Fourteen of the 15 remaining defendants, proudly wearing their Palestinian keffiyehs defiantly in court, turned down the ACD deal and issued a joint statement stating the reason for their decision: “We stand here today united by our action and the Palestinian cause. The state has attempted, once again, to divide us — dismissing some of our cases and offering others deals in accordance with their outside agitator narrative.

“All of us who took part in the liberation of Hind’s Hall [renamed in honor of a six-year-old Palestinian girl murdered by the Occupation Force] were driven by the same necessity to escalate, to escalate for Gaza, to resist the savage genocide of our siblings in Palestine.

“We exercised our shared right to oppose the U.S. war machine by putting our bodies upon the years of Columbia, one of its most well-oiled domestic components.” (abc7ny.com, June 21)

Workers World salutes these heroic students and their allies who refused to be bullied and divided by the pro-Zionist school administration, Mayor Eric Adams and the state repression of the NYPD and the courts.

These young activists, an integral part of a global movement, have been inspired by the determined struggle for the Palestinian people’s right to liberation and self-determination, including reclaiming their ancestral lands.

Long live the student Intifada!