‘NYU trying to criminalise pro-Palestine student protesters’ — alumni group

New York University, the largest private research varsity in the US, is trying to label students as criminals over the Palestine solidarity protests that have roiled campuses across the world.

NYU initiated disciplinary hearings for student protesters taking part in the largest pro-Palestine protests in the university's history — seeking divestment by the institutes from companies linked to Israel’s military.

Starting at Columbia University, the protests have now spread across the world as students demanded an end to Israel’s war on Gaza, which has killed nearly 35,000 people in just over seven months.

On May 7, police raided NYU and carried out mass arrests in response to the university administration’s request to remove student encampments by force.

Later that day, NYU started disciplinary hearings for those joining the peaceful protests as if they were involved in criminal activities, the NYU Alumni for Justice in Palestine group (NYU AJP) says.

"Dozens of students are going through these disciplinary hearings, and they (NYU) are trying to do this quickly," an NYU AJP spokesperson tells TRT World.

The spokesperson, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, adds that the university is attempting to criminalise students for exercising their right to free speech and peaceful protest.

"The university's goal is to quickly issue consequences and punishments with as little pushback as possible, which is why they're doing it so quickly and so covertly."

The group has pledged legal support to all students, faculty, or university affiliates involved in the encampments.

They also expressed readiness to continue supporting students and faculty on campus through the end of the semester, throughout the summer, and into the fall semester.

Despite police repression, student protestors at NYU's Washington Square Park campus have been demanding divestment from Israel and a permanent Gaza ceasefire since April.

'People want to stand up, speak up, resist even more now'

The alumni spokesperson says that what is happening on the campuses today is students “following in the tradition of (campus) protests by setting up these encampments”.

“We're not going to settle or rest until these institutions that we're studying in divest from Israel," he adds.

Historically, universities have played an extremely influential role in shaping public opinion in the US - from the protests against the Vietnam War in the '60s to divesting from apartheid South Africa in the '80s and '90s.

"The encampments have done a lot to raise awareness, especially amongst the Gen Z population."

The spokesperson says that despite the NYU administration’s extreme measures to suppress protests, “there's a greater backlash and desire to resist".

Though the police employed severe repression measures, including the use of mace, beatings, and mass arrests, student protesters managed to regroup and keep the protests going by shifting the encampments to other areas of the campus.

And the reason these encampments continue to grow across the US is that "people realise that on the topic of Palestine and Palestine alone, when you choose to protest peacefully, you're met with police, you're met with violent resistance."

"It's actually agitating people even more to want to stand up, speak up more, and continue to resist."

'Momentum to continue’

NYU, like other universities, expects the momentum of the protests to diminish as May unfolds. Many university administrations are banking on the academic calendar wrapping up, with graduations scheduled for May or June.

However, the NYU AJP spokesperson holds a contrary view.

"The momentum is only going to continue to grow because we saw (that) in about 2-3 weeks, hundreds of encampments came up across the US."

NYU AJP says that they recently received hundreds of additional signatures on their call for divestment and over 3,000 alumni signatures on their letter to the NYU administration.

However, one thing NYU AJP does not want is for the encampments to overshadow the ongoing genocidal attacks of Israel in Gaza.

"The main focus is the liberation of Palestine. Many Western news outlets have been covering the encampments, the reactions to the encampments, people's commentary on the encampments…But that shouldn't take up space away from the current offensive in Rafah, the current genocide and the famine in Rafah and Gaza."

"We don't want people to get caught up in placing too much emphasis on the reactions to the things happening in universities because it's all for the same purpose. This is for the people in Palestine."