NYU anti-Israel group says it will 'embrace' tactics of an 'armed struggle' to achieve goals

New York University condemned an anti-Israel group on campus that seemed to promote violent “armed struggle” as an appropriate means to support its mission. 

The NYU People’s Solidarity Coalition (PSC), which was formerly known as the Palestine Solidarity Coalition, posted to Instagram on July 22, stating its commitment to “embrace a diversity of tactics” and to the “de-normalization of settler-colonial entities.” 

The group also posted a document–which it appears to have since removed–which seemed to condone the use of violent “armed struggle.” 

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NYU condemned the PSC’s rhetoric on Thursday, writing: “NYU condemns the recent posting by the group calling itself ‘People’s Solidarity Coalition,’ which includes a deplorable ‘embrace’ of ‘armed struggle’ as a valid ‘tactic’ in achieving its aims on campus.”

NYU continued, stating that it has “zero tolerance for the use of violence, and is shocked that any members of our campus community would endorse ‘armed struggle’ as a ‘tactic.’” The university also urged the anti-Israel group to “immediately retract” and “repudiate” its statement. 

The statement concluded: “NYU will respond to any threat or use of violence swiftly, decisively, and severely. Any violence will result in the immediate involvement of law enforcement as well as University disciplinary processes up to and including expulsion or dismissal.”

The PSC pushed back on the university’s condemnation, alleging that NYU “intentionally misread” its statement. 

The anti-Israel group alleged that its now-deleted statement “identifies armed struggle as one of many tactics used in global resistance to colonialism and imperialism,” but added that “armed struggle has never been a tactic used on our campus and to imply we are calling for such based on our statement is ridiculous.” 

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The group claimed that NYU’s supposed “misreading” of its seeming support for violence was an “attempt to scare and smear” the PSC. 

This summer, NYU imposed mandatory ethics homework on anti-Israel activists who took part in disruptive anti-Israel demonstrations at the school and violated school codes. The assignments included a “Reflection Paper” that asked students to answer the questions: “What have you done or need still to do to make things right?” and “who was affected by the incident [?]”

Campus Reform has contacted NYU for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.