Jewish students reportedly locked in NYC college library for their safety as pro-Palestinian protesters apparently bang on doors, chant 'long live the Intifada!'

Staff at a New York City college reportedly locked Jewish students inside a school library for their safety as pro-Palestinian protesters apparently banged on doors and chanted "long live the Intifada!" Wednesday afternoon.

What are the details?

WCBS-TV reported that pro-Israel students at Cooper Union in Manhattan said they felt unsafe as pro-Palestinian demonstrators banged and chanted outside the library and that school staff locked them in the library due to safety concerns.

"No big deal, just a few Jewish kids barricaded in a library while a mob tries to break the doors down to get them," Republican City Councilwoman Vickie Paladino posted on X. "At a prestigious university in New York City. In 2023. Things are going swimmingly in our progressive city."

Jewish students told WPIX-TV they believe the pro-Palestinian protesters were trying to intimidate them.

“They were chanting, ‘Long live the Intifada,'” one student told WPIX.

Jacob, a senior, added to WPIX, “I genuinely don’t know what would have happened if the doors were left open."

Video shows a group of Jewish students standing in the Cooper Union library as other students chant "free Palestine" and hold up signs on the other side of the library's glass wall, WCBS said.

"It was tense. People were nervous," one student told WCBS. "They were specifically acting very aggressive in those spaces where outwardly Jewish students were sitting."

Pro-Palestinian rally at Cooper Union leads to tense moments at libraryyoutu.be

"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,'" sophomore Taylor Lent told WCBS.

A Cooper Union representative told WCBS that the library was closed for about 20 minutes and that students chose to stay in the library until the protest was over.

"Security escorted us from the library to this building or outside to where people left to go home," one student added to WCBS.

WPIX reported that despite 911 calls from students and their parents, police said they didn't believe any lives were in danger.

Police said there were no injuries, arrests, or property damage and that this was a planned demonstration, WCBS reported, adding that police are reviewing surveillance video. WPIX reported that no charges are expected because no threats were explicitly made at Cooper Union.

What did the pro-Palestinian students have to say?

Several pro-Palestinian students told WCBS off camera that they didn't target or threaten the Jewish students in the library.

WCBS added that students with the pro-Palestinian rally sent the station a statement that reads in part:

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.

Anything else?

WCBS said Mayor Eric Adams tweeted in part, "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."

One student added to WCBS, "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."

WCBS reported that Cooper Union said the NYPD was on site throughout the day.

Jewish students locked inside Cooper Union library during protest; told security they felt unsafeyoutu.be

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