The Cornell Collective for Justice in Palestine — a broad coalition of pro-Palestinian graduate workers, staff and faculty — held a pro-Palestinian study-in — a silent form of protest where participants sit as a means of advocating for their cause — on Tuesday at Mann Library, at 3 p.m.
The event was hosted along with the Cornell Coalition for Mutual Liberation and Students for Justice in Palestine at Cornell to protest “Cornell’s censorship of pro-Palestine activism” and advocate for “divestment from the ongoing genocide in Gaza,” according to a CML Instagram post.
“Like its libraries, the University is meant to be a site of knowledge and dialogue, yet it is disproportionately censoring pro-Palestine ideas and voices and ignoring pro-Palestine demands,” CCJP’s press release on the event said. “CCJP’s study-in for Palestine –– which is not in violation of any university policy –– demands action and accountability from Cornell University.”
Prof. Russell Rickford, history, said his decision to attend the study-in was driven by his commitment to human rights and desire for Cornell to divest from companies engaged in “war crimes and crimes against humanity.” According to Rickford, this is a “principle that Cornell itself professes but continues to violate.”
Prior to the Mann Library study-in, participants were instructed to bring keffiyehs, buttons and relevant signage and reading materials to study in the library’s atrium.
Signs and flyers posted throughout the space read “Imagine It Happened Here,” “Whose Freedom of Expression? Cornell Censors Pro-Palestine Speech,” “Shhh! We’re funding Genocide – Cornell” and more. Buttons and informational materials were also provided that said, “No Suspensions, No Deportations.”
Students and faculty alike gathered around the atrium not only to study, but also to exchange sentiments toward Cornell administration.
“If you acknowledge the kind of cognitive dissonance and the sheer grotesqueness of our reality, then authorities will punish you,” Rickford said. “So part of what we [are doing] is trying to be an example of the imperative to speak up, and to speak out, and to refuse to remain silent, and to refuse to be smothered, and [to refuse] to be marginalized, and [to refuse] to be demonized and [to refuse] to be discredited.”
Pro-Palestinian study-ins have recently occurred outside of Cornell’s campus as well. At Harvard University, students and professors have held multiple pro-Palestine study-ins over the past two months. On Oct. 30, more than 70 pro-Palestinian activists staged a silent study-in at Harvard’s Widener Library to protest the University’s refusal to conduct a review of its investments for ties to human rights violations.
Cornell’s study-in had a meaningful impact for many participants who felt that the University’s actions have contradicted its founding principle.
“While we’re privileged enough to attend Cornell, there are currently no operating universities in Gaza,” wrote an anonymous CML spokesperson in an email to The Sun. “Ezra Cornell dreamed that Cornell could be a place for ‘… any person … any study.’ However, Cornell University invests in companies that profit from Scholasticide abroad.”
The study-in had a similarly moving effect on faculty members in attendance.
“We want other staff and faculty to say ‘me too, I’m also outraged. I’m also heartsick. I’m also feeling bereft. I’m also grieving. I don’t accept this,’” Rickford said. “The soul of higher education, the soul of the West, is rotting away as we allow our government and our authorities to carry out this horrific genocide.”
Kristie To ’28 is a Sun contributor and can be reached at [email protected].