Update from CUNY: Students Need Our Support, 6/10/2024
As follow up to our “Statement of Solidarity with the CUNY Gaza Solidarity Encampment & CUNY Community Members Subject to Brutal Police Violence, Arrest and Detention,” we ask you to join our efforts to get the the charges dropped against the CUNY 22. Here is our toolkit, including background information as well as ideas for what you can do to support! Feel free to share with trusted comrades!
CUNY 22 Solidarity Toolkit
CUNY for Palestine urgently calls on all CUNY faculty, staff, students, and alumni, along with the larger NYC community to amp up your support as the CUNY22 face their court dates this week! Please join us to demand that Chancellor Felix Matos Rodríguez and City College President Vincent Boudreau drop all charges for the 22 people facing up to 9 years in prison following their arrest at the CUNY Gaza Solidarity Encampment on April 30. We also ask that you sign on to and share our statement, which already has over 4,000 individual and 200 organizational signatures:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSemv96ghNDgRpPnfqGhU8l2e4DOKEvHi9XstiCTcJbFVawNKg/viewform
We also ask that you uplift the CGSE’s Five Demands: 1) Disclose and divest, 2) Boycott, 3) Solidarity with Palestinian liberation & rehire faculty fired for speaking out about the genocide, 4) Demilitarize CUNY and get IOF and cops off our campuses, and 5) A people’s CUNY: open admissions, fully-funded, free CUNY and a fair contract for workers.
ACTION STEP ONE: CALL AND EMAIL
Starting on Monday, June 10, and continuing until the charges are dropped, we urge you to do the following (suggested scripts below):
- Call and email CUNY Chancellor Felix Matos Rodríguez (see prompts below)
- Email: chancellor@cuny.edu
- Phone: 646-664-9100
- Call and email City College President Vincent Boudreau (see prompts below)
- Email: president@ccny.cuny.edu
- Phone: 212-650-7285
ACTION STEP TWO: PACK THE COURT!
On June 12, 17, and 18, from 8:30 am onwards, join CUNY communities to pack the court in solidarity with the CUNY 22, at 100 Centre Street in Manhattan.
ACTION STEP THREE: CALL/EMAIL/SOCIAL MEDIA BLAST
Suggested Call/email blast script:
Dear CUNY Chancellor Matos Rodríguez / City College President Boudreau,
I’m (a student/faculty/staff/community member) at CUNY. I strongly urge you to drop all of the charges for the 22 people who are facing felony charges for their participation in the CUNY Gaza Solidarity Encampment. The leadership of the people’s university must refuse to participate in the shameful prosecution of the brave students, faculty and New York City community members for protesting settler colonialism and genocide. You must insist that the DA drop all charges immediately. 
Suggested Twitter/Instagram Tags/Hashtags/Scripts”
Tag: @ChancellorCUNY and @CityCollegeNY
Use the hashtags:
#DropCUNYCharges
#CUNY22
#5Demands
#BDSNow
#FreePalestine
Share our Instagram & Twitter posts:
https://www.instagram.com/p/C8C05rKuTep/?igsh=MWR5azV0MGU5bWN4Mg==
https://x.com/wawog_now/status/1800230946480050355
Suggested Twitter Scripts:
I am a CUNY community member and I demand that you call on the DA to drop all charges against CUNY Gaza Solidarity Encampment participants and refuse to aid their prosecution. Anything less would be shameful for our university. @ChancellorCUNY @CityCollegeNY #DropCUNYCharges
CCNY President Boudreau was arrested multiple times while protesting for divestment from South Africa in the 80s—and yet now refuses to call for charges against CUNY student protesters to be dropped! @ChancellorCUNY @CityCollegeNY #DropCUNYCharges #5Demands
Background information
Started on April 25, the CUNY Gaza Solidarity Encampment (CGSE) was a powerful convergence space created at City College, which issued Five Demands that joined a global call to stop the Israeli/US genocide in Gaza. On April 30, just six days later, it was brutally raided and dismantled by the NYPD after a “state of emergency” declaration issued by City College President Vincent Boudreau. The NYPD assault included the notoriously violent Special Response Group (SRG), dedicated to policing protest and counter-terrorism. Numerous injuries – including chemical burns, broken bones, smashed teeth, dislocated shoulders, concussions, bruises and swelling – were reported by encampment participants and clearly identified journalists. Close to 200 people were arrested, with several held for over 36 hours, in violation of the law requiring detainees to be arraigned within 24 hours of arrest.
