New School students hijack lobby with anti-Israel tent city in solidarity with Columbia ‘comrades’
Anti-Israel students at Manhattan’s New School hijacked a university lobby Sunday, setting up a “Liberty Zone” encampment at the Union Square campus — the Big Apple’s latest Mideast protest.
The ramshackle sit-in materialized as another larger sprawling one was taking over the West Lawn of uptown’s Columbia University — where it had been dismantled last week, resulting in dozens of arrests, only to defiantly pop up again.
As many as 20 protesting students took over around the New School’s University Center lobby on West 12th Street with tents and signs.
“Action needed at the New School,” the group New School Students for Justice in Palestine posted on Instagram on Sunday. “Gaza solidarity encampment! Show up now!”
Another post added, “We follow the footsteps of our fellow comrades at Columbia University.”
The protesters are demanding that the school begin “refusing collaboration” with the NYPD, protect anti-Israel professors and “enact an academic boycott of the genocidal Zionist apartheid state.”
The students set up a series of tents, with one sign nearby reading “Divert from genocide now,” while the protesters taped banners to the campus windows reading, “Gaza Solidarity Encampment,” which can be seen from the street.
In an online post earlier Sunday, the student group said the New School put them on probation “as a registered student organization” until May 2025 for “violation of ‘demonstration guidelines.'”
That means the group is barred from hosting public events or using university resources — and requires members to complete “University-administered de-escalation and peaceful demonstration training.”
The New School later said in a statement that school President Donna Shalala spoke with the protesting students “in an effort to resolve the situation.”
The school agreed to meet Monday with the some of the protesters “to discuss their interest in divesting from certain holdings within the university’s endowment,” it said.
Shalala also promised to huddle with the school’s Board of Trustees’ Investment Committee to “consider the students’ request for financial transparency of the university’s divestment,” the statement said.
“Because of the successful dialogue between the President and the students, there will be no charges for the demonstration,” it added, referring to potential punishment over the sit-in.
Follow The Post’s coverage of the anti-Israel protests at Columbia University:
Columbia cancels in-person classes to ‘reset’ as anti-Israel protests raise tensions
Columbia Jewish alumni demand firing of president Shafik for failing to protect students on campus
Many college campuses have become hotbeds for anti-Israel demonstrations, including Ivy League schools such as Columbia in the Big Apple and beyond since the war between Israel and Hamas broke out.
Hamas terrorists launched a deadly sneak attack against the Jewish state on Oct. 7, killing more than 1,200, mainly civilians, an act which prompted a counteroffensive against the terror group in the Gaza Strip that has outraged the protesting students.
Last week, a massive anti-Israeli encampment at Columbia University was raided by NYPD cops in riot gear, with more than 100 protesters placed in handcuffs and hauled away.
Among those taken into custody was Isra Hirsi, the daughter of “Squad” member US Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn), who was among the students hit with trespassing summonses.
The students returned and rebuilt the Columbia encampment less than 24 hours later.
