It's been over a year since the October 7th attack and the start of the ongoing conflict in Gaza.

Since then, student protests against the war have continued on College campuses across the state.

In this next segment, our Elise Kline dove into the State's handling of those protests.

Here's that story.

[ THEME MUSIC ] It's been over a year since the first attack on Israel ignited the ongoing armed conflict between Israel and Hamas, a Palestinian militia group occupying the Gaza strip.

Following the war's first anniversary, many students and community organizers alike continue to protest in solidarity for Palestine.

Line Henriksen, who has been organizing with Palestinian rights committee Albany, says they want to see an end to suffering.

Palestinians are being slaughtered, and we are of the opinion that this is a genocide and it needs to stop.

While many pro-palestine advocates are happy to see their community come together to organize and speak up for what they believe in, they are disappointed in the State's response especially on College campuses.

Eyad Alkurabi, a first generation Palestinian and community organizer, says advocates for Palestine are being silenced.

It's heartbreaking and down right disgusting that Kathy Hochul has been only focusing on the Zionist narrative and Israel's narrative and completely denounce and ignore and shame the Palestinian narrative.

At a recent press conference, Governor Kathy Hochul told WMHT that everyone has the right to protest, but she said there is a line.

Highlighting concerns about students facing discriminatory behavior.

The Governor also stressed time, place and manner restrictions which are limitations on expressive activity related to when, where and how expression occurs.

We're going to make sure that the students have a right to protest legitimately, but if you cross that line and attack another person because of their religion, you are in violation of state and federal human rights laws.

The institutions that allow that to happen are in violations of those laws.

That's what I also warn.

They'll be looking to enforce.

However, some students fear they are being generalized and inflated with examples of anti-Semitism from bad actors.Malak Abuhashim, a grad student at Cornell and a member of justice for Palestine, says anti-Semitc incidents do happen on campuses, but they are not coming from pro-palestine protesters.

She adds many pro-palestine groups have also condemned incidents of anti-Semitism.

I'm not going to deny that anti-Semitism doesn't exist and isn't an issue.

I think it's a real issue, but from what we've seen is that it's not coming from our community.

It's coming from outside agitators.

It's coming from people who carry this hate and are using these rise of events to let their hate come out.

Jay Saper from Jewish voice agreed and stresses it is perfectly consistent with Jewish values to criticize Zionism and take action against genocide.

We're actually compelled the anti-Zionist Jews to do these things.

So we are disturbed by universities that are silencing students that are supporting justice for all people.

Abuhashim Say pro-palestinian communities on campus fear retaliation from university administration.

So for instance, with the interim expressive policy that came out from essentially like pro-palestinian protests, you see students that are getting suspended, students that are getting nearly deported.

Cornell's new policy outlines time, place and manner restrictions such as limiting when amplified sound can be used.

This policy also outlines the potential for disciplinary action.

Thomas Healy, a first amendment expert and a professor at Seton hall law school, says much of the policy appears to be related to conduct of expressive actions.

Healy says it's important to make a distinction between regulation of speech because of its message and a regulation of speech for another reason, such as the time, place or manner.

Limitations on sound amplification are kind of Classic example of a time, place and manner regulation and those kinds of regulations are usually upheld as consistent with the first amendment as long as they are substantially related to an important governmental goal, right, and the government goal in this case would probably be protecting the, you know, the quiet of the campus.

But time, place and manner restrictions can be rejected.

One of the ways that a time, place and manner regulation can be rejected is if it looks like it's really just an excuse to regulate the content of student speech, or if it's being applied inconsistently.

Healy cautions that there could be some red flags.

A response that the students might have is, well, you know, are there-- are there other times of the day when we could have sound amplification that wouldn't disrupt those legitimate activities in is the university going overboard here?

And unnecessarily limiting us to two places and to only one hour of the day.

However, Cornell students are frustrated with more than just recent policy action by the university.

Abuhashim says Cornell university tried to prevent students for justice for Palestine from reregistering as an organization on campus despite completing all the required steps on time.

The student group sent multiple follow-ups to the campus activities office with no response.

Students then called them out on social media.

That's just like one example of how they our organization, justice for Palestine, has felt targeted and discriminated against by our administration.

Abuhashim says their group was reregistered after shaming the university's lack of response on social media.

When asked about this incident described by students a Cornell spokesperson said despite the large number of student organizations processed, there has been no delay or deviation from their standard time line.

Some students who faced punishment from Cornell worried the administration is being too harsh against protests for Palestine.

Jacob Berman, a senior at Cornell and Vice President of the chapter of Jewish voice for peace, was suspended and banned from the university campus for code of conduct violations after participating in a pro-palestine rally that shut down a career fair in September.

This is an overreaction.

There have been protests at career fairs at Cornell before and they never gave out punishments this harsh before.

I also think it's funny under the guise of protecting Jewish students when I'm a Jewish student.

I'm a-- I help run services.

I was actually barred from attending a meeting, Jewish Shabbat services.

Cornell president said in a statement following the career fair protest, a clear line was crossed and the university is obligated to respond.

But students' fears extend beyond Cornell's campus.