Legal observers say the NYPD was more violent and levied more substantial charges against protesters at City College than the Columbia raid that same night, reflecting a pattern of differential repression across race and class, in our institutions of higher education. The Legal Aid Society condemned the NYPD for being in breach of laws in their treatment of CUNY participants. 22 of the arrestees from the CUNY encampment were charged with burglary — a felony that is punishable with up to seven years in prison — for entering a building. Meanwhile, the 46 Columbia students who de-occupied Hind Hall were charged with trespassing — a misdemeanor that carries a maximum penalty of 90 days in jail. While we believe that all charges should be dropped against all participants in NYC-wide campus Gaza solidarity encampments, we recognize that it is public university students who are bearing the brunt of police brutality and legal repression.
We demand that the charges against the CUNY 22 — and everyone who was arrested at/near City College that night — be dismissed immediately. The CUNY administration has the power to refuse to participate in pursuing these charges, but is consciously choosing not to do so. As a result, Matos Rodriguez and Boudreau are conjoining the violence done to Palestinians with violence upon their own students, workers and the broader CUNY community. We stand in solidarity with the members of our community who organized and participated in the CUNY Gaza Solidarity Encampment, and we stand with their Five Demands: Divest, Boycott, Solidarity, Demilitarize, A People’s CUNY.
| Know Your Rights Resources: |
| Statements, Calls, Articles and Resources:Statement of Solidarity with the CUNY Gaza Solidarity Encampment & CUNY Community Members Subject to Brutal Police Violence, Arrest and Detention: https://docs.google.com/forms/u/3/d/18Cyn-LIpZfJ9WESq-DlGBCrmqBngN21PJfjou8ifvlI/editNot In Our Name: CUNY Jewish Antizionists in Solidarity with Palestinian Liberation https://tinyurl.com/CUNYNION.Statement in Solidarity with Columbia University Students Confronting Repression. Sign on hereCUNY4Palestine BDS petition. Please sign and share widely!Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions:Urgent May Day appeal to US labor from PGFTU-Gaza: Words are not enough — End all complicity and stop arming Israel now! https://x.com/labor4palestine/status/1771989177032130878?s=46&t=RIcjxhyDvnd2fHZ0NVFLgQWithin Our Lifetime: “The Crackdown on Palestine: Unveiling NYPD’s Repression Tactics”: https://wolpalestine.com/RESISTREPRESSION/CUNY for Palestine Welcomes PSC-CUNY Endorsement of Ceasefire and Affirms Support for the Palestinian Trade Union Call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS): https://laborforpalestine.net/2024/01/19/cuny-for-palestine-welcomes-psc-cuny-endorsement-of-ceasefire-and-affirms-support-for-the-palestinian-trade-union-call-for-boycott-divestment-and-sanctions-bds/CUNY stands with Palestine Liberation, despite what the chancellor says (10/14/23 statement): https://tiny.cc/C4P2023Read our CUNY for Palestine Mission and Points of Unity. |
From June 5 Previous:
We urge you all to join us in supporting the #CUNY22 who are facing felony charges after being arrested at protests and Gaza solidarity encampments.
Tell CUNY to meet the 5 Demands!
Drop the charges for the CUNY 22!
Free Palestine!
