Shut it Down NYU

In the wake of the October 7, 2023 terror attacks by Hamas against Israel, the group became very active in anti-Israel protests, culminating with an attempted occupation and encampment on NYU school grounds. The encampment was broken up by the police with many participants being arrested. ³

Founding and History

Shut it Down NYU was formed in April 2023. ⁴ In the wake of the October 7, 2023 terror attacks against Israel and the resulting Israeli military action numerous protests broke out on American college campuses. At New York University (NYU), a group calling itself Shut it Down NYU comprised of faculty, students, and staff formed to protest the school’s connection to Israel, specifically the school’s campus in Tel Aviv. ^{3 2}

The group participated in the protest encampment set up at the school in April 2024, echoing the calls to close the school’s Tel Aviv campus and to divest all university investments connected to Israel. The encampment was later broken up by local police, with many protestors being arrested. ^{3 2}

Organization Philosophy

Shut it Down NYC holds left-of-center views based on the claim that both the United States and the State of Israel are illegitimate entities that promote imperialism and oppression. ²

The organization’s statement of purpose begins by claiming that New York University is on stolen Indian land and that this trend of supposedly stealing land continues in the school’s presence in Israel, which it alleges is also built on stolen land resulting from “the ongoing settler-colonial process” and “borders.” It further accuses NYU of inadequately paying construction workers and university employees and blames the school for gentrifying the area, ultimately accusing it of promoting violence in both “occupied Manhattan” and “occupied Palestine” to defend its “regimes of extraction.” ²

The group utilizes an intersectional approach that seeks to tie left-of-center causes together as being part of one unified global struggle. Notably, in a post celebrating International Women’s Day, the group shared a graphic praising convicted women terrorists, including Leila Khaled, a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), which is designated by the United States government as a terror organization; Black Panther and Communist Party member Angela Davis; terrorist Fatima Bernawi; communist Assata Shakur, who was convicted of murdering a police officer before fleeing to Cuba; and Ahed Tamimi, a Palestinian woman arrested in Israel for inciting terrorism. ⁵

Shut It Down published a zine with revolutionary content connecting numerous intersectional issues to the conflict in Israel. It calls tourism to Puerto Rico “neoimperialism” and opposes gentrification and property expansion. It characterizes NYU as a “neo-imperialist entity” and a “collaborator” with Zionism due to its campus in Tel Aviv. The zine also included an anonymous communist screed that characterizes the conflict between Hamas and Israel as being the part of a wider global struggle against American Imperialism ranging from Cuba to Yemen and Zimbabwe. It also characterizes turnstiles in the New York subway as being borders and calls for readers to “shut down the means of production.”  The zine also includes a message from the Filipino militant youth organization Anak Bayan that calls for the global overthrow of capitalism with class warfare. ⁶

Leadership

There is no identified leadership to Shut it Down NYU. The group promotes anonymity and has encouraged the use of face masks to hide one’s identity when participating in disruptions and protests. ^{7 8}