Drop the Charges: Demands for CUNY to Divest from Israel Met by Violent Police Repression

[Uncle Joe]

Students and workers at the City University of New York held a peaceful occupation Tuesday of the school's Graduate Center in solidarity with Palestine and renamed its library "The Al Aqsa University Library," after Gaza's oldest public university, which was destroyed by Israel's bombardment. This comes as over 500 faculty and staff at CUNY have signed a letter demanding the charges be dropped against at least 173 people arrested in April when NYPD violently raided a peaceful Gaza solidarity encampment on the City College campus. "This is really the most egregious example we've seen of violent repression of pro-Palestinian organizing," says pro-Palestine activist and CUNY alumni Musabika Nabiha, who says the crackdown wasn't in response to the tents, rallies or free food, but because the "encampment's demands themselves proved a threat to the constant accumulation of profit and profiting off of genocide that CUNY is engaged in." Alex Vitale, coordinator of the Policing and Social Justice Project at CUNY's Brooklyn College, criticizes the school administration for being relatively harsh on student activists. "CUNY is spending millions of dollars for a security apparatus that fails to address the real security needs of students and is really there in moments like this to be a tool, a kind of private army, for the administration to suppress student dissent."

Democracy Now! is an independent global news hour that airs on over 1,500 TV and radio stations Monday through Friday. Watch our livestream at democracynow.org Mondays to Fridays 8-9 a.m. ET.

[Jean Genie]

1. BC

As a former grad student at CUNY Brooklyn, and an annual contributor to some of its programs, I will no longer be giving my financial support to CUNY unless charges are dropped against those arrested at the peaceful pro-Gaza encampment. Come on, Brooklyn! Come on administration! We have to get along. We have to learn from one another. I love Brooklyn College with all my heart, and just can't bear to see it crumble in aggressive hostility. What I loved best during my studies there is the diversity of both faculty and the student body. Please be kind and understanding, people. It's the Brooklyn College way!