New York University in Greenwich Village, New York City, July 7th, 2024. (Beata Zawrzel/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

By Louis Keene December 12, 2024

Thursday was the last day of finals at New York University, and the evening promised students following the undefeated NYU basketball team — ranked seventh in the country — an intriguing matchup with Yeshiva University, which had already defeated one opponent ranked in Division III’s Top 25 this season.

But after a pro-Palestinian student protest resulted in several arrests just a few blocks away from the campus athletic center, the game was closed to the general public. Instead, only people added to a guest list by each team were allowed to attend.

MacsLive, which broadcasts Yeshiva University men’s basketball games, announced the decision but did not say who was behind it or state their rationale.

The dozen or so students, faculty and other New Yorkers who handcuffed themselves together in a blockade of the entrance to Bobst Library — the school’s 12-story main library — were protesting to demand NYU disclose its financial holdings in “the industries that massacre people globally” and divest from companies “aiding the Israeli occupation of Palestine,” according to a statement from the group.

The group chanted “There is only one solution — Intifada revolution,” according to one video posted on X.

Chants for an intifada outside NYU library on the last day of class pic.twitter.com/xyzsg7e2ZZ

— Luke Tress (@luketress) December 12, 2024

NYPD arrested eight protesters, NYU wrote in a statement. Two of the arrests were of NYU faculty members, according to the Washington Square News, NYU’s student newspaper. It identified one of them as Andrew Ross, a professor in the school’s College of Arts and Sciences.

According to NYU Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine, three faculty members at the protest were subsequently barred from campus by Georgina Dopico, the school’s provost. The group said all three faculty were Jewish. (Dopico did not immediately respond to a request for comment.)

The group’s statement did not mention Yeshiva University or the basketball game. But there were reasons to suspect the protest might have spilled over into the John A. Paulson Center, the arena just a few minutes’ walk away from the library.

Yeshiva University, an Orthodox Jewish university in Washington Heights, is one of the most prominent Zionist institutions in New York. The school has a campus in Jerusalem, and its president, Rabbi Ari Berman, has posed for photos with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu since the war began.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met today, at the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem, with Yeshiva University President Rabbi Dr. @AriBermanYU.@YUNews pic.twitter.com/AhIrZlA9Nx

— Prime Minister of Israel (@IsraeliPM) May 1, 2024

Nicknamed the Macs, the basketball team, whose perennial on-court success has made it a point of pride at the institution, is a hallmark of the school’s connection to Israel. The team fields Israeli players, it plays the Israeli national anthem before home games and some of its players have gone on to play in Israel after graduating. Its head coach, Elliot Steinmetz, has offered trenchant pro-Israel commentary on social media throughout the war.

Steinmetz said in a text message Thursday that limiting attendance was a “security decision.”

“It’s sad to see such uneducated people in an institution of higher education,” Steinmetz added. “Especially knowing there are faculty members involved that [are] unfortunately shaping future generations based on hate fueled propaganda. But that’s the world we live in right now. We lack educators and leaders in important places.”

NYU Athletics and the John A. Paulson Center did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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