Anti-Israel Protesters ‘Don’t Know’ What They’re Protesting

(Jeenah Moon/Getty Images)

Two Columbia University students who hastened to join the pro-Palestinian protest at New York University have gone viral on social media for admitting they “don’t know” the purpose of the protest.

In the video, the unidentified students stand near the steps of the NYU campus, as a line of NYPD officers clad in riot gear monitors the crowd from behind fencing. The footage was shared by former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani on Wednesday and has since been viewed 3.6 million times.

“I think the goal is just showing our support for Palestine and demanding that NYU stop … I honestly don’t know all of what NYU is doing,” one student, who was wearing a nose ring, said when asked about the main purpose of the protest.

“Is there something that NYU’s doing?” the interviewer asked.

“I really don’t know; I’m pretty sure they are …” she replied.

She then turned to her friend and asked, “Do you know what NYU is doing?”

Her friend, who was wearing a black face mask, then asked, “About what?”

“About Israel,” the student clarified. “Why are we protesting, here at NYU specifically?”

“I wish I was more educated,” her friend said.

The exchange was captured by the interviewer moving the camera back and forth between the two.

“I’m not either,” the first student continued. “I came from Columbia. I was there up at Columbia and we came down, they said NYU students needed our support.”

“I’ve heard there are lots of cops and people were saying it was getting dangerous,” she said.

It was unclear when the interview took place, but it surfaced just days after the NYPD was called in to clear a student encampment at NYU on Monday night. On Tuesday, the NYPD said that 133 protesters had been arrested the night before and officers were pelted with bottles and a chair as they broke up the gathering.

In solidarity with the encampment set up at Columbia, NYU students created their own “tent city” and demanded that their school divest holdings related to Israel in response to the war in Gaza.

Following the arrests, the protesters lit red safety flares and marched on NYPD headquarters Monday night chanting “Gaza,” waving flags, and beating drums.

The unrest at NYU mirrored a wave of protests sweeping the city and nation in recent weeks, as simmering antisemitism on college campuses — stoked in the aftermath of Israel’s ongoing retaliatory war against Palestinian terrorist group Hamas — boiled over.