Harrowing Footage: Jewish Students Barricade Themselves in Library as Pro-Palestinian Mob Hammers on Doors
It feels like we’re in the 1940s.
A group of Jewish students from the Cooper Union, a private college in New York City’s East Village, had to barricade themselves inside the library Wednesday while pro-Palestinian protesters banged on the door, according to the New York Post.
The shameful event began at a scheduled demonstration outside the building on East 7th Street.
The protesters, holding Palestinian flags and signs that read “Zionism Hands Off Our Universities,” proceeded to move indoors, possibly toward the office of Cooper Union President Laura Spark.
However, they pivoted toward the library, where there was a small group of Jewish students.
Pushing past security who tried to stop them from climbing the stairs, the group — some of whom wore masks — started banging on the library door, terrifying the 11 Jewish students inside.
Video from the @cooperunion library now: pic.twitter.com/skOM1vWsv0
— Jake Novak (@jakejakeny) October 25, 2023
One Jewish senior recounted the event to the Post, saying the group was shouting “anti-Semitic rhetoric.”
“When they started banging on the door, my heart started pounding. I was crying. I think if the doors weren’t locked — I don’t know what would have happened,” she said.
“I don’t want to speculate what would’ve happened. It just makes me too nervous. I was absolutely terrified in that moment,” the student added.
The student asked the Post to allow her to remain anonymous, which highlights how unsafe she felt in her own school.
Jewish students from Cooper Union had to lock themselves in the library in order to escape an aggressive Anti-Israel mob.
In America, we all should have the freedom to be who we are and worship as we please, without fear of intimidation and harassment and violence.
Where… pic.twitter.com/kTEwvOmIxj
— Ritchie Torres (@RitchieTorres) October 25, 2023
Another video of the Cooper Union library protest shared with me by a Jewish student. pic.twitter.com/628bfzB76h
— Louis Keene (@thislouis) October 25, 2023
Another student was told that a librarian who was trying to help suggested that they go upstairs to be out of view of the protesters, according to Forward.
It made that student think of Anne Frank hiding from the Nazis.
“Like, ‘go hide in the attic.’ Really, I have to hide, in the United States of America?” she said. “I can’t sit in a place where there’s windows because I might be attacked. That’s basically what she said.
“She was trying to be helpful, but — you know? The fact that I needed to hide — that really, I just couldn’t understand.”
The students who spoke with Forward said they declined to leave through another exit, preferring to wait until the protest died down and then walk out of the main entrance.
No arrests were made.
New York Mayor Eric Adams issued a statement Wednesday night, saying, “We have been in contact with the NYPD and Cooper Union leadership about the situation that unfolded on campus. The NYPD was present on scene and was coordinating with school security during the entire event, ensuring no one was injured.”
We have been in contact with the NYPD and Cooper Union leadership about the situation that unfolded on campus.
The NYPD was present on scene and was coordinating with school security during the entire event, ensuring no one was injured.
— Mayor Eric Adams (@NYCMayor) October 26, 2023
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul also put out a statement of her own.
“State officials are in close communication with local law enforcement regarding protests on the Cooper Union campus tonight,” she said. “Antisemitism and all forms of hate and intimidation are unacceptable and have no place in New York State.”
State officials are in close communication with local law enforcement regarding protests on the Cooper Union campus tonight.
Antisemitism and all forms of hate and intimidation are unacceptable and have no place in New York State.
— Governor Kathy Hochul (@GovKathyHochul) October 26, 2023
As one X user put it, “This is not ok.”
The hallways of @cooperunion today.
This is not ok. @cooperunion please protect your students@jakejakeny pic.twitter.com/BYxLkJ4AuQ
— Jakey Kluger (@JakeyKluger) October 25, 2023
Where is the outrage?
Where are the arrests? Where are the protests in the street for these students who were targeted simply because they are Jewish?
Why has the university not been held accountable?
One can only imagine what would have happened if, say, the students in the library were black and those banging on the door and chanting slogans were white.
Holocaust survivor and Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel wrote, “I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.”
The silence on this issue is deafening. But even worse is the feeling that this is just beginning.
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