New York City’s Cooper Union college met with a fierce backlash after Jewish students were apparently barricaded in the library to shield them from pro-Palestinian protesters.

In the latest episode of U.S. campus unrest fueled by the Hamas attack on Israeli civilians, about two dozen students chanted and pounded on the library doors and windows as an estimated 11 Jewish students and others waited inside.

At least two of the Jewish men were wearing yarmulkes, according to videos posted online.

The New York Police Department said plainclothes officers were on the scene at the Wednesday protest and that the Jewish students were never in danger, but several of them told media outlets they felt otherwise.

“I genuinely don’t know what would have happened if the doors were left open,” a student identified as Jacob told PIX11.

A student named Gila added: “It was tense; people were nervous.”

The incident sparked calls for Cooper Union President Laura Sparks to step down and for the student protesters to face consequences.

Inna Vernikov, a New York City Council member, held up a mock resignation letter at a press conference Thursday and an empty box for Ms. Sparks to use to “pack her stuff.”

“This is not a protest. This is pure intimidation of Jewish students at Cooper Union,” tweeted Ari Kagan, a member of the New York City Council.

“As the son of Holocaust survivors I’m appalled to see the mob trying to get Jews inside a locked library. Administrators must take responsibility & ensure this never happens again,” he wrote.

He added: “If Cooper Union administrators will do nothing about this incident of hate, then they are coward collaborators who should resign.”

New York Police Chief of Patrol John Chell insisted that the “students were not barricaded,” saying that the staff closed but did not lock the library doors as the crowd of chanting protesters approached.

“A school administrator thought it was prudent to close the doors and place private security as the protesters were coming down the stairs,” he said at a Thursday press conference with New York City Mayor Eric Adams.

About 70 pro-Palestinian students and 20 pro-Israel students held parallel rallies outside Cooper Union, part of a day of protests and walkouts on college campuses across New York City.

“There was no direct threats, there was no damage and there’s no danger to any students in that school,” Chief Chell said.

His take differed from that of Taylor Roslyn Lent, one of the Jewish students, who said the library staff “barricaded the library doors and locked us in.”

Ms. Lent said the Jewish students decamped to the library after the pro-Israel rally. The crowd of pro-Palestinian students later entered the building to continue their protest at the president’s office, then headed to the library.

All the protesters were students, although they failed to swipe in to enter the building as required, police said.

“When the rally decided to try to get into the library as well — very angry and very loud — the school barricaded the library doors and locked us in there along with some other students to keep us safe from the rally that they allowed to enter the building,” Ms. Lent told Fox News.

In a statement to CBS New York, the pro-Palestinian student group said the “peaceful protest” did not target “any individual students or faculty, but the institution itself,” insisting that “we DO NOT under any circumstance condone antisemitism.”

Cooper Union had a muted response, telling Jewish Week that “the library was closed for approximately 20 minutes late this afternoon while student protestors moved through our building. Some students who were previously in the library remained there during this time.”

Ms. Lent said she supports their right to protest, but was worried by some of the overheated rhetoric.

“Personally, I don’t feel threatened by pro-Palestinian rallies or anything in that sense, everyone has their own right to be doing that. But I definitely did feel threatened when there were chants calling for the murder of Jews being chanted at me from my fellow students,” she said.

Cooper Union, a private college located in New York City’s East Village, offers degrees in art, architecture and engineering.

Manhattan Borough President Mark D. Levine tweeted that the college is reviewing the situation, but that “this much is clear: It’s absolutely appalling that Jewish students were intimidated and harassed this way. What is Cooper Union doing about this??”

• Valerie Richardson can be reached at vrichardson@washingtontimes.com.