📆 June 12th | 17th | 18th
⏰ 8:30 AM
| Day 242 of the zionist-imperialist genocide in Gaza has brought news of more death and destruction. Overnight, the Israeli occupation’s air force carried out a series of airstrikes in central and western parts of Rafah. Several Palestinians were killed in a bombing at the UNRWA clinic in Al-Bureij refugee camp, located in Gaza. Since last October, Israel has dropped over 75,000 tons of bombs in the Gaza Strip, exceeding the combined totals dropped on Dresden, Hamburg, and London during World War II. International and UN reports confirm famine in North Gaza, exacerbated by the IOF’s refusal to allow aid into the besieged strip despite international calls, including those from the International Court of Justice. IOF brutalization and killings are also ongoing in the West Bank, with reports of the murder of two children, 16-year-old Ahmad Ashraf Walid Hmaidat and 17-year-old Mohammad Mousa “Mohammad Nabil” Al-Beitar in the Aqbat Jabr refugee camp on Saturday. In total, 129 Palestinian children have been killed in the occupied West Bank since October 7. We continue to be inspired by the resistance and resilience of the Palestinian people who, despite these atrocities, remain steadfast in their struggle for Palestinian national liberation. In New York, the racist NYPD, who train with the IOF, have continued their fascist violence and repression against our movement. On Friday, 5/31, the NYPD brutalized and arrested dozens of protestors including WOL Chair Nerdeen Kiswani during a de-occupation of the Brooklyn Museum. We call for an end to the repression and fascist targeting of our movement and join the call to boycott the Brooklyn Museum. Our CUNY community has been busy organizing, mobilizing and agitating around the campaign to drop all charges against our CUNY comrades facing felony charges and that the 5 Demands of the CUNY Gaza Solidarity Encampment are met. Students have declared that there will be no graduations as normal during a genocide and have disrupted CUNY graduations (including: Hunter, Hunter-Silberman, CUNY Law, CUNY SLU, John Jay, & CSI) with powerful displays of solidarity with Gaza and Palestinian liberation. Inspired by the sit-in and open negotiations at the CUNY Graduate Center, as well as the pro-Palestine movement more broadly, SLU students staged a sit-in at their dean’s office, which they renamed the Rafah Solidarity Room. CUNY-wide, students have also organized their own People’s Graduation in solidarity with the 22 CUNY students facing felony charges and with the 5 Demands. CUNY4Palestine is proud to endorse and encouraged all our comrades to attend the Not in Our Name rally tomorrow (06/05) at 5pm to boycott Hillel and uphold the 5 Demands! Join the rally at Baruch Campus, Clivner Field Plaza. We demand CUNY sever its partnerships with Hillel International for its direct complicity in genocide in Gaza! Members of our CUNY community are facing felony charges for courageously standing up for justice in Palestine. CUNY4Palestine is outraged that our administration has not called for the charges to be dropped despite the disparity in charges against CUNY students, faculty and community members in comparison to those against members of the Columbia encampment. It is clear that given our largely working class, Black and Brown student body, race and class play a role in this disparity. Over 4000 individuals and hundreds of organizations have signed on to our Statement of Solidarity with the CUNY Gaza Solidarity Encampment & CUNY Community Members Subject to Brutal Police Violence, Arrest and Detention. We delivered our statement to Chancellor Matos Rodriguez and the Board of Trustees on Monday 06/03 with this disruption.Disclose, divest! We will not stop, we will not rest!! In solidarity for a free Palestine, CUNY4Palestine |
| Upcoming Protests, Teach-Ins, and Events:Flyers posted below with alt textTODAY-TUESDAY, June 4:30pm. Picket at Barclays Center. “Urgent Call: No Celebration Till Liberation. Demand Hunter College Divests.” WEDNESDAY, June 5, 5 pm. Baruch College. Clivner Field Plaza. Not In Our Name Rally “Hillel your hands are red! Over 40,000 dead! Hillel stands with genocide” SATURDAY, JUNE 8, 2pm. Washington DC. “Biden, we are your RED LINE. Stop the genocide! Surround the White House! To endorse the action, or find transportation from your city visit: https://www.answercoalition.org/gazajune8” |
| Know Your Rights Resources: |
| Statements, Calls, Articles and Resources: Statement in Solidarity with Columbia University Students Confronting Repression. Sign on here Not In Our Name: CUNY Jewish Antizionists in Solidarity with Palestinian Liberation https://tinyurl.com/CUNYNION.CUNY4Palestine BDS petition. Please sign and share widely!Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions: Urgent May Day appeal to US labor from PGFTU-Gaza: Words are not enough — End all complicity and stop arming Israel now! https://x.com/labor4palestine/status/1771989177032130878 Within Our Lifetime: “The Crackdown on Palestine: Unveiling NYPD’s Repression Tactics”: https://wolpalestine.com/RESISTREPRESSION/ Join CUNYAlum4Palestine: The CUNYAlum4Palestine network is live. Join at tinyurl.com/JOINCA4P and share and follow on Instagram @cunyalum4palestine CUNY stands with Palestine Liberation, despite what the chancellor says (10/14/23 statement): https://tiny.cc/C4P2023 CUNY for Palestine Welcomes PSC-CUNY Endorsement of Ceasefire and Affirms Support for the Palestinian Trade Union Call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS): https://laborforpalestine.net/2024/01/19/cuny-for-palestine-welcomes-psc-cuny-endorsement-of-ceasefire-and-affirms-support-for-the-palestinian-trade-union-call-for-boycott-divestment-and-sanctions-bds/ |
