A mock student protest encampment set up on a CUNY college campus for the filming of a TV show this week sparked real-life backlash from a small group of anti-Israel demonstrators upset by the depiction.
The drama played out Monday and Tuesday at Queens College, which was transformed into the made-up “Kincaid College” for an episode of “FBI: Most Wanted,” a law enforcement procedural entering its sixth season on CBS.
The made-for-TV encampment sparked a protest, with video from CUNY4PALESTINE, a campus anti-Israel group, showing a handful of demonstrators running up and positioning themselves in front of a group of extras holding prop signs around a college building entrance.
“Queens College, shame on you!” the protesters shouted, accusing the school of “exploiting” the civil unrest from earlier this year to promote “propaganda.”
The show’s set decorators created a strikingly realistic facsimile of the encampments set up at Big Apple universities throughout the spring, complete with tents, banners and signs — but taking a stand against climate change, not Israel as the real ones did.
The school announced the planned campus disruption in a letter, alerting students and staff to various elements of the shoot they could expect to see in the coming days, including “signage and branding” for the fictitious university, “prop sidearms” and several first responder vehicles.
The letter also warned there would be a “chase and arrest scene” playing out on the roof of the science building that would include “a stunt person falling off the roof.” Firecrackers and smoke effects were used to simulate the campus unrest, the school wrote.
A Queens College official said that despite the anti-Israel demonstrators’ efforts, there were “no disruptions of any kind” as producers filmed, and that most of the chanting and protesting on the campus quad took place well after filming had concluded.
Protesters occasionally confronted actors and extras when they showed up between takes, one snidely shouting “is this your big break?” to which the actor replied, “I hope so,” according to The New York Times.
Others distributed leaflets condemning the show’s portrayal of law enforcement officers as “copaganda.”
The big-budget network TV production employed impressive attention to detail in recreating the type of chaotic scene that plagued college campuses around the country earlier this year as Israel waged war on Hamas.
The college’s Powdermaker Hall was dressed up with fake broken windows made to look like they were blown out by an explosion, with shattered bits of glass and debris strewn around the steps and nearby.
Queens College has been the scene of several disturbing acts of antisemitism during campus protest events.
During a pro-Israel rally last November, an anti-Israel activist approached a group of Jewish students and ranted, “Go back to Poland! Go back to Germany! That’s where you’re from,” while flashing obscene gestures.
Students complained demonstrators had also grabbed and trampled on Israeli flags.
College campuses can earn big bucks allowing production companies to stage movie or TV shoots, earning into the six figures, a University source told The Post. The shoot was planned when school was out of session for the summer to minimize disruptions.
“Queens College, similar to many campuses, is often the site of television and film shoots by reputable production companies and media outlets,” the school said in a statement.
