From left to right, Maia Arquilevich, Talia Goldberg and Lucy Lopshire plant small Israel flags during the Oct. 7 memorial exhibit at Norlin Quad on the University of Colorado Boulder campus on Oct. 7, 2024. (Linus Loughry/CU Independent)
Correction: A previous version of this story quoted professor Hilary Kalisman, saying that she had noticed a difference in CU Boulder’s treatment of students supporting the Palestinian and Israeli causes. The sentence has been corrected to say that Kalisman has noticed a difference in the treatment of students at universities across the country.
Oct. 7 marked one year since the Hamas-led attacks on Israel and the subsequently declared war. Throughout the week of the anniversary, students at the University of Colorado Boulder took to campus in support of both the Israeli and Palestinian causes and to mourn the lives lost on both sides of a war raging over 6,000 miles away.
The week was marked by one arrest and two separate student conduct investigations. Additionally, Boulder Students for Justice in Palestine was placed into “bad standing” as a registered student organization at CU Boulder.
Student memorials on campus
On Oct. 7, the anniversary of Hamas’ attack on Israel, CU Boulder’s chapter of Students Supporting Israel held a memorial exhibition in front of Norlin Library to honor and mourn the victims of the attack.
Will Premisler(left) and Shayna Sakhai(right) plant small Israel flags during the Oct. 7 memorial exhibit at Norlin Quad on the University of Colorado Boulder campus on Oct. 7, 2024. (Linus Loughry/CU Independent)
The exhibition focused on the lives lost during the attacks and the hostages that are still being held in Gaza, aiming to raise awareness and provide a space for reflection.
“Oct. 7 marks one of the most tragic times for Jewish people in modern history,” said Elyana Funk, the executive director of CU Boulder Hillel. “One year ago, Hamas terrorists slaughtered more than 1,200 Israelis, injured thousands more and took more than 250 people hostage in coordinated terror attacks across the south of Israel.”
The event featured a series of stations set up across the Norlin Quad. Students at each station offered details about some of the victims, including personal stories, photographs and accounts provided by hostages.
“Our hope and message is to give life again to some of these people by sharing their names and their stories,” said Yehuda HaLevi, a representative for CU Boulder SSI. “It shows that even through hardship and suffering, we are still alive.”
In addition to commemorating the victims, the exhibition intended to raise awareness about the impacts of the war on Israeli families and the larger CU Boulder community.
A long table stretched across the memorial, with chairs displaying the faces of hostages taken by Hamas. The table was intended to represent a Shabbat dinner, with settings placed in honor of the hostages.
A long table displays pictures of current hostages in the Israel-Hamas War during the Oct. 7 memorial exhibit at Norlin Quad on the University of Colorado Boulder campus on Oct. 7, 2024. (Linus Loughry/CU Independent)
“Our message here is to raise awareness about the reality of losing family members and what it means to have empty seats at a Shabbat dinner table,” said HaLevi. “It’s also about what it’s like to leave your family behind to serve your country and to lose relatives, friends and loved ones.”
The memorial also served as a demonstration of support for Jewish and Israeli students on campus.
“Seeing this memorial on campus brings a sense of solidarity and light during such a difficult time,” HaLevi said.
Later that same day, a second memorial was held in Macky Auditorium, hosted by CU Boulder Hillel and Chabad, two Jewish student organizations.
Funk, who spoke at the memorial, brought awareness to the impacts of the war on Israeli and Jewish communities, including an increase in antisemitism faced by students on college campuses across the nation.
According to Hillel International, incidents of antisemitism on college campuses increased from 290 reported incidents on North American college campuses during the 2022-2023 year to 1,854 reported incidents during the 2023-2024 year.
“Just weeks into last academic year, Hamas’s attack sparked unprecedented levels and intensity of antisemitism on college campuses and towards Jewish communities around the world,” Funk said. “The ongoing war continues to claim thousands of lives, tear apart families and uproot many from their homes.”
Among the evening’s speakers was Din Tessler, who worked as a security guard at the music festival attacked by Hamas on Oct. 7 last year.
“People forget that we don’t know where we will be tomorrow, people forget we don’t know what will happen in a second. That happened on October 7, 2023. That one morning, everything changed.” Tessler said. “To live your life every day is a huge gift, so please be more thankful.”
Din Tessler tells his experience of what happened at the Nova Music Festival during the Oct. 7, memorial at Macky Auditorium on Monday, Oct. 7, 2024. (Clementine Miller/CU Independent)
Tessler also emphasized the importance of spreading awareness beyond the Jewish community.
“Everyone needs to know what happened,” he said. “It doesn’t matter if you are Jewish, Christian or Muslim—these are things that can’t happen in this world.”
