Pro-Palestine activists occupy NY Public Library to protest Gaza 'Scholasticide'

"We gather today in one of New York's most iconic libraries to remind the world that all libraries in Gaza have been destroyed," said one of the protesters.

By MATHILDA HELLER DECEMBER 22, 2024 01:32

"Study-in for Gaza" protest at New York Public Library on December 21 (photo credit: Screenshot/Instagram)

Pro-Palestine activists carried out a "study-in" protest in New York Public Library on Saturday "to demand an end to Scholasticide in Gaza."

The study-in protest was organized by CUNY4Palestine, alongside National Students for Justice in Palestine (NSJP) and Jews Voices for Peace New York (JVPNY).

"Today, in an autonomous action, activists in solidarity with Palestine took over the Rose Reading Room at the New York Public Library to demand an end to the destruction of education in Gaza and to the criminalization of solidarity activism," CUNY4Palestine announced on Instagram.

The statement cited the damage to schools, the bombing of universities, and the killing of "10,000 children" in Gaza as the reasons for the protest.

Protesters wearing keffiyehs took to the Schwartzman building of the library with laptops labeled with signs such as "fund libraries, not genocide" and also labeled the tables with the names of libraries "annihilated by Israeli bombs."

One picture shows a computer with the slogan "Release all the hostages," featuring a picture of a Palestinian child.

"We gather today in one of New York's most iconic libraries to remind the world that all libraries in Gaza have been destroyed," said one of the protesters.

"Books in Gaza have become fuel as people burn them to survive. We are sickened that our tax dollars are funding this scholasticide."

Campus protest crackdowns

CUNY4Palestine added that another reason for the sit-in was the "repression" of the student movement in solidarity with Gaza.

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"The criminalization of campus protest is ongoing," it added, lamenting that eight NYU faculty and students have been declared "Personae Non-Grata" for "peacefully de-occupying" and rallying Bobst Library of NYU.

The groups that organized the Bobst protest - Shut it Down NYU  and NYU Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine- said it was "incidental that all the faculty are Jewish."

The library they chose to occupy - NYU's largest - is named after his benefactor, Elmer Holmes Bobst, who is known to have been an antisemite. He once penned a letter to close friend President Richard Nixon in 1997, saying, “Jews have troubled the world from the very beginning. If this beloved country of ours ever falls apart, the blame rightly should be attributed to the malicious action of Jews in complete control of our communications."