Student speaks out after anti-Israel rally tries to swarm library
Cooper Union student Taylor Roslyn Lent and The Lawfare Project senior counsel Gerard Filitti reflect on the protest on 'The Story.'
A Cooper Union college student says protesters were "calling for the murder of Jews" when she was barricaded into the school library after a pro-Palestine rally attempted to enter the space.
"Once the protest was over, a group of religious Jewish Cooper Union students ended up in the library," student Taylor Roslyn Lent told "The Story" on Thursday. "When the rally decided to try and get into the library as well – very angry and very loud – the school barricaded the library doors and locked us in there, along with some other students, to keep us safe from the rally, that they allowed to enter into the building."
Video shows students attempting to study while protesters banged on the doors chanting "Free Palestine."
Demonstrators attend an "emergency rally for Gaza" outside of the Israeli Consulate in New York City, New York . Supporters of both Palestine and Israel clashed at the event as Israel remains at war with Hamas. (Jennifer Mitchell for Fox News Digital)
"Personally, I don't feel threatened by pro-Palestinian rallies or anything in that sense," Lent said. "Everyone has their own right to be doing that, but I definitely did feel threatened when there were chants calling for the murder of Jews being chanted at me from my fellow students."
The university president acknowledged the incident in a press release saying while "there is room for productive debate and dissent," there is "no tolerance for hate or threatening conduct."
"On Wednesday, there was a planned student walk-out outside of the Foundation Building, part of a larger effort across New York City and nationally," the statement said. "Students convened in front of the Foundation Building at 1 p.m.; it was a peaceful protest. However, we want to make clear that language displayed on the protest signs may have suggested that the students were speaking on behalf of the college – they were not. The signs carried and posted on the sidewalk in front of the building represented the views of those who created them."
The president said the university "(condemns) discrimination of any kind, including antisemitism and Islamophobia" as well as "hateful and threatening acts of any kind – written, spoken, visual, or physical."
The New York Police Department said there was "no direct threat" to the Jewish students during the ordeal.
"There was no damage, and there was no danger to any students in that school," an NYPD official said.
The official claimed the students were not barricaded.
""The doors are open but closed," the official said. "A school administrator thought it was prudent to close the doors and place private security as the protesters were coming down the stairs."
Lent said she did not have any sense prior to October 7 that students on her campus had these underlying feelings about the Middle East conflict and is not sure how educated they are on the topic. The Lawfare Project senior counsel Gerard Filitti said the incident illustrates growing open hatred toward Jewish people.
"The problem is that the university system, whether it's Cooper Union and other colleges across the country, have failed to adequately address these concerns and to provide for the safety of Jewish students and all students," he told "The Story." "What we're seeing is Jew hatred at its finest."
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Pro-Israeli demonstrators attend a counter-protest at Columbia University in New York City, New York on Thursday, October 12, 2023. Dueling demonstrations for both pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli student groups were hosted on the campus amidst calls for global protests regarding the ongoing Israel-Hamas war. (Julia Bonavita/Fox News Digital)
The senior counsel said colleges should not allow protests to reach a point where "Jewish students are intimidated" and have to hide in the library.
"We're seeing what has transpired go from microaggressions and systemic Jew hatred to what is now overt support for foreign terrorist organizations and people chanting slogans of designated foreign terrorist organizations," he said. "What we are seeing next is outright and overt violence, and that is the danger."
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