Fake protest set for TV shoot on NYC campus sparks real demonstration by pro-Palestinian activists

NEW YORK (AP) — A fake protest encampment set up for a TV shoot on a New York City college campus sparked a real reaction from pro-Palestinian activists, who organized their own demonstration against the filming, a newspaper reported Wednesday.

The scenario unfolded Monday and Tuesday at Queens College, where the CBS drama “FBI: Most Wanted” was filming an upcoming episode involving a climate change protest, The New York Times reported.

Like some of the encampments that formed on college campuses in the U.S. and elsewhere this spring to protest Israel’s actions in its war against Hamas, the TV set protest featured tents, sleeping bags and handmade banners.

Members of some pro-Palestinian groups, Within Our Lifetime and Students for Justice in Palestine, took umbrage and organized a protest of their own on the sidelines of the fictional one, the Times reported. Production wrapped up earlier than expected Monday following the protesters’ appearance, and a group of about 15 protesters returned Tuesday, the paper reported. It wasn’t clear whether any were students.

The newspaper said the demonstrators declined to speak to a reporter. However, in chants and flyers, they called the film shoot “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 said.

Queens College said in a statement that the “campus community” had been told in advance about the TV shoot, including its “focus on a climate change/environmental issue protest at a fictitious college.”

Filming wrapped up as planned by noon Tuesday, according to the Times.

This year’s Gaza-related student protest movement was kindled by a demonstration at Columbia University in New York, then swept through many other U.S. campuses. Encampments sprouted at some schools, though not at Queens College.

Although many protests were peaceful, there were more than 3,200 arrests. Some campuses saw disruptions, walkouts or cancellations of commencement ceremonies. Some schools fielded fielded complaints about antisemitic and anti-Palestinian harassment.

The war began when Hamas militants attacked Israel on Oct. 7, taking hostages and killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians. In Gaza, more than 39,000 Palestinians have been killed, according to the territory’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians.