A Personal and Legal Review

As I sat in my calculus class, adjacent to the encampment, I began to hear helicopters circling the protest from above. Students opposed to NYU’s investment in Israeli institutions and weapons manufacturers had set up tents in a square formation across Gould Plaza, drawing irony in the location chosen. Chants, drums, and cheers continued to disrupt my afternoon class as they grew increasingly louder and more powerful. The sounds of sirens soon filled the air. Peaceful demonstrations across the country have become highly policed and militarized activities, due to little doing of the students. 

Following October 7, 2023, the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) launched an overwhelming military campaign over the territory of Gaza, an autonomous region of Palestine. Between then and April, over 20 thousand and counting innocent Gazans were murdered in their own backyards, forced to flee from their homes, and blocked from receiving any humanitarian relief. There is no other word to describe these events other than genocide. Israel’s long standing relationship with the United States prompted protests across the country as citizens refused to have their taxpayer dollars used towards the war machine of the IOF. Students, specifically, called for university divestment from weapons manufacturing companies such as Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman, alongside the formal cutting of ties with Israeli institutions, such as Tel Aviv University. Protests throughout New York City were the first to be publicized across the country due to the high levels of police violence that accompanied protests. Arrests numbering in the hundreds became routine by the end of the month at nearly all of the City’s major universities. 

On April 22, 2024, following my lecture, I decided to join the protest. I had not decided to participate in the demonstrations before, but seeing the fervor of the students and after hearing the recent news from Columbia University, I felt incredibly compelled to join. In the days prior, the NYPD had violently cleared protesters from Columbia’s South Lawn, arresting over 100 students and leaving many injured and traumatized. If students were brave enough to face the notorious NYPD, I could at least stand alongside and vocalize my beliefs. Any fear I had diminished as I began to realize that this issue was far greater than any one of us alone. Cowardice wouldn’t move the struggle forward. 

After about fifteen minutes at the protest, around 2:45 p.m., one of the organizers announced to the body that they had been told “if we don’t leave by 4:00 p.m., there will be disciplinary consequences.” This didn’t seem to create hesitation among any of the protesters and they remained steadfast in their chants. About thirty minutes later, I decided to leave the protest, a decision I now regret, but continued to check the Palestine Solidarity Coalition (PSC) and Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) Instagrams routinely for ongoing news. At around this time, the official NYU Instagram released a statement reaffirming what the organizer had said earlier; clear Gould Plaza or there shall be consequences. Both these instances left me at a loss. The students at NYU have had such a vibrant history of political activism, aiding in the gay liberation movement, anti-war movement, among many others. Whether or not the University tolerated activism at each of these times, it sure has publicized its student movements, making many of us believe that they were on the right side of history, often a compelling reason to enroll.¹ It struck me that the University’s administration would so vehemently oppose the demands called for by so many of its students despite championing ​​the principles of fairness, justice, and equity. 

As the night progressed, news of Gould Plaza continued to worsen. The NYPD had broken into the protest and had the campus surrounded. By 9:00 p.m., news of over 140 arrests made during the Maghrib prayer had surfaced and any hope I had of NYU being a just institution shrunk. As I picked up dinner, I could see a helicopter in the distance, maintaining surveillance of Gould Plaza for about an hour. The supposed land of the free devolved into a military-police state and our First Amendment rights were dissolving as the seconds went by. Students reported being locked out of their residence halls and the sounds of sirens and helicopters remained alive throughout the night. 

At 10:40 p.m., President of NYU, Linda Mills, released a statement claiming protesters had engaged in “disorderly, disruptive, and antagonizing behavior.” However, from what I had bore witness to and videographic reports throughout the night, the only body engaging in such behavior was the NYPD and NYU campus security. Violence had only ensued once tear gas and pepper spray were dispatched onto peaceful protesters; photos of students being held to the ground and aggressively handled speak to counter Mills’s words. Her statement grossly misrepresented the events of the night, adding that “there were intimidating chants and several antisemitic incidents reported.” It became clear to me that any anti-Israel effort had been misconstrued as “antisemitic.” President Biden himself voiced a similar rhetoric, condemning the “antisemitic protests” going on across the country.²

It’s easy to paint a liberation movement as a villain, using the struggles of one marginalized group to demonize another. Not to be facetious, but powerful institutions and mainstream media have seemed to conveniently adopt the Jewish plight in face of growing protests against US funding of Israel. What they have failed to mention, however, is the increasing number of Jewish people supporting the liberation of Palestine and calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. The sudden unwavering support for the Jewish struggle shines light on the collusion of power taking place amongst our most powerful institutions. Rather than calling the genocide in Gaza for what it is, institutions of power maintain their support for Israel to sustain their investments in weapons manufacturing companies, continuing to profit off the eradication of the Palestinian people. The unceasing aid packages to Israel, the mass arresting of dissenters, and suspension of anti-war organizations speaks volumes about the United States’s priorities and their devotion to maintaining its imperio-capitalist hegemony.

