Cornell Students Find Univ. President ‘Guilty’ of ‘Genocide’ At Mock Trial And Occupy Buildings In Protest Against Israel

Caleb HoweDec 2nd, 2023, 5:36 pm
 
Anti-Israel Cornell students hold mock trial of University President Martha Pollack and occupy a campus building to demand Cornell join BDS movement.

(Image via Steve McGuire on X)

Cornell students protesting against Israel and the university’s involvement with companies that do business with Israel occupied a campus building on Friday, holding signs condemning the war in Gaza, chanting “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” and holding a “mock trial” of University President Martha Pollack for “complicity in genocide.”

Students with The Cornell Coalition for Mutual Liberation organized the protest, which joined many other student demonstrations against Israel with other groups on campus such as the university’s Students for Justice in Palestine chapter.

The groups held a “die-in” on Thursday on campus, and advertised Friday’s event as an “Occupation” to include the mock trial.

(Instagram / @CMLCornell)

Students occupied Day Hall on campus, where they remained into Saturday, posting on the organizer’s Instagram account on Saturday afternoon that, “As of 1pm on Dec 2, still no update from the University. We will continue the occupation until we have a meeting time with Cornell CFO Christopher Cowen.”

Participants shared updates on Saturday.

The students carried signs across campus and outside the Hall for the mock trial.

(Instagram / @CMLCornell)

Other students have allegedly reported that the anti-Israel protesters even went into buildings and disrupting studying, prompting complaints to the dean.

The group posted a list of demands online and delivered them as part of the weekend protest, including that the university take a strong stance against doxxing of students who participate in protest or express views on the war. The group demanded the university comply with a student “BDS resolution” (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) and declared the school “is implicated in Israel’s breaches of international law.”

From The Cornell Daily Sun:

In an email to the administration, CML demanded protections for pro-Palestine speech, recognition of anti-Zionism as an ideology distinct from antisemitism and revisions to the University’s endowment that divest from companies with “involvement in human rights abuses” in Palestine.

The “trial” of President Pollack found her “guilty” of genocide and apartheid for ties to engineering, aerospace, and other technology companies that do business with Israel.

From the Sun:

The crowd then chanted “Cornell is complicit in genocide,” and “Martha is complicit in genocide” before once again chanting “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”

The prosecutor then “charged” Cornell with complicity in what they called the genocide, forcible deportation and apartheid of Palestinians, as well as the targeting of civilians and intentional deprivation of objects necessary for survival, which they deemed “war crimes.”

By 12:30 p.m., the crowd had swelled to roughly 60 demonstrators, who demanded Cornell’s “divestment from genocide and apartheid.”

Pollack was then “found guilty” of genocide and apartheid.

WENY in Ithaca posted a letter sent by the group to Pollack in November, which attacks the university for being “situated on stolen land” and part of “a global system of settler colonialism.”

The demands in that letter were repeated at the protest and shared by the group online.

Many other images and video were shared on X (formerly Twitter) and on Instagram Friday and into Saturday.

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Caleb Howe - Contributing Editor

Caleb Howe is an editor and writer focusing on politics and media. Former managing editor at RedState. Published at USA Today, Blaze, National Review, Daily Wire, American Spectator, AOL News, Asylum, fortune cookies, manifestos, napkins, fridge drawings...