A group of Jewish students at a private New York college had to be locked inside their campus library for their protection when pro-Palestine demonstrators barged into the Manhattan building. After the protestors barricaded all the exits at Cooper Union college, security staff locked up the Jewish students for their own safety.
CBN News reports the demonstrators could be heard banging on the library’s double doors and windows in videos from the scene. They could also be seen holding up anti-Semitic signs against the windows, as they shouted anti-Jewish chants. Following the incident, the Jewish students told of their terror with one saying: “When they started banging on the door, my heart started pounding. I was crying. I think if the doors weren’t locked, I don’t know what would have happened.”
Another student told how a librarian suggested the students go upstairs where they would not be seen by the demonstrators, claiming it reminded her of Anne Frank: “Like, ‘Go hide in the attic.’ Really? I have to hide in the United States of America? I can’t sit in a place where there’s windows because I might be attacked. That’s basically what she said. She was trying to be helpful, but you know? The fact that I needed to hide, that I just couldn’t understand.”
Jake Novak, the former media director for the Israeli Consulate in New York, posted on social media: “My sources tell me several Jewish students @cooperunion are currently locked in the school library as a pro-Hamas rally outside of the Cooper Union building learnt the Jews were afraid and sitting in the library, then brought the protest inside and are barricading all exits. Police have been called for 40 minutes and are afraid to get involved. Security locked the students in as they are worried they cannot protect the Jews right now,” he wrote.
Mr. Novak reported that after about an hour the students were finally declared safe and led out of the library through tunnels. A New York police chief insisted there was no direct threat to the students, but the college has since ramped up security.
Representatives for the Jewish students, their parents, and elected officials called for the college president to resign. While she didn’t do so, the president posted to Cooper Union’s website that: “Over the past few weeks, events affecting our community both near and far have created significant fear, unease, and unrest, and with the student protest on campus, the discord reached a new and unacceptable level at Cooper.”
New York City councillor Inna Vernikov wrote: “We warned you all. This is what schools across America allowed and encouraged to fester and here is the result. Jewish students barricading and being petrified for their safety! Every university has failed us. Jewish parents – protect your kids.”
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
