Luca GoldMansour, Melanie Marich, Lauren Rapp, Cris Seda Chabrier and Hannah Glaser contributed reporting
MANHATTAN — Pro-Palestinian protesters took over CUNY’s Mina Rees Graduate Center Library for three hours Tuesday night, then peacefully left just after 10 p.m., saying they had reached an agreement with the interim Graduate Center president, who promised to share their demands.
The protesters — part of the CUNY Gaza Solidarity Encampment, which held a nearly week-long demonstration at City College before the NYPD swept in and arrested close to 200 students, staff and protesters on April 30 — took over the library on Fifth Avenue at 34th Street at about 7 p.m.
As throngs of NYPD officers stood outside, protesters sat inside the library near the doors, holding up signs and chanting, “disclose, divest, we will not stop, we will not rest!” They said they had renamed the library the “Al Aqsa University Library” after one of the Gaza universities bombed by Israel.
Shortly before 10 p.m., CUNY Graduate Center Interim President Joshua Brumberg could be seen inside the building’s entrance, addressing protesters. The demonstrators responded with clapping, and soon headed out onto Fifth Avenue, where organizers addressed a crowd of supporters and NYPD officers waiting outside.
“After much negotiating today, we came to a small loss for them — the Grad Center president has decided that he cannot answer our demands, but he will send them to the higher-ups. He has sent our demands and asked for a meeting with the CUNY chancellor,” Félix Matos Rodríguez, an organizer told a cheering crowd.
“He conceded quickly because we made him nervous today. This is not a win, this is a start,” the organizer added. “We will continue to escalate until all of our demands are met. We will not let them rest, we will keep going.”
VIDEO/Melanie Marich
🚨🚨@cunygse organizers leaving the Grad Center pic.twitter.com/vPUft49Q3h
— Luca Saeed (@cityascanvass) May 15, 2024
Organizers said Brumberg agreed to pass along their five demands — including to disclose CUNY’s investments, divest from all financial ties to the Israeli military, remove the NYPD from campus and drop all CCNY charges against protesters arrested during the sweep.
Scenes from inside the CUNY Grad Center Library, which @cunygse has renamed The Al Aqsa University Library
🎥: @cunygse pic.twitter.com/TmyKxL154s— Luca Saeed (@cityascanvass) May 14, 2024
🚨@cunygse has renamed the Grad Center library after Al-Aqsa University, the oldest public university in Gaza, seen below partially destroyed by Israeli bombardment. https://t.co/YWPWYHFVL7
— Luca Saeed (@cityascanvass) May 14, 2024
In the hours leading up to the agreement, dozens of NYPD officers and throngs of protesters gathered outside the building’s entrance.
VIDEO/Melanie Marich
Scenes from outside the CUNY Graduate Center, which protesters have renamed the Al Aqsa University Library pic.twitter.com/rdJd0lDsAE
— Melanie Marich (@marichreports) May 15, 2024
🚨30 or so Counterterrorism officers here at the CUNY Grad Center have closed in their formation on the protest in front of the occupied Library pic.twitter.com/4tse83ECiE
— Luca Saeed (@cityascanvass) May 15, 2024
🚨30 or so Counterterrorism officers here at the CUNY Grad Center have closed in their formation on the protest in front of the occupied Library pic.twitter.com/4tse83ECiE
— Luca Saeed (@cityascanvass) May 15, 2024
NYPD officers flew a drone on Fifth Avenue — reportedly one of the tools they’ve been leaning on more frequently to monitor protests.
VIDEO/Hannah Glaser