Brooklyn, NY – The NYU Students for a Democratic Society (NYU SDS) held a pro-Palestine rally, September 26, on the day their new dean, Juan De Pablo, was slated to visit the Tandon School of Engineering. Dozens of students walked by, taking photos and videos of the rally. Around 25 people joined SDS as they marched from the starting location of 6 MetroTech Center to Wunsch Hall,

The rally started with Eb Ahmed, representing NYU SDS, honoring Marcellus Williams, a black Muslim man who was executed by the state of Missouri for a crime that he did not commit. They spoke on how much community support Williams was able to garner to fight for his innocence, how much evidence people gathered to prove his innocence, even how the victims’ family did not want his execution. Ahmed tied the struggle of Marcellus Williams to the struggle of the Palestinians with a recitation of a poem by Williams called The Perplexing Smiles of the Children of Palestine.

The rally continued with speakers from No Tech for Apartheid (NoTA) and the New York Alliance Against Racism and Political Repression (NYAARPR). They connected the struggle of the student movement for divestment from genocide to other ongoing struggle in the tech industry and the NYPD for their ties to the genocide as well.

A representative of NOTA stated, “Student resistance was the inspiration for our sit-in at Google. As workers and students, we have much to learn from one another about how we engage in the struggle against empire. Students and workers, we have the power to end this genocide. We must escalate for Gaza, for Palestine, for Lebanon, for Syria, for Yemen. Whether that be in the campuses or the workplaces. We must demand that our labor not enable oppression, but rather liberation.”

Daniel Koh from NYAARPR mentioned the ties between the student movement against universities and the citywide movement for community control of the police, stating, “It is time for NYU Tandon to face reality. It is time for Juan de Pablo to face reality. Pigs are not welcome on our subways, in our schools, or on our college campuses. We demand amnesty for students facing disciplinary action for protesting a genocide. We demand cops off our campuses. Pigs are not kosher. Pigs are haram. Get them out of here!”

The Students for a Democratic Society ended the rally by stating the demands embodied in their “Money for Jobs and Education, Not for Bombs and Israeli Occupation” campaign. They marched to Wunsch Hall, a building where prominent abolitionists like Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass spoke, ending off with a declaration that “We will free Palestine, within our lifetime!”

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