Staff at Cooper Union, a private college in Manhattan, struggled to control a pro-Palestine rally on campus Wednesday as protesters began banging on library doors, reportedly prompting employees to tell visibly Jewish students they could “hide in the attic” if they wanted to.
So just to clear this up: it’s 2023 in the United States of America, and terrified Jewish kids are having to pull an Anne Frank just to feel physically safe on campuses.
It all started when a pro-Palestine protest, which was reportedly supposed to take place off campus, marched onto school grounds and began rallying inside buildings, including the school's library. It appears the only reason the Hamas sympathizers didn’t spill into the library itself, where other students including multiple Jewish ones were studying, is because staff members locked the doors for security. When they realized they couldn’t get into the room, antisemitic protesters began banging on the doors, while others held large signs against the floor-to-ceiling glass wall between themselves and the Jewish students, sporting slogans calling for the “liberation” of Palestine and the annihilation of Israel.
Jewish students at Cooper Union are in the library as protestors pound on the door.
— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) October 25, 2023
Listen with sound on. pic.twitter.com/pwYRo5KA9X
"It was tense. People were nervous," one student said. "They were specifically acting very aggressive in those spaces where outwardly Jewish students were sitting.”
Another said, “I genuinely don't know what would've happened if the doors were left open.”
Columnist and reporter Jake Novak, who spoke with witnesses who were in the library during the incident, said library staff told obviously Jewish students they could “hide in the attic.”
A couple of key highlights from my interview with a major eyewitness/student at this incident:
— Jake Novak (@jakejakeny) October 26, 2023
1) Cooper U. dean said before the protest that he cou;d not stop it because it was not slated to enter school property (which it obviously did)
2) NYPD was called as soon as the… https://t.co/RX2JTJyvSm
According to a statement from the school, the protest eventually disbanded after about 20 minutes, and students inside the library were escorted out by security.
Protesters later claimed in a statement that they never meant to threaten anyone, saying, “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 statement went on.
Which is of course why you’d stand outside a locked library banging on the windows and screaming calls for the destruction of Israel directly at Jewish students through a glass window.
Hitler would be so proud.
Follow MRCTV on Twitter/X!
Fumbling White House Spox Seems Confused By the Definition of 'AntiSemitism' https://t.co/pUNF3GwHFq
— MRCTV (@mrctv) October 26, 2023