College students across New York participate in walkout in support of Palestinians
NEW YORK -- Students from campuses across the country took part in a national student walkout in support of Palestinians on Wednesday.
As death and destruction continues in the Middle East, students at campuses in New York waved Palestinian flags, wore keffiyehs and walked out of campuses in support of Palestinians.
New York University students marched onto city streets and into Washington Square Park, where a rally was held.
"This administration has been complicit in the genocide by spreading disinformation, by creating a hostile environment on campus, by investing in the weapons corporations that are arming the genocide of Palestinians," an NYU law student said.
"We demand that NYU divest from supporting Israel's seize on Gaza, and we demand that NYU stand up and support the students, close NYU Tel Aviv," another NYU student said.
"I think it's important that we are calling attention specifically because of the institutional connections that NYU has to the ongoing genocide and occupation, the Israeli occupation of Palestine," another NYU student said.
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NYU responded with the following statement:
"NYU rejects the calls to close our academic center in Tel Aviv, to which we remain fully committed. And we reject the calls for academic boycotts of Israel, which violate the principles of academic freedom and the free exchange of ideas."
"We're calling for the, one, the ceasefire, two, the U.S., NYU to end all aid to the Zionist-occupying genocidal state of Israel. To give the land back to Palestinian people," another NYU student said.
About 1,000 Palestinian supporters gathered at Washington Square Park, many from different backgrounds. A few Israeli supporters also showed up.
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"We're Jewish students at NYU, and we've been terrified recently with the amount of antisemitic activity that's been happening on campus since the October 7th massacre in Israel," one student said.
At Columbia University, meanwhile, students were protesting antisemitism happening on campus and around the country.
They told CBS New York it's important to keep the stories alive about what they are going through but also what Israel experienced from the first day of the war.
Police said the campus walkouts in New York were all peaceful.
