Students at Fordham University set up an anti-Israel tent encampment Wednesday, saying they were motivated by the arrests of hundreds of protesters on the Columbia and City University of New York campuses.
About 25 demonstrators hunkered down with seven tents inside the lobby of the Leon Lowenstein Center — a building at the private Jesuit university’s Lincoln Center campus — while others rallied outside the glass doors.
Protesters — some wearing masks over their faces or keffiyehs — taped a Palestinian flag to the wall and banged on tom drums while chanting “Students, students, hold your ground. NYPD back down” and “Israel bombs, Fordham pays, how many kids did you kill today?”
Matthew Smith, an 18-year-old freshman from Fordham’s Rose Hill campus, led chants while wearing a keffiyeh and a New York City Democratic Socialists of America t-shirt.
“It emboldens us more when we see a fascist police state suppressing us,” he said of the arrests Tuesday night at Columbia University – where protesters had broken into and occupied an academic building.
“The police are on the wrong side of this,” Smith told The Post. “If the police really wanted us to stop, what they would do is go back to their homes, and let us protest.”
Shortly before noon, the NYPD arrived outside the Lowenstein Center and set up barriers, according to video footage from Al Jazeera correspondent Gabriel Elizondo.
The protesters in the building’s lobby wielded signs with phrases including “Divest from Israel,” “Students 4 Palestine Liberation” and “Genocide is not a Jesuit value,” among others.
“It’s a Jesuit school, they’re supposed to support our efforts to champion social justice issues,” Smith said of the Fordham administration.
Though the protesters were in the lobby to call for the school to divest from Israel, Smith admitted that they technically did not know if Fordham had any financial interest in the country’s ongoing war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
“Fordham right now will not disclose what investments they have in Israel and if they’re investing in companies that profit off the ongoing slaughter of civilians in Palestine,” Smith said.
“We ask they disclose it and if they are invested in Israel, we’re asking they divest.”
On Wednesday morning, the administration announced that classes and campus operations were continuing as usual despite the protest.
“Fordham Public Safety is on hand to protect everyone’s safety. For the safety of our community, the Lowenstein Center entrance has been closed,” the statement read.
Even though classes were running as usual, the entrance closure caused a serious hitch in many students’ plans.
Johnny, a 21-year-old business student, said he was unsure how to get to class in the Lowenstein Center with the doors blocked off.
“If they feel the need to do it, they feel the need to do it, but it’s pretty inconvenient to get to class,” he told The Post of the protest.
“They’re in the building I need to get to. Now they’ve blocked it off. I don’t know how I get there. There doesn’t seem to be any way to get to class,” he lamented.
“The kids inside the campus are essentially just screaming at each other inside a room, so I don’t know how that’s constructive,” Johnny added of his peers’ protesting.
“I’ve seen everything that’s happened at Columbia and I expected this to happen.”
