The NYPD cleared out pro-Palestinian protesters from an encampment at Manhattan’s Fashion Institute of Technology on Tuesday night, shocking demonstrators who previously believed the college was taking a hands-off approach to their activism on campus.
The police response turned into a fracas as officers moved in, arresting about 50 people and dismantling the tents that occupied the area outside FIT’s student center on West 27th Street in Chelsea.
Earlier in the day, protesters at FIT told Gothamist they didn’t expect a police crackdown on their demonstration. They said their encampment was the last one remaining on a college campus in New York City, and credited school security for protecting them from antagonists who frequently stopped by.
The students said they wanted FIT to disclose its investments tied to Israel and disinvest from the country, and for the school to issue a statement about the conflict in Gaza. And while they said their negotiations with the administration had reached a stalemate, they believed FIT officials were keen to avoid a headline-grabbing confrontation with police, as occurred at NYU, Columbia and City College.
“They do not want to send in the police, they do not want to make any arrests,” said Jeremy Noone, an FIT junior and student organizer. “I think they’re really trying to keep their name out of the media.”
He turned out to be wrong.
FIT President Joyce Brown issued a statement on Wednesday morning defending the move to clear out the encampment, saying the protesters violated the school’s rules.
“We have met repeatedly with the spokespersons for the student protesters and offered to continue discussions with them around their expressed demands, contingent upon their departure from the encampment,” Brown said. “Tuesday afternoon, we gave them a deadline of 7 p.m., and then we continued to attempt a dialogue about the offer to avoid escalation, and extended the deadline to 9 p.m.”
Brown added that students took to social media to ask for backup. She said a rally formed at Union Square and marched to FIT’s campus while NYPD officers followed.
“I tried very hard to allow students and other members of our community on both sides of this issue, to peacefully protest and make their feelings known,” she said. “However, in the end, for some there was no room for dialogue or coexistence.”
Before the NYPD came in, Noone said the school had offered to start a scholarship program for Palestinian students and open a prayer room for Muslim students. He said administrators also told the activists they faced the possibility of suspension or expulsion from FIT.
“They truly do not hear our demands and don’t understand them,” said Noone, who is studying cosmetology and fragrance marketing. “A lot of the time they’ll kind of just sweep them under the rug and try to offer other negotiations that are completely not what we’re asking for.”
FIT students said the encampment had moved to three locations around the campus over the previous 13 days. Protesters pitched tents and hung signs with messages including “disclose, divest, we will not stop, we will not rest.” Two student organizers at the encampment on Tuesday morning said several classmates had participated in the much larger encampment at Columbia and were inspired to stage a similar demonstration on their own campus.
The FIT protests appeared to be peaceful. Students ate donated meals and said they regularly left the encampment to attend class before returning to the tents. Protesters also said they had no plans to pack up their tents and leave before the end of the academic year on May 22.
FIT student activists said people living near the school had donated tents and food.
Ramsey Khalifeh
Tammi David, a sophomore student organizer at the encampment, said the group’s academic interest was linked with their activism.
“Fashion and art … these two industries are inherently political and inherently influenced by global politics and everything happening in the world,” David said. “Some of the best art and some of the best fashion, they’re meant to be statements.”
In New York City and around the country, pro-Palestinian students have set up encampments on college campuses, demanding their schools cut financial ties with Israel. The students are also broadly protesting Israel’s conduct in Gaza, where 34,000 people have been killed since Israeli troops invaded, according to health officials in Gaza. The war began on Oct. 7 when Hamas militants killed 1,200 people in Israel, according to the Israeli government.
Jeremy Noone, an FIT junior and student organizer, said he believes the university wants to avoid escalating the conflict.
Ramsey Khalifeh
Mayor Eric Adams and the NYPD have blamed “outside agitators” for fomenting protests at NYU, Columbia and City College, saying the students were being manipulated by bad actors. The organizers at FIT said people living in the neighborhood donated tents, routinely brought food and offered moral support. The students noted that they raised money for food and supplies on GoFundMe and Venmo.
Zool Zulkowitz, 68, a member of the local community board who lives near FIT’s campus, sat with students in the encampment on Tuesday. “I’m here in support of the students as an anti-Zionist Jew,” he said.
Zulkowitz chatted with an activist from Washington, D.C., Ann Wilcox, who jokingly acknowledged she was one of the “outside agitators” Adams has talked about. A member of the activist group Code Pink and the nonprofit National Lawyers Guild, Wilcox likened FIT’s response to the encampment to that of George Washington University in D.C., which was also raided by police early on Wednesday morning.
“That’s what we found at GW[U], that it’s better as long as it’s peaceful, there’s no violence happening,” she said. “So why not just let students do their work here? The school year is winding down, they’re going to have to go back to their summer jobs or their summer activities for the most part. Just let it end peacefully.”
On Sunday, GWU President Ellen Granberg wrote in a letter that the encampment at her university was “not a peaceful protest” and “an illegal and potentially dangerous occupation.” Police cleared out the demonstration just a few days later.