On Wednesday, students around the United States are organizing walkouts “to call for an end to the US-backed siege on Gaza and U.S. military funding and arms to Israel.” This national student day of action was called for by National Students for Justice in Palestine in collaboration with several other organizations. 

These walkouts are taking place within the context of the largest anti-imperialist movement the United States has seen since the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan and international rallies in support of the Palestinian people, even in places like Berlin and Paris where such protests have been banned. They are also being organized within the context of particularly aggressive suppression of pro-Palestinian speech on college campuses, as Alex Kane has reported on for Jewish Currents.

Here in New York City, walkouts are taking place at Hunter College, Brooklyn College, the CUNY Graduate Center, New York University (NYU), and Columbia University, while groups at other schools are organizing teach-ins and attending other rallies and marches in the community this week. At the City University of New York, the cross-campus group CUNY For Palestine is coordinating activities across schools and across various student and worker organizations. Hundreds of members of the CUNY community are signing onto solidarity letters, even as the university distances itself from any solidarity with Palestinians. Over the past two weeks, student-worker unions at Columbia, NYU, and The New School, as well as chapters of the faculty/staff/graduate assistant union at CUNY, have passed resolutions and issued statements condemning their universities’ responses to the ongoing bombardment of Palestinians and the repression student and worker activists are facing on their campuses. 

New Yorkers are encouraged to join the mobilizations tomorrow to show support for both Palestine and the student and worker activists:

Brooklyn College (12:30pm outside of the Bedford Ave campus gates)

Columbia University (1pm, outside of Low Library)

Hunter College (1pm, in front of the West Building entrance)

New York University (1pm, meet at Schwartz Plaza)

CUNY Graduate Center (3:30pm, outside of the building at 365 5th avenue)