Anti-Israel protesters at the City College of New York violently clashed with police officers Tuesday night outside the campus where an “intifada” encampment was erected last week.
The chaos broke out as protesters at the Harlem public university tried to bust through a barricade blocking them from reaching the tent city that popped up Friday, video posted to social media shows.
Cops can be seen pushing the demonstrators back as they tried to maintain their position, video posted on social media shows.
One man and a cop exchanged hard shoves while some protesters hurled garbage at the officers.
Suddenly a swarm of cops move in to make arrests, the clip shows.
As the protests moved out into the streets, one man was filmed bashing an NYPD officer in the head with a 5-gallon water jug with a sticker that read “Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.”
The man was promptly wrestled to the ground by several officers and taken into custody, video shows.
The encampment had popped up at the state-funded college on Friday.
Tensions flared when rumors circulated that CUNY administrators were working to shut the rally down.
The mob’s numbers swelled Tuesday afternoon as group CUNY4Palestine’s urged supporters to mobilize amid reports the encampment would be cleared.
Organizers had warned hours ahead of the clashes that attempts to shut down the demonstration would be “met with anger.”
The quad was littered with tents and Palestinian flags, as well as signs demanding that the CUNY system divest from Israel in light of the ongoing war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
“Palestine calls this University Intifada,” Within Our Lifetime organizer Nerdeen Kiswani shouted to the crowd in a fiery speech earlier this week.
“We have a right to control where our tuition goes and that it should never go to oppressing any people anywhere!”
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It was not immediately clear if all the protesters were affiliated with the school — though CUNY Professor James Hoff wrote on X that there were “lots of faculty and … union members” in attendance.
City College was on spring break until Tuesday, according to the academic calendar.
CCNY President Vince Boudreau announced Tuesday that campus is closed and all classes would be remote on Wednesday due to the encampment which he said is “posing significant difficulties for us.”
Compared to previous demonstrations the college has seen since war erupted in Gaza in October, this latest demonstration “has been more contentious and violent than anything we’ve seen on campus before,” the president said.
He said “this is not primarily a CCNY demonstration, and perhaps not primarily a CUNY demonstration.”
“This is obviously a wrenching moment for the CCNY community and for me personally,” Boudreau added.
“I know that you all join me in the fervent hope that this encampment can be brought to a peaceful conclusion.”
