Editor’s Note: This piece covers the protests hosted and led by current University students. The terminology used within this piece is direct words and phrases used by SJP during the protest’s planning and execution and does not reflect the opinion or views of The Pace Press. This piece aligns with the International Court of Justice’s July 2024 ruling.

Oct. 7 marked a year since the Hamas-led attacks on Israel, the first invasion of its kind since 1948. Hamas, a Palestinian militant group that is designated as a terrorist organization by the United States government, took 251 hostages, according to Israel. Out of the total, 96 hostages cannot currently be accounted for. Israel’s military response, titled Operation Iron Swords, was launched immediately following the attacks and has resulted in the deaths of 41,500 Palestinians, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry count as of Sept. 29. As a result of increasing tensions and what many are calling genocide, protests and demonstrations have erupted on college campuses across the United States over the past year. The University’s newly formed Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) led a walk-out demonstration in front of One Pace Plaza, advocating for disclosing and divestment from companies supporting Israel and Zionism at the University. The group emphasized their desire for a liberated Palestine, freedom of speech on campus and an end to the ongoing genocide.

About an hour before the demonstration began, University security personnel stood outside the barricaded entryways, attempting to ensure students were not protesting on school grounds. The organization, which is in the process of becoming an official on-campus club, held its demonstration on the public sidewalk outside of the university. According to New York City laws, protests and demonstrations are allowed on public sidewalks without a permit so long as they aren’t amplifying sound. 

The group of University students with additional attendees marched onto the concrete in front of the University’s main building. They stood there for about an hour before marching to Washington Square Park, about 30 minutes from the University’s campus. While standing in front of One Pace Plaza, the group held hand-painted signs they had created for the demonstration and wore keffiyehs, a Palestinian garment symbolizing freedom and unity. A few students read out speeches and poems, signifying their utmost solidarity with those directly impacted by Israel’s military response following the events of Oct. 7. 

One student, who identified as Palestinian, said, “We protest for the freedom my family once knew, for the home they were forced to leave behind, for the lives that were shattered by occupation and violence. But we also protest for the future—because we believe that a better world is possible, one where no one has to flee their home in fear, where no one has to live under oppression. Our fight is not just a Palestinian fight but a fight for freedom and justice for all oppressed people. We will not continue to be silenced, and we will not continue to be oppressed. This is a fight we must continue, and it’s one we will win together.” Counter-protesters cheered, attempting to drown out the speeches that were given. 

One student described why they were protesting: “We’re all connected. All of our struggles are connected. That’s why we’re here today. We’re here to take a strong stance against imperialist settler colonialism, heteronormative patriarchy and militaristic capitalism that fuel the U.S. war machine. We’re here to shame our own university that refuses to take a stand against genocide. It’s important to name and take a stance against anti-Palestinian racism on campus. It’s important to fight the urge to be bystanders. It’s important to add action to our words. That’s what we’re all doing here today.” 

The right to free speech and protest has been tested across several universities in New York City since the Oct. 7 attacks. Several student protesters from New York University (NYU) and Columbia University have been subject to arrests and expulsions from on-campus demonstrations and protests. 

Other New York City schools joined the University’s SJP in doing their own walk-out demonstrations. After the SJP stayed on the campus for an hour, the group marched to Washington Square Park to join a wider protest with other SJPs from NYU, the Fashion Institute of Technology, St. John’s and more. 

The demands the University’s SJP is asking for are relatively standard to what most SJPs across the country call for: to disclose and divest. The group is asking the university to disclose their investments as they believe they deserve the right to know how the University generates money from such investments. The second is to divest from corporations profiting off Israel’s apartheid and to cut all ties associated with the country. The third demand is to keep the New York Police Department off the University campus because they deserve the right to free speech. 

When asked if there was any satisfaction with how the University acknowledges the ongoing genocide in Palestine, one leader of the group stated, “[The University] is not doing enough at all. From silently restricting our freedom of expression on campus, passing policies that equate anti-zionism with antisemitism, not addressing anti-Palestinian racism on campus, to engaging in student exchanges with universities in Tel Aviv, our University is far from doing enough. We want them to listen and meet our demands.”

SJP is newly formed and still functioning as an unofficial organization, but they are working towards being established for the spring term. They hope to build a stronger sense of community on campus by organizing group events and receiving feedback from attendees; they would also like to host teach-ins and workshops, protests, die-ins and training and to form closer connections with other SJPs across NYC and the University’s Pleasantville campus.