NEW YORK — A mock protest camp set up for a TV taping on a New York City college campus sparked a real response from pro-Palestinian activists, who organized their own demonstration against the taping, a newspaper reported Wednesday.
The scenario played out Monday and Tuesday at Queens College, where the CBS drama “FBI: Most Wanted” filmed an upcoming episode about a climate change protest, The New York Times reported.
Like some of the camps that were formed on college campuses in the US And elsewhere This spring, protests were held against Israel’s actions in the war against Hamas. Tents, sleeping bags and handmade banners were used in the TV protest.
Members of several pro-Palestinian groups, Within Our Lifetime and Students for Justice in Palestine, took offense and organized their own protest alongside the fictional one, the Times reported. Production wrapped earlier than expected Monday after the protesters showed up, and a group of about 15 protesters returned Tuesday, the newspaper reported. It was unclear whether any students were among them.
The newspaper reported that the protesters refused to speak to a reporter. In chants and flyers, however, they called the filming “propaganda” and the use of the campus “a clear attempt to simultaneously demonize and profit from the student movement.”
The show’s producers declined to comment, the Times reported.
Queens College said in a statement that the “campus community” was notified in advance of the TV taping, including its “focus on a climate change/environmental protest at a fictional college.”
According to the Times, filming wrapped as planned Tuesday afternoon.
The student protest movement in Gaza this year was sparked by a demonstration at Columbia University in New York, and then it swept across many other American campuses. Encampments formed at some schools, but not at Queens College.
While many protests were peaceful, there were more than 3,200 arrests. Some campuses saw disturbances, strikes or cancellations of graduation ceremonies. Some schools have complaints filed about anti-Semitic and anti-Palestinian intimidation.
The war started when Hamas militants attack Israel on October 7, in which 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were taken hostage and killed. In Gaza, more than 39,000 Palestinians have been killedaccording to the area’s Ministry of Health, which makes no distinction between fighters and civilians.