The NYPD cleared out a short-lived anti-Israel encampment at Fordham University’s Lincoln Center campus on Wednesday at the request of the school, authorities said.
Cops in riot gear entered the “Gaza Solidarity Encampment” before 6 p.m. and arrested several demonstrators who refused to leave, according to NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Operations Kaz Daughtry.
The police action came just hours after the protesters set up the indoor tent city in response to the arrests of hundreds of like-minded demonstrators at Columbia University and the City University of New York on Tuesday night.
The Fordham encampment, which began at around 8 a.m. in the private Jesuit University’s Leon Lowenstein Center building in Manhattan, had steadily dwindled throughout the day from an estimated 30 protesters down to around 12.
But hundreds of others rallied outside the front entrance at the corner of W. 60th Street and 9th Avenue.
Protesters who refused to leave the encampment were notified by the university earlier Tuesday they had been suspended and banned from campus.
A letter from Fordham University officials released by police shows the university deemed the encampment “a clear and present danger to persons, property” and requested police “help clear all individuals from the encampment.”
The school additionally requested a police presence on campus through May 22, when commencement ceremonies have been completed.
With the seven or so tents gone, all that remained is graffiti on the side of Fordham University’s main entrance, which reads “Free Palestine”, and stickers on the window calling for an end to the “genocide”.
Earlier, the protesters — some wearing masks over their faces or keffiyehs — taped a Palestinian flag to the wall and banged on drums while chanting, “Students, students, hold your ground. NYPD back down” and “Israel bombs, Fordham pays, how many kids did you kill today?”
Shortly before noon, the NYPD arrived outside the Lowenstein Center and set up barriers. Tensions flared when NYPD buses – including one splattered with red paint – pulled up near the scene.
Some 200 student protesters moved to stand right outside the window of the Lowenstein Center and refused to back down.
“Move cops, get out the way, we know you’re Israeli trained,” the group chanted.
Brigitte Guillerme, 60, of Hell’s Kitchen, watched the protest with disgust for an hour-and-a-half. Guillerme is half Christian and half Jewish.
“They’re not all bad kids, one day some of them will wake up,” Guillerme said.
“Maybe they should go to Palestine, maybe they should go to the Gaza Strip, especially the ones who would be killed as soon as they stepped off the plane,” she said. Palestine is not a free state.
“Maybe we should give these kids to the Palestinians as a trade for our hostages,” Guillerme added.
