New York City’s subway system is licking its wounds and repairing some $100,000 worth of damage after a self-styled “Palestinian” adjunct instructor from New York University led an anarchist group on a rampage through the train stations last month.
The group “Decolonize This Place” led by Amin Husain wrecked turnstiles, spray-painted messages such as “F**k Cops,” and in general made it impossible for commuters to catch their ride home.
Husain is one of the co-founders of the anarchist group, according to a report published in the New York Post.
The 44-year-old NYU adjunct instructor proudly claims to be from “Palestine,” according to the New York Post. Husain reportedly exhorted people in a Jan. 31 post on social media to “f—k sh—t up,” and ultimately caused $100,000 worth of damage in city property. Thirteen arrests were also made.
Husain is also a founding member of NYC Solidarity with Palestine, a group that describes itself as “seeking to broaden the work being done on Palestine by opening up more expansive spaces of resistances.”
According to the NYU website, Husain is a “New York-based artist and organizer who works combines research, aesthetics, and action.” He is on the faculty of the university’s Center for Experimental Humanities.
A former lawyer who received a master’s of law degree from Columbia University, Husain worked in the New York office of multinational law firm King & Spalding for five years beginning in 2004, before pursuing photography and becoming a part-time instructor at NYU in 2014, according to his LinkedIn profile and public records. He is also an instructor at the New School and Pratt Institute, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Husain has taught classes in militant activism at New York University, such as “resistance and solidarity” and “The Cultural Boycott of Israel Matters.”
However, he has allegedly has a history of making trouble in Israel as well: according to the New York Post, he boasted about “attacking Israeli soldiers as a teenager” during the first intifada while at an anti-Israel rally in Times Square in July 2016. “I was throwing rocks, Molotov cocktails and the like” he said.