NEW YORK — There were tense moments at the campus of Cooper Union in Manhattan on Wednesday afternoon.
Students who are pro-Israel say they felt unsafe as pro-Palestinian demonstrators banged and chanted outside the library they were studying in. They tell CBS New York’s Lisa Rozner school staff locked them in the library due to safety concerns.
Police say there were no injuries, arrests or property damage, and that this was a planned demonstration. The NYPD is reviewing surveillance video.
Video shows a group of Jewish students standing in the Cooper Union library as other students chant “free Palestine” outside locked doors and hold up signs outside the glass.
“It was tense. People were nervous,” one student said. “They were specifically acting very aggressive in those spaces where outwardly Jewish students were sitting.”
“The librarians ran over to us and they were like, ‘We tried to warn you, but we just got notice that they’re coming down,'” sophomore Taylor Lent said.
“I genuinely don’t know what would’ve happened if the doors were left open,” another student said.
The students say they were studying in the library after attending an earlier rally in Cooper Plaza.
Read more
https://www.cbsnews.com/newyork/news/cooper-union-pro-palestinian-rally-jewish-students-library/
