As of the release of this statement, tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have been martyred over the last nine months ––a continuation of 76 years of the genocidal ambitions of the zionist state, a continuation of the Nakba. These numbers do not include the hundreds of thousands missing and under the rubble in Gaza. An entire population is being starved, while over 20,000 are held hostage in the West Bank. Yemen, Lebanon, Syria and Iraq continue to respond to the Palestinian call by confronting the zionist entity, smashing all illusions of the occupation’s invincibility while they deal with entity’s outbursts. “The Axis of Resistance bears its responsibility not only in supporting Gaza but in doing more to serve the primary goal, which is stopping the aggression in all its forms.” The fight is not just in solidarity, but in resisting assimilation to the colonial project. The CUNY 22 attempted to answer the call made by the steadfast Palestinian resistance to escalate from within the belly of the beast. We resist with Gaza.
We are an autonomous group of students, faculty, community members and outside agitators who chose to disrupt the encampment’s status quo in order to dismantle CUNY’s active role in this genocide and ongoing apartheid. CUNY refuses to sever ties with these criminal entities. Instead, it welcomes IOF soldiers onto campuses, promoting these war criminals as “heroes.” CUNY employs former IOF “counter-terrorism” officials, such as maria haberfeld, a professor of police science. CUNY’s partners, like Hillel, organize student trips to IOF bases, providing food and material aid to zionist forces. CUNY funds weapons manufacturers like Boeing, General Electric, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and Raytheon, whose bombs and jets are used by the IOF to indiscriminately massacre Palestinians. Furthermore, CUNY facilitates US military recruitment through Reserve Officer Training Corp (ROTC) and campus recruitment. Since October 7, 2023, numerous CUNY administrations have issued disingenuous statements about anti-Semitism on campus, yet they remain silent on the ongoing genocide. Instead, CUNY actively represses and condemns any support of the Palestinian right to self determination and liberation, contributing to the widespread racist dehumanization of Palestinians.
The occupation of buildings by students and outside agitators symbolizes reclaiming space and disrupting normal operations to draw attention to injustices and force institutions to address the demands of protestors. Assata Shakur, prominent member of the Black Panther Party and later the Black Liberation Army, was first arrested in 1967 during a student-led occupation of a CUNY building. The occupation of the CUNY building was part of a broader wave of student activism during the 1960s and 1970s, which sought to address issues such as educational inequity, racial discrimination and social justice. The reinstatement of the Guillermo Morales/Assata Shakur community center, which existed because of a campus occupation, is one of the demands of the Gaza Solidarity Encampment.
As the zionist entity continues its destruction of the Gaza Strip—and the United States maintains its genocidal hegemony from Palestine to Harlem—the working class people of the world escalate. The encampments were an escalatory response, but they often failed to envision an end goal beyond a meeting, a committee or an email. An encampment should not normalize the institution, it should disrupt it, dismantle it and abolish it. A principled encampment should not collaborate with the pigs. This includes campus “public safety.” Anyone that chooses to play the role of a pig is the enemy. CUNY public safety proved to be an enemy to the working class when they attempted to grab a protester on the first day of the encampment. This protester was later arrested and charged with a felony, tracked down by the surveillance equipment plaguing campus. A few days later “public safety” sicced the pigs on a Harlem community member riding through campus, leading to an unwarranted violent arrest, and assaulting a protester in the process.
On April 30th, the night of the CUNY raid, “public safety” brutalized protesters at the encampment and inside the building: pepper-spraying, smashing batons in faces, breaking glass, bones and teeth, harassing and choking us. CUNY “public safety” are the pigs! The pigs are the IOF! The investment and collaboration with the zionist entity by CUNY actively gentrifies and destroys Harlem, a Black neighborhood with a rich history of anti imperialism and Black radical thought. The fight for a liberated Palestine is also a fight for a liberated Harlem, and the destruction of U.S Empire. On the same night of the 30th, a few hours later, Columbia rebels who took Hinds Hall were brutalized by the pigs and arrested en masse for their continued agitation. CUNY agitators spent a longer time in custody, are facing higher charges and continued backlash. The narrative of “good” vs. “bad” protester is a narrative pushed by the state to divide our efforts along class and racial contentions, but in reality–the fight against the same enemy unites us .
Since the violent escalation by CUNY and the pigs, New York revised its penal code of felony burglary after all 22 agitators were charged with 3rd degree felony burglary in a clear representation of state repression against those of us who choose to act against genocide. At the same time, the CUNY Board of Trustees introduced a resolution to spend 4 million dollars on a private security firm that advertises its services to pigs and zionist trained “experts” to spy on pro-Palestine protesters. CUNY’s systemic embrace of violent displacement was exposed on social media when a “public safety” officer working the College of Staten Island’s graduation ceremony was filmed saying “Yes I do, I support genocide, I support killing all you guys, how about that?” to pro-Palestinian demonstrators.
In June, the CUNY 22 had our court dates. Nine of us with CUNY affiliations received full dismissals, nine were offered adjournment in contemplation of dismissal, three were offered plea deals, and one remains with no offer on the table at all. An additional five protesters are being tried separately, facing down heavy charges after being arrested outside of the building. The division of our group has nothing to do with our actions but is a deliberate attempt to isolate us and intimidate us to not continue our fight. We will not be intimidated into silence by the state. The material impact we will have on each other across schools, boroughs, cities and countries may not be immediately clear, but with every step we take we set a precedent for how the state expects us to move.
The City of New York and their pigs continue to escalate their repression of the city. Since the mass arrests and felony charges at the encampments, the pigs have been sending protesters partaking in various demonstrations to central bookings on a weekly basis, pushing higher criminal charges, and heavily brutalizing communities. This was especially glaring on the weekend of Nakba day at a Within Our Lifetime (WOL) action and on May 11th, when the pigs arrested two ‘We The People’ (an ongoing food distribution site) members in Harlem and arrested nine community members doing jail support, sending them all to central bookings. Since resident pig eric adams took office, he has cut the city budget massively to further fund the pigs, sent the National Guard onto public transit, is destroying Chinatown with a massive prison, and is expanding Queens Cop City to militarize city government workers.
We are not just fighting for a Free Palestine but for the liberation of all. The fight for liberation requires sacrifice. We fight for ourselves and our communities. Palestine is everywhere, we cannot free Palestine until we free ourselves, and we cannot free ourselves until we free Palestine. The city of New York and their pigs are going to keep brutalizing and escalating, and so will we. Remember, “we are all outside agitators”. Whether we are fighting in Atlanta, New York City, Sudan, or Palestine, the enemy remains the same. The zionist entity escalates, so does the Palestinian Resistance. The pigs and institutions escalate, so do the agitators of the world!