Gaza, Encampment and NYPD Still Big Issues for CCNY Students

Here at The City College of New York (CCNY) some of the campus community have strong feelings about the war in Gaza and now in Southern Lebanon. Students are still upset about the dismantling of the protest encampment and the call by President Vincent Boudreau that brought the NYPD to campus. “I think the way he handled it was so extreme and unnecessary and harmed the image that the encampment was trying to provide,” said Alina Hadzovic, a third-year earth and atmospheric sciences student. 

Last spring students at CCNY, like students on campuses around the country, camped out to protest what they saw as reckless bombardment of Gaza by Israel. The war has now taken over 42,000 lives. The bombing began in retalilation after Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, that killed over 1200 people. Hamas also took 254 Israeli hostages.

But many on campus feel passionately about the plight of the Palestinian people and see Israel’s continued attacks as an extension of colonialism. “I am Muslim, and also very empathetic and compassionate,” said Hadzovic. “Hearing hundreds of thousands of lives influenced negatively and harmed and lost over an actual genocide and then finally being able to see people in my community protest against it and live through that moment was very inspirational. It made me feel like I actually have a voice.”

Sheik Mohammed Badawy of the Muslim American Society Brooklyn Youth Center addresses people in the CCNY encampment. Photo by ConsumerMojo.com.

The encampment was up during spring break and attracted students from all CUNY campuses and communities around the city. “[The encampment] was peaceful, people felt welcomed and recognized,” said a student who didn’t want to give his name. “It felt like a safe space. I want CCNY to be like that.” 

But that safe space was shattered after a series of failed communications with the college administration. Protestors raised a Palestinian flag on the pole in the Quad and the administration asked them to take it down. They refused. Then Sunday night two flares were shot from the encampment. One went on to Amsterdam Avenue and the other hit the construction on Marshak Science Building, which caught fire. Public Safety officers and the New York City Fire Department put it out quickly. But President Boudreau said, later, that caused him to tell protest leaders to shut down the encampment by Wednesday, May 1.

But things came to a head one day earlier, on the evening of Tuesday, April 30. The NYPD was called to the Columbia University campus to break up the encampment there and to clear protestors out of a building.  Protestors who had been outside Columbia’s gates marched up Amsterdam Avenue to City College.

NYPD on Amsterdam Avenue with protestors. Photo by Rhiannon Rashidi.

Billie Estrine, a senior studying political science, was on Amsterdam Avenue. She said the police came in “…huge amounts and beat the sh*t out of every single person they could get their hands on.” The extent of police brutality still isn’t clear, and there is limited information supporting the claim. But there are some reports that suggested police violence towards protestors. This video depicts police officers grabbing and knocking down protestors.

Later that night, President Boudreau called the NYPD after protestors broke into the administration building and smashed glass doors and damaged offices, according to a statement put out by CUNY. The NYPD came onto campus in full force and broke up the encampment. Police used pepper spray on protestors and reporters, according to The Campus report on the raid.

“[The NYPD] did it pretty much under the cloud of darkness,” said Estrine. “There [were] a few journalists around, but it was pretty sparse and [the cops] knew that they could be super aggressive because it’s a working-class university.” 

Throughout the evening police arrested 173 protestors on the campus and on surrounding streets.  Some spent the night in jail and 28 were charged with felonies. “It’s f***ed up,” said Ashley, who declined to provide her surname. “[Boudreau] could’ve handled it way better.” Seven of the felony charges were dropped by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office.

The arrests made students angry, but didn’t discourage their activism. They still have the passion for what they believe. “We wanted to send a message to all of the higher ups in admin that the NYPD might have hurt us very badly physically,” said Estrine. “But it didn’t dull our spark and make us want to stop fighting for Palestine on campus.”