NYPD stresses Cooper Union students were not barricaded inside library during pro-Palestinian rally
NEW YORK -- New York City officials shared new details Thursday about the heated rally at Cooper Union College that led to some tense moments between students at the library.
A number of pro-Israel students reported feeling unsafe as pro-Palestinian students rallied outside the library, where they were studying.
Watch: Mayor Adams, NYPD on Cooper Union protest
Video shows a group of Jewish students inside the library as others chanted "free Palestine" and held up signs outside the locked glass doors.
"School officials asked us to be there. Police were there from start to finish," one NYPD official explained Thursday morning. "For about, roughly, 10 minutes... They were banging on the doors of the library and banging on some transparent windows that you see into the library. From that point, the protesters left."
The incident followed an early rally at Cooper Plaza, where pro-Israel students held up enlarged signs of kidnapped Israelis, and pro-Palestinian students across the way held up signs demanding the institution support Palestinian causes.
A representative for Cooper Union said the library was closed for approximately 20 minutes in the late afternoon and a number of students chose to stay in the library until the later protest was over.
The NYPD stressed the students were not barricaded inside, adding the college asked officers to be on campus in plainclothes -- a policy the department is going to reconsider moving forward.
Students representing the pro-Palestinian rally sent CBS New York a statement that read in part:
"We, students of Cooper Union, planned a peaceful protest to demand our institutions acknowledgement of the Israeli apartheid. This was in response to the school's one-sided stance and participation in the occupation of Palestine. We planned to peacefully protest outside the building before walking in and continuing our protest outside the president's office. We concluded our protest by calling out our demands through the hallways of the entire foundation building. When we reached the library, we were told that it was closed so we continued chanting outside the glass window of the library. Many different students of all backgrounds were in the library at the time. We would like to make it clear that our protest was not targeting any individual students or faculty, but the institution itself. We would like to reiterate that we DO NOT under any circumstance condone antisemitism and many members of the protest were Jewish."
