From the Anti-Defamation League:
On Wednesday, October 25, 2023, students at more than 100 U.S. college campuses staged walkouts demanding an end to U.S. aid to Israel and that their institutions divest from weapons companies allegedly involved with Israel. The walkouts, prompted by Israel’s military response to Hamas’s October 7 massacre, were organized primarily by Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapters and several other student groups. Some events included language that both explicitly and implicitly condoned and/or praised Hamas’s actions, promoted the destruction of Israel as we know it, and called for the exclusion of “Zionists” from public life on campuses.
The vast majority of the rallies were nonviolent, but in at least one case anti-Israel protesters aggressively confronted and harassed a group of Jewish students. At the Cooper Union in New York City, following the walkout, which included a full day of both protests and counterprotests (by Jewish students), an anti-Israel group forced their way up the stairs in the building in an apparent attempt to reach the President’s office, disregarding security staff’s clear request for the students to stop. When the group failed to reach the office, the students apparently continued to roam the building and, upon noticing the visibly Jewish students in the library, they began banging on the glass with what appeared to be the inside cardboard of a wrapping paper roll. The anti-Israel protesters then moved to banging on the doors while chanting, “Free Palestine.” The Jewish students shared that they felt intimidated and vulnerable. They called for help, and eventually the New York Police Department assisted in escorting them out of the library.