BROOKLYN COLLEGE–Pro-Palestine protesters interrupted a meeting between CUNY Chancellor Félix V. Matos Rodríguez and the Board of Trustees on Monday, Dec. 4, to oppose the Chancellor’s and Brooklyn College President Michelle Anderson’s statements regarding Palestinian organizing across CUNY.
According to individuals from Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), they interrupted the meeting to stop “the repression of CUNY organizing in solidarity with Palestine liberation,” and to advocate for Palestinian students whom they felt CUNY administrators failed to acknowledge and left out of official statements.
“The statement issued by CUNY Chancellor Félix Matos Rodríguez on Oct. 11 set the tone and context for the subsequent statements and actions across CUNY, including John Jay,” a protester read at the meeting. “In the 457 words of the Chancellor’s statement, the words ‘Palestine’ or ‘Palestinian’ did not appear once. The statement makes one point entirely clear: CUNY’s administration values some lives at the expense of others.”