Students Demand PLO’s Expulsion from NYC

By Joshua Strauss

A diverse group of student activists from college campuses across New York City, including many students from Yeshiva and Stern College, have banded together in a movement calling for the removal of the Palestinian Liberation Organization from its Manhattan brownstone on the corner of 65th Street and Park Avenue.  The students, who have named their enterprise “PLO out of NYC,” organize continual protests, vigils, and political lobbying in front of the PLO building.

In addition, a number of students have recently begun learning Torah at the site, terming their endeavor Yeshivat Shalhevet, in memory of Shalhevet Techiyah Pass, who was killed in her baby carriage by a Palestinian sniper last year.

“PLO out of NYC” is comprised of a core group of fifteen students from various colleges in New York City.  It is they who arrange all the events in front of the PLO mission; and it is their proclaimed goal to have the PLO itself recognized as a terrorist-supporting entity and to have it expelled from its New York City location.  “They’re a terror-supporting entity, and we seek to keep NYC terror-free,” proclaimed Eli Dinewitz, a first year student at the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary and a member of the group.  The PLO currently enjoys ‘observer’ status at the United Nations and has received the brownstone building it currently occupies on loan from the United States government. 

Protests at this location, which see an average attendance of approximately fifty people, generally include featured speakers, singing and chanting, formulating slogans, and distributing fliers to passersby.  Perhaps the most poignant moments at the events, notes one organizer, are the recitations of tehillim, and the emotional reading of names of Israelis, who have been killed in the current Palestinian terror campaign.  The protests have received much publicity in recent weeks; participating students have appeared on the ABC and CBS television networks, and sound bytes from the students’ demonstrations have been broadcast by a number of radio stations, including WCBS 880 and 1010 WINS.

The next rally will take place in conjunction with Rabbi Avi Weiss’ group, Amcha, on Thursday, March 21st.  The organizers urge all students to attend and to periodically check their hotline (646-613-1903) for more information about rallies.

Yeshivat Shalhevet officially kicked off its operations this past Sunday, March 10th.  More than forty people showed up at the protest site to learn with three rabbinical students from Yeshivat Chovevei Torah.  Sitting on blankets on the sidewalk and eating pizza, the rabbinical students delivered their lessons to a group that was willing and eager to learn Torah.  “The picnic was amazing,” noted one of the organizers, Kineret Fischer, a first year student at Barnard.  “It was a really positive reflection of Jewish communal involvement; students from many diverse backgrounds around New York City were represented,” she remarked. 

Organizers intend to convene weekly or bi-weekly sessions of this sort following the Pesach holiday, but for the time being, they are pleased to have students learning for a few hours per day in front of the PLO mission.

On the political front, the objective of “PLO out of NYC” is currently being debated by the New York City Council.  The resolution, proposed by council member Oliver Koppell, declares that “the City Council urges President George W. Bush and the government of the United States to declare the Palestinian Authority and the Palestinian Liberation Organization to be terrorist organizations and…urge the government of the United States to immediately close the offices of the Palestinian Authority in the City of New York.” 

If this resolution passes in a vote to be held on March 16th, the next move is to have it introduced in the New York State Assembly, then in the New York State Senate, and finally in the United States Congress.  “If this goes through, the entire US and its administration will have said unequivocally that the PLO is a terrorist organization,” said Beth Meshel, one of the organizers from Stern College.  The group is fairly confident that the resolution will pass, though it is impossible to predict exactly what will occur.  “We have a number of assemblymen working with us on this issue, and we hope that they’ll come through for us,” noted Fischer.

The Israel Club at Yeshiva, represented by its President Yehuda Shmidman, “endorses all activities of this sort and hopes to become as involved as possible providing assistance where needed.”  In fact, many of the organizers from Yeshiva and SCW are on the board of the Israel Club as well. “This is a perfect example of how students can change public policy,” exclaimed Dinewitz. “Once we succeed here, and we will because we have to, there’s still much more to do.”