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Pro-Palestinian students at The New School — where annual tuition costs close to $60,000 — are accusing the Manhattan university of complicity in the “genocide of the people in Gaza,” and demanding it cut ties with an Israeli music conservatory and banish its students from the campus.
A chapter of the radical group Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) sent an open letter Thursday to New School administration with a list of harsh demands, including calling on the college’s leadership to unequivocally side with Palestinians and condemn Israel’s actions in response to the Oct. 7 terror attack by Hamas.
The authors of the ultimatum ominously warned that if their demands were not addressed by Dec. 1, they would “respond accordingly and by any means necessary” — with the veiled threat typed in red letters.
“We have watched as this Administration remained silent or otherwise dismissive in this time of great loss,” the preamble to the six-page screed read, in part, “and we remain in the dark as to whether or not our tuition dollars are being used to fund the State of Israel’s war against the Palestinian people.”
One of the four demands listed in the SJP letter was a call for The New School to end its 14-year association with the Israeli Conservatory of Music in Tel Aviv on the grounds that it is located “on land stolen from the Palestinian people.”
“Israeli universities make up a key part of the ideological infrastructure of the Israeli colonial regime and produce knowledge that contributes to the subjugation of the Palestinian people,” the letter declared. “We refuse to take part in the erasure of Palestinian identity, and demand an end to the partnership between this University and the Israel Conservatory of Music.”
The writers took a particular issue with The New School’s decision to welcome Israeli students — including former Israel Defense Forces soldiers — following the Gaza War of 2008-2009, known to many Muslims as the “Gaza Massacre.”
“The presence of active or inactive Israeli soldiers enacts both symbolic and psychological damage to Palestinian students on our campus,” the SJP members fumed.
The group’s other demands included pressing The New School to publicly label Israel a “settler-colony” — rather than a state — which has displaced Palestinians from their land and enacted a policy of apartheid, and which is now engaged “in a genocidal campaign against the people of Gaza and the West Bank.”
“To refer to these realities as a ‘war’ is an equivocation of sides that simply does not exist,” SJP argued. “The New School must affirm: this is no war, this is genocide.”
The activists also demanded that The New School’s administration safeguard students and faculty members from purported “surveillance and retaliation” for speaking out against Israeli state policy, which they claimed was not “inherently anti-Semitic.”
Thursday’s demand came on the heels of a recent decision by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and his state’s university system to impose a US ban on SJP’s local chapters as part of a “crackdown” triggered by the group’s alleged “support of terrorism.”
The national office of SJP praised Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel as “a historic win for the Palestinian resistance” and called for a “day of resistance” days later, with demonstrations by its chapters at over 200 colleges across North America.
On Friday, Columbia University followed suit and suspended its own chapter of SJP through the end of the fall semester, citing violations of university policies.
SJP’s final demand was for the private college to disclose all of its financial ties to Israel via investments in companies that activists said have been “known to be complicit in and benefitting from Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza.”
In addition to The New School’s chapter of SJP, which spearheaded the pro-Palestinian campaign on campus, the letter was signed by several other left-wing student groups, including Student Workers Union Organizing Committee, Young Democratic Socialists of America and Gender Riot at The New School.
In a Friday statement, The New School said it was “aware of the letter” and “reviewing it.”
“Maintaining a safe, civil, and respectful campus environment is our top priority,” the statement went on. “We unequivocally denounce threats of violence, hate, or harassment against any member of our community.
“The university is committed to the free exchange of ideas and perspectives, while complying with the rules and policies under our university codes of conduct. We will continue to work with our students, faculty, and staff to foster a sense of safety and belonging for all.”