The following day, the demonstration felt much far more somber. When I arrived, around 2:00 p.m., there was no chanting or rallying, simply a group of people in conversation, reflecting on the events of the day before. When an organizer finally stepped to the front of the stage, the chanting began, yet its fervor felt undoubtedly shifted. As the organizer shouted into her megaphone, you could hear the pain in her voice, which reflected in the crowd below. The chants felt more passionate, more heavy-hearted. “More than 40,000 dead. Linda Mills, your hands are red!” we yelled. 

Half an hour after my arrival, I began to hear the same whirring sound coming from above and soon noticed the NYPD helicopter circling Washington Square several times. I felt uncomfortable knowing I was being watched, and although there was strength in numbers, recent events across the city made me question just how truly strong numbers really were in the face of powerful institutions. Palestinian solidarity, however, felt more united and hopeful than ever and students across the country continued to join the Palestinian plight. 

I left the protest at 3:15 p.m. to go to class. At around 6:20 p.m., I walked past Gould Plaza. Its entrance had been completely blocked off by NYPD officers and a wooden wall was constructed at the top of the steps. It was truly an embarrassment. The so-called “campus without walls” had erected a foot tall barrier in the name of Israel. For a school seemingly opposed to Trumpist facism, Mills’s decision to literally build a wall of her own speaks to the tightening grip of institutions as they begin to see more and more people dissenting. 

Systemic power’s inability to keep its subjects in line has resulted in the ongoing brutalization of civilians across the country. President Minouche Shafik of Columbia University’s decision to suspend the SJP and Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) chapters in November of 2023, and more recent events such as the University’s decision to suspend over fifty students, leaving them homeless and food insecure, is further evidence of this pattern. Yale University saw a similar fascist trajectory, arresting forty-seven of their students for engaging in the Gaza encampment. This trend is deeply concerning, as universities have historically been the site of great social change. Students have engaged in protests and sit-ins for decades, however the events of the past spring mark a stark departure from these supposed protected freedoms. We seem to have entered the latest stage of capitalism, in which individual liberties have been forgone in the interest of multinational corporations that profit off the destruction of human lives. This is obviously nothing new, however it is shocking to see how academia, too, has been co-opted by capitalist interests. 

In the following days the protests had shifted to NYU’s Paulson Center, a $1.2 billion dollar building³ funded by its namesake, John Paulson, a Republican megadonor who has publicly raised over $43 million for President Trump’s campaign.⁴ It comes to no surprise that the University continues to receive grants from individuals and corporations whose investments actively reaffirm marginalizing practices. On April 25, 2024, NYU announced that they do not plan on divesting from companies with connections to the ongoing genocide in Palestine in an effort to maximize its endowment fund and “help the university fulfill its research and educational mission.”⁵ What good is an educational mission if the University cannot teach through its actions? Are we teaching students that education should come at the expense of hundreds and thousands of lives? 

On Friday, April 26, students had re-begun their solidarity encampment outside of the Paulson Center. According to the NYU Palestinian Solidarity Coalition, police officers in riot gear surrounded the encampment, entered the building despite no negotiations, and began threatening arrests.⁶ The students and faculty were successfully able to ward off the police and entered their first night of encampment outside of the building. While NYPD escalation seemed to be coming, the encampment’s first night marked a moment of success for those supporting Palestinian resistance.

I feel as though this is incomplete without discussing the events of April 30-May 1, 2024. After Columbia students successfully occupied Hamilton Hall, renaming it Hind’s Hall after a five-year-old Gazan girl who was murdered by the IOF, President Shafik gave an order to the NYPD to raid the hall. Thousands of police officers in riot gear sieged Hind’s Hall, subsequently arresting over 300 students. Students were thrown down stairs and brutally attacked by the NYPD. By the morning, the Gaza Solidarity Encampment had been entirely taken down and hundreds of students remained in jail cells. Students have reported having their hijabs ripped off and held aggressively by police officers. This comes exactly fifty-six years after the Columbia administration allowed the NYPD to storm Hamilton Hall during the anti-war Vietnam protests, demonstrating the brutalization of students and a gross abuse of power. Students at CCNY faced similar brutality at the hands of the NYPD. Students at John Jay were trapped in an unnotified lockdown, surrounded by NYPD and unable to leave any buildings. The events of April 30th/May 1st broke my heart and served as a stark reminder that the people and powerful institutions would seldom work together, and that we need to truly fight for justice.

