of our university.”

SJP included Wednesday’s walkout in its “NYU Week of Rage,” alongside other demonstrations like a teach-in and vigil. The university’s chapter of Jewish on Campus, a nonprofit aiming to combat campus antisemitism, condemned SJP’s weeklong initiative in an Instagram post earlier this week, stating that the use of the word “rage” prompts violence towards Jewish and Israeli students. 

On Wednesday, JOC also partnered with NYU Hillel to host a virtual conversation with a survivor of the Oct. 7 attacks. NYU’s chapter of Law Students for Justice in Palestine also held a teach-in, called “Challenging Myths around the Al-Aqsa Flood,” which students said administrators refused to publicize due to concerns that it could endorse violence.  

Since taking office, President Donald Trump has taken steps to suppress pro-Palestinian demonstrations on college campuses nationwide — including detaining student protesters and threatening to cancel visas and deport noncitizen students who participate in pro-Palestinian demonstrations. 

This semester, nationwide groups have also cited administrators’ response to pro-Palestinian demonstrations over the past three years to criticize NYU’s free speech policies. The American Civil Liberties Union and Amnesty International USA claimed that the university has disproportionately censored pro-Palestinian speech on campus in their latest report. The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression also placed NYU at the bottom of its annual ranking of colleges’ free speech policies, citing controversies on campus regarding pro-Palestinian demonstrations. 

The Wednesday protest dispersed at LaGuardia Park after students marched past Bleecker Street. SJP organizers closed out the event by inviting demonstrators to attend their vigil in Washington Square Park on Thursday.  

“I hope that leadership doesn’t only listen, but is willing to open up this conversation again and actually speak to the students,” SPS junior Ceci Vaughn, who participated in the walkout, told WSN. “There’s a really good energy at NYU. Here in the city, and it feels like we’re on the verge of opening that conversation, and hopefully actually making some change. I’m so excited to be here for that.”

Contact Iris Miller at [email protected].