CUNY Gaza Solidarity Encampment goes on for a fifth day as Benny’s Food Pantry closes, club events canceled
By Leon Sullivan
Photos by Leon Sullivan for The Campus
Updated 6:10 PM EDT, April 29, 2024
The CUNY Gaza Solidarity Encampment marks Monday as its fifth day on the quad at CCNY. Since its establishment on Thursday morning, pro-Palestinian students and their allies have been at the encampment. Food, hygiene products, sunscreen, pain and allergy medications, and water have been available at all times.
Organizers have been in contact with CUNY administration since at least Friday to achieve their demands—divestment, a boycott of “Zionist academic institutions”, a statement of solidarity with the Palestinian cause, demilitarization (the removal of NYPD presence from CUNY campuses), and free tuition “that is not beholden to Zionist or imperialist donors,” according to a post from the Gaza Solidarity Encampment’s Instagram page.
While organizers have been in contact with CUNY administration to make progress on achieving their demands, the protest shows no sign of stopping, with many students willing to stay as long as the encampment remains up. Matteo, a Hunter College student and member of Hunter’s Internationalist Club who spent the night at the encampment, told The Campus, “I am planning on being here until I get arrested. And if I get arrested and [the encampment is] still up, I'll come back and sleepover until they take it down and it's no longer up.”
The encampment is open to the general public, as it has been since Thursday. Partial barricades around CCNY’s campus remain up, but anyone can enter as of 6p.m. on Monday. The gates on Amsterdam Ave at 138 St. and 139 St. are closed, but the campus is accessible through the entrance at 140 St. and Convent Ave. However, people without CCNY IDs, including students of other CUNY campuses and CCNY students without physical IDs, cannot enter buildings. CUNY Public Safety presence has been down since Thursday, when Public Safety officers were prevented by protestors from entering the encampment.
Students at the encampment support Palestine for a number of reasons. Kyndall Flowers, a junior at City College, told The Campus,“As a Black student, it’s important for me to show up at the encampment because my liberation is intrinsically tied to the liberation of Palestine.” Jay, a student and employee at Hunter College who asked to only be identified by their first name, said “I support Palestine because I want to stand on the right side of history… against genocide, collective punishment, and colonial occupation.” Chants at the encampment Monday afternoon included “free, free, free Palestine” and “say it loud, say it clear, we don’t want no Zionists here.”
It is unclear how the encampment, if still up, will impact CCNY’s return to school on Wednesday. In a message sent out to the CCNY community Sunday, City College President Boudreau said “We are working to minimize risks to people within the encampment and to protect all members of our campus community, while also minimizing the encampment's impact on campus operations.”
Benny’s Food Pantry sent out an email announcing that the NAC Benny’s Food Pantry location will be closed until further notice, saying “due to the current demonstrations occuring on campus, we currently lack the necessary staffing to manage Benny’s Food Pantry effectively.” In an email to club leaders, the Club Relations Team postponed all events from May 1 to 4. It’s unclear how this impacts regular club meetings.
The Campus plans to meet in NAC room 1/119 on Thursday at 12:30 p.m. as usual.