As far as I am aware, the Palestinian encampment at NYU continued until the end of the Spring 2024 semester. Protests even took place at the class of 2024 graduation.  Moreover, throughout the past weeks, several new encampments have begun across the country and students remain in solidarity with the people of Palestine. Despite a multitude of violent encounters with law enforcement, students have persisted. It is a beautiful sight to see; people, often with little connection to Palestine, gathering in support of human liberation. I can only hope that the encampments grow, and that one day we will see the end of the repressive apartheid Israeli state. 

The recent violence on university campuses raises questions about universities’ relationship with the First Amendment, primarily the freedom of assembly. To what extent can universities, particularly private universities, halt demonstrations especially in such violent manners? The question becomes indefinitely complicated as private property owners are not directly bound by the First Amendment.⁷ Having said that, a vast majority of universities claim to be sites of free expression, as does NYU. Article II of NYU’s Student Conduct Policy, Academic Freedom and Protest, states “This policy is not intended to discipline students or Student Organizations for asserting one’s rights of academic freedom, scholarly classroom dissent or civil discourse, nor hinder organized, nonviolent, peaceful protest.”⁸ Then why was the Gaza Encampment of April 22-23, 2024 so violently handled by the NYU administration, who enlisted the help of the NYPD to arrest students and put an end to the demonstration? What can be done about the blatant violations of student freedom?

While the First Amendment may not apply to private universities, contract law does. Similar to a social contract, when a student enrolls and pays for a given institution, both the student and the institution are entering an implied contract in which the student consents to giving up certain freedoms (typically privacy related) and the institution consents to abiding by the policies that have been agreed upon.⁹ Thus, it can be argued that when universities violate their own student conduct policies, they leave themselves open to exposure. 

The breach of contract by universities not only infringes upon students’ rights but also raises broader ethical and social concerns. Limiting freedom of expression and assembly undermines the educational experience and contradicts the principles of academic freedom and democratic values that universities purportedly uphold. Doe v. University of Michigan (1989), a case tried at the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, addressed the constitutionality of speech code implemented at the University of Michigan.¹⁰ After a rise in hate speech and racial harassment, the University installed an anti-harassment and anti-discrimination policy, which prohibited physical conduct and “stigmatizing or victimizing” speech based on race, religion, sexual orientation, and various other grounds. A John Doe filed a claim against the University claiming that the speech code was vague and “overbroad,” and in violation of the First Amendment’s freedom of speech. He argued that verbal conduct, discriminatory or not, was protected under the First Amendment so long as it did not incite physical violence. The Sixth Circuit court sided with Doe, stating “However laudable or appropriate an effort this may have been, the Court found that the Policy swept within its scope a significant amount of “verbal conduct” or “verbal behavior” which is unquestionably protected speech under the First Amendment.”¹¹ While the University of Michigan is a public university, similar logic may apply to contractual laws and university promises of free speech and assembly within campuses. Citing student policy contracts that protect student speech and expression may be a strong piece of evidence in such litigation efforts. 

I have been unable to find a case that resembles the issue at hand, however it is my hope that the recent case brought by the NYCLU and Palestine Legal against Columbia University will provide a proper precedent for contractual breaches to be litigated in favor of student rights. ¹² What will come in the next few months should be remembered as an indicator of our rights as students and citizens of the United States. While I am unsure whether or not protests will resume in the upcoming fall semester, I can only hope that NYU and other major institutions stand by their words of equity and justice and deliver the demands of their students. Palestine has not been forgotten and we will not stop until it has been freed, from the river to the sea. 

1. Ryan Mikel, “Bobst Exhibits History of Political Activism at NYU,” Washington Square News, Feb. 26, 2018.
2. Kathryn Watson, “Biden Condemns ‘Antisemitic Protests’ and ‘Those Who Don’t Understand What’s Going on with the Palestinians,’” CBS News, Apr. 22, 2024.
3. Alexandra Tremayne-Pengelly, “NYU Kept John Paulson’s $100 Million Donation Secret for 10 Years,” Observer, Mar. 9, 2023.
4. Amanda L. Gordon, “Billionaire John Paulson Explains Why He’s Raising $43 Million for Trump,” Bloomberg, April 5, 2024.
5. Maisie Zipfel, “NYU Says It Is Not Considering Divestment from Israel amid Protests,” Washington Square News, Apr. 25, 2024.
6. NYU Palestinian Solidarity Coalition, Instagram post, April 26, 2024.
7. “Private Universities,” The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression.
8. “University Student Conduct Policy,” NYU.edu. Emphasis author’s own.
9. “Private Universities,” The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression.
10. “Doe v. University of Michigan,” Quimbee, July 5, 2021.
11. “Doe v. University of Michigan, 721 F. Supp. 852 (E.D. Mich. 1989),” Justia Law.
12. “NYCLU and Palestine Legal Sue Columbia University Over Student Group Suspension,” NYCLU, Mar. 12, 2024.