Students for justice at Palestine at SUNY Albany would only speak collectively as a group to keep students safe from what they fear will result in university repercussions and in the past year, over 100 SUNY students in New Paltz have been arrested for protecting via an encampment on campus.

Students and staff heavily criticize the police response saying it was in violation of first amendment rights and happened after students removed the tents before a deadline administration had given them.

Alex Hanks, an Albany community organizer, stresses this isn't the first instance of repercussions against student protesters.

It's a really terrifying moment for people-- people that are students that are just trying to stand up for their morals, what they believe in and stand against genocide, stand against their institution's support and complacency of genocide.

When asked about the arrest, a spokesperson from SUNY said students who abide by the campus code of conduct have never been or will be punished for activity that is protected by the first amendment.

On CUNY campuseses a recent policy report is also creating conflict.

Judge Jonathan lippman at the direction of Governor Kathy Hochul conducted a review CUNY's antidiscrimination and anti-Semitism policies.

The review has been widely criticized on SUNY and CUNY campuses saying they are disgusted.

SUNY Albany students for justice in Palestine says even the title anti-Semitism and discrimination at the University of New York singles out anti-Semitism as a unique and special form of hatred while regulating Islamaphobia, an equally pervasive issue on CUNY campuses.

The student group highlighted while the nearly 200-page report has a 12-page section dedicated to anti-Semitism, there is not one section dedicated to Islamaphobia, antiblack racism, Asian hate or any other form of discrimination on CUNY campuses.

Healy says while he's not sure if the review is deliberately focusing on one form of discrimination over another, it's certainly a good question for students to raise.

It would certainly be a problem if a public university was only focused on discrimination against particular racial groups or particular religious groups, right.

So if the university adopted a policy that said you can't harass people based upon their Jewish identity, but didn't say anything about harassment against people based upon some other religious identity or ethnic identity or cultural identity or racial identity that would be a real problem.

Another part of the report highlights time, place and manner restrictions, stating universities can impose certain reasonable viewpoint and content-neutral regulations.

Healy says the argument the report is making is that CUNY can regulate speech as long as it's not regulating the speech based on the viewpoint or the content.

However, students aren't alone.

Some lawmakers have also expressed concern about the review.

There are aspects of that report that borderline on government overreach.

That can be very dangerous for student expression and our democracy.

Both CUNY and judge Lippman declined to comment on questions about the review.

Many advocates say they are protesting for Palestine not just to call for a cease-fire but to call on government officials and College administrations to divest from Israel.

We need divestment.

We demand boycott and we deserve sanctions.

The state comptroller says while everyone is entitled to their opinion, their view is the Israel investments have been positive for the state.

As an investor, we invest to make money to secure the retirement benefits for our public employees, state workers and local government workers across the state.

And part of our portfolio does include investments in the state of Israel.

Those investments have performed well and we have no plans to change our investment strategy.

Cornell students pushing for divestment, earlier this year, issued a referendum to their university asking them to cut off ten companies tied to the war in Gaza, particularly companies providing weapons to Israel.

The university president declined the students' request saying the school has concerns about an Executive Order prohibiting state entities from investment activity intended to target Israel.

However, in the order a state entity is defined as all agencies and departments over which the Governor has executive authority.

Cornell is a private institution.

Other universities have also rejected the students call for divestment.

SUNY says they stand with the Governor in rejecting boycotts, divestment and sanctions.

Some lawmakers in Albany have taken action around this very issue.

One bill called the not on our dime bill would prohibit nonprofit organizations from engaging in unauthorized support of Israeli settlement activity.

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Brisport says the bill was killed in committee last session because many politicians are afraid of taking a public stance on this issue.

Other legislation from Republicans across the aisle tries to address concerns of anti-Semitism by prohibiting anti-Semitism on College campuses, preventing state aid to universities that promote anti-Semitism, and even taking away students' tuition assistance for promoting anti-Semitism or inciting violence.

I think they're pretty not radical bills.

I think they address the situation that unfortunately we're seeing a big rise in New York state with anti-Semitism and incidents of hate.

But last session these bills didn't make the progress some lawmakers were hoping for, none making it out of their designated committees.

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Democratic lawmakers across the aisle argue these bills are unfounded.

Some free speech experts also raise questions saying this legislation is deeply problematic for the first amendment.

Healy says it's too vague, it doesn't clearly define what Anti-Semitism is at a time when many people have different definitions.

And it could restrict legitimate discussion about the conflict between Israel and Palestine.

Healy also says even when dealing with unprotected areas of speech like incitement, it's problematic to only target types of content such as anti-Semitism.

To say to students we will take away your tuition funds or your tuition grants if you incite violence but only if you incite violence on the basis of anti-Semitism is a type of content discrimination because what it does is it makes a distinction between different types of incitements.

Some Republican lawmakers argue many bills are crafted with specific groups in mind.

As students and community organizers plan to continue their efforts protesting for Palestine and calling for divestment from Israel, lawmakers plan policy action.

Legislative Session starts in January and lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have said they plan to reintroduce bills around this issue.

At this point, it's unclear whether or not those bills will do better than they did last session.

We'll be keeping track of progress here in Albany as it develops.

Elise Kline, "New York Now."

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