> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://hyperallergic.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Art Students and Faculty Rally for Palestine at Cooper Union - URL: https://hyperallergic.com/cooper-union-art-students-faculty-palestine-rally/ - Published: 2024-05-09T22:04:42.000Z - Updated: 2025-11-24T15:04:34.000Z - Description: The action drew connections between the student mobilization for Gaza and the Free Cooper Union movement in 2011. - Author: Maya Pontone - Tags: News, Cooper Union, Gaza, New York, Protest, #wp, #wp-post, #image-position-large, #Import 2025-11-24 09:36 (2023, 2024, part 2) At least 100 demonstrators from student groups at New York City art schools gathered in Manhattan’s Cooper Square this afternoon, waving Palestinian flags and carrying banners calling for the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art's (CU) divestment from individuals and corporate entities linked to Israel’s ongoing assault on Gaza. Organized by CU’s Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), whose Instagram account was [suspended](https://www.instagram.com/p/C6wGlutMMCs/?igsh=MXdocG1sbjNtNnY3ZQ==&ref=hyperallergic.com) yesterday by Meta, the protest began at 1pm with a rally that drew support from local residents as well as students and faculty from nearby institutions including the School of Visual Arts, New York University, and Pratt Institute. Consisting of a standing rally and brief march encircling Cooper Union’s original [Foundation Building](https://cooper.edu/about/history/foundation-building?ref=hyperallergic.com) and [$166 million](http://cooper.edu/sites/default/files/uploads/assets/site/files/MEDIA%5FUPDATES%5F1221.pdf?ref=hyperallergic.com) aluminum-encased New Academic Building, today’s action drew connections between the ongoing student movement for Gaza and the [Free Cooper Union](https://hyperallergic.com/432915/cooper-union-to-be-free-again/) movement, an organized effort that launched in 2011 in response to administrators’ plans to start charging students tuition. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2024/05/img_7841.jpg) SJP organizers displayed a massive red banner with white block text that read “Free Palestine Divest Now.” A group of around 10 self-identifying Zionist Jewish CU students carried Israeli flags. One of them, who declined to use their name, told *Hyperallergic* that CU SJP’s demands “do not represent the whole student body” and that protesters have “made \[campus\] feel like an unsafe and unwelcoming environment for Jewish, Israeli, and Zionist students.” Drawing inspiration from the Free Cooper Union effort, SJP organizers displayed a massive red banner with white block text that read “Free Palestine Divest Now” at the same site where Free Cooper Union activists displayed a similar “Free Education To All” banner just a decade earlier. Approximately a dozen police officers were present at the rally. At 2:24pm, six officers tore down the fabric sign to the chants of “Shame! Shame!” from rally participants. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2024/05/img_7854.jpg) Carol Dudek with her watermelon pin “What’s happening in Gaza is so shocking,” Carol Dudek, an East Village resident who wore a [watermelon](https://hyperallergic.com/666111/how-watermelon-became-a-symbol-of-palestinian-resistance/) pin to today’s rally, told *Hyperallergic*. A design graduate of Parsons, Dudek said she has been participating in the student-led protests around the city because it’s important “for students to see that older generations really support what they’re doing.” During the rally, organizers distributed pamphlets detailing the "bloodstained" military career of CU trustee [Stephen P. Welby](https://www.defense.gov/About/Biographies/Biography/Article/602778/stephen-p-welby/?ref=hyperallergic.com) and zines recounting the history of Free Cooper Union. The materials also cited CU administrators’ recent response to community opposition to Israel’s attacks on Gaza, citing the [firing](https://hyperallergic.com/1000-sign-letter-in-support-of-artist-shellyne-rodriguez/) of faculty member Shellyne Rodriguez. “We see who is passing by and who is not at the rally with us,” said a first-year fine arts student at CU who asked not to use their name*.* “You cannot call yourself an artist if you’re not here because your job is to speak for the people.” ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2024/05/img_7803.jpg) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2024/05/img_7816.jpg) Left: A demonstrator carrying a drum with verses from a poem by Refaat Alareer; right: Supporters at the rally Emmaia Gelman, a public policy and politics professor at Sarah Lawrence College, also attended the demonstration wearing a black shirt that read “Not In Our Name.” “I and lots of other faculty across the country and around the world have just been so grateful for and so impressed by the student movement \[for Gaza\],” Gelman told *Hyperallergic*, calling upon other faculty to support students and keep them safe “from the emerging police regime on college campuses.” The rally concluded by 3:15pm with no arrests. *Hyperallergic* has contacted CU administration for comment. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2024/05/img_7808-1.jpg) Brooklyn artist Sara Erenthal wearing handmade watermelon earrings ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2024/05/img_7828.jpg) A group of self-identifying Zionist Jewish CU students stood by the action, carrying Israeli flags. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2024/05/img_7813.jpg) The action was organized by CU’s Students for Justice in Palestine group. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2024/05/img_7819.jpg) During the rally, organizers distributed pamphlets detailing the military career of CU trustee Stephen P. Welby.