Photos by CCNY SJP
By Billie Estrine
Cohen Library— Drawing inspiration from other Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapters across the United States, City College's SJP has launched a two-week-long study-in campaign in solidarity with Palestine. SJP's action will continue through the week ending on November 8.
Last Monday, October 28, SJP posted a flier on Instagram that called for students to join club members to show their solidarity with Palestine while also studying together for midterms. The meeting point is in the row of long tables, front and center, in the Cohen Library – on the third floor of the North Academic Center (NAC) – from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. every day.
SJP continued to center Palestinians in Gaza, specifically students, through their message to fellow students across the campus, writing, "There is no back to school in Gaza, so while we learn and study, we will simultaneously do it through resistance."
In the Cohen Library members of SJP scattered the tables with papers that read, "CUNY DIVEST FROM DEATH," "FROM THE RIVER TO THE SEA PALESTINE WILL BE FREE," and a quote from the Palestinian writer Bassel al-Araj, "If you want to be an intellectual, you must resist! If you don't resist – if you don't want to confront oppression – your role as an intellectual is pointless." Students taped these papers to their computers and wear their keffiyehs with pride.
At the front of the second table is a stack of copies of the essay "Zionism: Tribalism or Liberalism?" by Professor Morris Raphael Cohen, the library's namesake. Professor Cohen taught Philosophy at CCNY from 1912 to 1938. During his tenure, he published this essay, which SJP labeled an "Anti-Zionist Statement," in The New Republic on March 8, 1919.
SJP is forced to walk a tightrope any time they decide to mobilize a demonstration in solidarity with Palestine. The City College administration's decision to impose harsh and bureaucratic censorship against the club and pro-Palestinian students has led to SJP's creative alternatives to protesting on campus. The Paper spoke to Alex, a freshman at CCNY, about why he participated in the study-in. While he stuck a piece of paper that read "Free Palestine" on his computer with scotch tape, he shared, "I want to make clear that Palestine will not be forgotten. The martyrdom of those in Gaza will not fall on deaf ears, and we will not let people forget who it is that is responsible for their deaths." There have been no protests on CCNY's campus since the beginning of the fall semester. SJP's call for a sustained study-in has given pro-Palestinian students, such as Alex, a means to create community and advocate for Palestine on campus.
The community that the study-in has created is by design. SJP wrote in that same Instagram post mentioned above, "We are building community, and we have been eager to let our presence be known on campus this semester; SJP will be around all week, and we want you [to] meet all of our comrades." Professors and students alike have come down to Cohen Library to study in solidarity with the people of Palestine and Lebanon, and the community is expected to grow as the post-midterms week continues.Cohen Library— Drawing inspiration from other Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapters across the United States, City College's SJP has launched a two-week-long study-in campaign in solidarity with Palestine. SJP's action will continue through the week ending on November 8.
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