Nathan Rotenberg, the internal vice president for SSI, said the event was intended to bring students together.
“We needed to unite and that’s what this event was for, to recognize the hardship of this war, but also to find happiness in our community so we can be strong,” he said. “We are not alone, we are together, and we are here for each other.”
On the same day, Boulder SJP held a vigil at the University Memorial Center. According to a post shared on Boulder SJP’s Instagram, the vigil was intended to “honor our martyrs” and was part of what they labeled a “week of rage.”
A representative for Boulder SJP clarified that the word “martyr” in their post did not refer to the perpetrators of the Oct. 7 attack, instead, it refers to the civilians who have died as a result of the war.
Protesters gather to listen to speeches at the Dalton Trumbo Fountain Court on the University of Colorado Boulder campus on Oct. 7, 2024. (Linus Loughry/CU Independent)
“Our Muslim and Palestinian members have educated us on [the word] and steered us towards that direction,” the representative said. “Referring to the Palestinian people who have been murdered by the Israeli state as ‘martyrs,’ because it’s what they would have wanted.”
Students, many of whom were members of Boulder SJP or Jewish Voice for Peace, shared poems and told stories, including some honoring children killed in the conflict and stories of doctors currently living in Gaza.
Attendees of the vigil also shared prayers for the dead in both Arabic and English.
“We’re not going to forget the names. These people live on in the hearts of the community,” said Aya, a member of Boulder SJP who asked to be identified only by her first name due to fear of retaliation.“They are more than just numbers, they are human beings, they are children, they are people’s loved ones.”
The event’s speakers also discussed how conflict can have a lasting impact both on those directly impacted, and those further away.
“When it ends, we will celebrate and be happy, but we’re going to continue to grieve afterward because genocide doesn’t just end with the action,” Aya said.
Aya also noted the long history of the conflict, which has been ongoing in various forms for over 75 years.
“What is happening in Palestine for the past year is not new,” she said. “It’s just escalated.”
Career fair protests
Four days earlier, on Oct. 3, members of Boulder SJP bypassed the registration process for the CU Boulder 2024 Spotlight on Aerospace & Defense STEM career fair in an attempt to disrupt the event in the UMC.
Boulder SJP originally gathered outside the UMC on its south terrace, where they were told that the career fair had reserved the terrace, and they would need to disperse. A group of 14 people then chose to enter the event.
While inside the event, they protested the presence of defense contractors such as Lockheed Martin and RTX on campus.
In 2023, Lockheed Martin executives identified the conflict between Israel and Palestine as a potential source of increased revenue in the coming years. The company has a relationship with CU Boulder, largely through the university’s Lockheed Martin Engineering Management Program.
The protest was dispersed quickly by the CU Boulder Police Department, according to a statement from Nicole Mueksch, a CU Boulder spokesperson.
Two of the protestors, who are both organizers with Boulder SJP, were identified by administrators and placed on “interim exclusion” from campus.
Interim exclusion is a temporary measure pending the final resolution of a student conduct process. Students may be placed on an interim exclusion when university officials determine a need to deny them access to all or some university grounds.
In this instance, this exclusion dictates that the students may only be on campus during class or during the ten minutes before or after a class, according to a representative for Boulder SJP.
Following the Oct. 3 protest, Boulder SJP was also moved into “bad standing” as a registered student organization at CU Boulder.
According to Mueksch, a group placed in bad standing can no longer receive privileges such as applying for university funding.
“CU Boulder supports our campus community’s right to peacefully protest––as protected by the First Amendment and university policy––so long as those activities do not violate campus policy, regent policy, state law or federal law,” Mueksch said in a statement. “Those who are found in violation of these laws or policies will be held accountable.”
Following the incident on Oct. 3, Boulder SJP claimed that the university was silencing students.
In a statement, Boulder SJP said that “the university chose to side with the war industry.”
“This isn’t about ‘safety’ or ‘order’- CU is terrified of losing the blood money from defense contractors who help fund their research,” the statement said. “Let’s be clear: if these companies leave our campus, it’s not a loss – it’s a moral victory.”
“Day of Resistance” rally and a student arrest
On Oct. 8, the day following the anniversary of the Hamas attack, Boulder SJP staged a “Day of Resistance” rally at the Dalton Trumbo Fountain Court outside the UMC. An incident at the rally led to the arrest of graduate student Luna Peck for theft and physical harassment.
Students gather for the rally for Palestine at the University Memorial Center on Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2024. (Clementine Miller/CU Independent)
The rally was largely in response to the placement of the two Boulder SJP organizers on interim exclusion and the organization’s placement in bad standing by the university following the Oct. 3 incident.
“Students are scared of censorship, students are scared of losing opportunities, of losing their ability to be on campus,” said an SJP member, who asked not to be named due to fear of retaliation.
Several individuals, who were not part of the SJP event, arrived outside the UMC during the rally. This group began playing the national anthem on one student’s speaker while waving a small American flag.
Roughly eight seconds into the song, the students playing the national anthem said Peck approached the group.
According to a court affidavit, Peck threw water on one of these students and ran away with another student’s speaker. Peck currently faces charges of harassment by physical contact and theft between $300 and $1000. The speaker was valued at $350.
Luna Peck, left corner, pours water onto a speaker playing the US national anthem. Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2024 (Michael Drapeau/CU Independent)
Concerns for freedom of speech
Following the week’s events, some professors expressed their concerns about students’ ability to protest freely on campus.
Hilary Kalisman, an assistant professor of history and endowed professor of Israel and Palestine studies within CU Boulder’s Program in Jewish Studies, said that she has noticed a difference in how universities across the country treat students supporting the Palestinian and Israeli causes.
“I would say students, particularly students who are supporting Palestinians, are more likely to face long-term consequences, which isn’t fair,” she said.
She cited the students placed on interim exclusion as an example of students who have faced consequences for protesting on campus.
“This current incident with the students (on interim exclusion), I do think is troubling. I think the punishment does seem a bit much for the situation,” Kalisman said.
Kalisman said that, across CU’s four campuses, she has not heard of anyone being disciplined for public support of Israel.
However, she noted that this has occurred on other university campuses throughout the nation, including at Columbia University, where a professor who expressed support for Israel was barred from campus after they allegedly intimidated other staff members.
Mueksch said the university’s disciplinary policies are enforced equally for all students.
“CU Boulder has established processes, including Student Conduct Resolution, that are enforced uniformly and consistently to address incidents when students or student organizations are alleged to have violated university policy,” she said in a statement.
Omedi Ochieng, an associate professor specializing in Africana philosophy and rhetoric, rhetorical theory and criticism and comparative intellectual history, said he has also seen repression of pro-Palestinian voices on campus.
“Pro-Israeli speech and actions are overwhelmingly legitimized by the most powerful officials in the University of Colorado system, from regents to administrators,” he said. “At the same time, pro-Palestinian speech and activism are stigmatized as violent and threatening by definition, irrespective of their actual content.”
Ochieng pointed to a resolution passed by the CU Board of Regents in June which condemned Students for a Democratic Society following protests outside of some regent’s homes. The resolution also discussed the term “intifada,” a phrase often used at pro-Palestine protests and gatherings.
“For example, the University of Colorado Board of Regents adopted a resolution on June 20, 2024, that asserts that the Arabic word ‘intifada’ calls for ‘violence and murder against the Jewish people,” Ochieng said. “This is a blatantly false and calumnious resolution. Intifada is by most good faith accounts translated as ‘uprising,’ ‘shaking off’ or ‘struggle.’”
The American Jewish Committee has called the term antisemitic and has said that it contributes to the targeting of both Jewish and Israeli people.
The resolution sparked back-and-forth op-eds in the Colorado Sun, with members of CU Boulders chapter of Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine claiming that the resolution “undermines free speech” and other CU community members calling the resolution “justified” within the historical context.
Ochieng also expressed his support for Boulder SJP.
“I, along with other (members of FSJP), urge CU to drop its charges against these students and to restore SJP’s good standing in our community,” Ochieng said. “It is in such moments that a university’s actual values are revealed. I hope CU can prove equal to this moment in history.”
Professors also noted their concerns for the safety and comfort of students with connections to the war.
Kalisman called antisemitism “an extremely real problem on the CU Boulder campus. She also acknowledged rising Islamophobia, anti-Palestinian and anti-Arab sentiments.
She said that while a university’s priority should be maintaining the physical safety of students, it is difficult to balance freedom of speech with student discomfort surrounding protests.
Kalisman noted that, for community members on both sides of the conflict, emotions can run high and safety can become a concern.
“It’s an emotional situation for people on multiple sides who have family in the region,” she said. “It’s an emotional situation if you have friends who are involved in protests and you’re worried for their safety.”
Contact CU Independent Editor-in-Chief Jessi Sachs at jessica.sachs@colorado.edu.
Contact CU Independent Managing Editor Lincoln Roch at lincoln.roch@colorado.edu.
Contact CU Independent News Editor Satori Griffith at satori.griffith@colorado.edu.
Contact CU Independent Staff Writer Ainsley Coogan at ainsley.coogan@colorado.edu.
