Veterans Day supporters clashed with anti-Israel protesters on a university campus
Protesters at Columbia University are celebrating the “martyrs” of Gaza on Veterans Day against the “Israeli-US war machine,” prompting distraught campus veterans to honor the holiday at the same time as protesting.
Columbia University Apartheid Divest, an unofficial group at the New York City school, dubbed Monday's holiday “Martyrdom Day” in flyers distributed on the Ivy League campus.
“Veterans Day is America's holiday honoring the patriotism, love of country, and dedication of veterans. We reject this holiday and we refuse to celebrate it,” their letters read.
“The American war machine should not be honored for the horrors presented to others. Instead, we will celebrate Martyrs' Day honoring those martyred by the Israel-US war machine. It is a day to honor the patriotism, love of country, and sacrifice of those martyrs.”
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An anti-Israel group at Columbia University distributed “Martyrs' Day” flyers on Monday and advertised an event on campus on their social media accounts. (Instagram / @cuapartheiddivest)
A post on the group's Instagram account asks readers to “come and read the martyr's story and plant a poppy in their memory.”
A group called the Military Veterans of Columbia University wrote on Facebook that they are planning a Veterans Day celebration to be held on Monday in the campus.
College veterans also intend to celebrate the holiday while simultaneously protesting the Columbia University Apartheid Divestment, students told the New York Post. One said that after protesters celebrated the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel — many of which targeted college veterans — the group's Veterans Day programs added insult to injury.
“That post really shook the hornet's nest,” Sam Nahins, a 31-year Air Force veteran and spring graduate, told the Post of the group's online post about Veterans Day. plans.
“They have never hidden their disdain for veterans. But now it is really out in the open,” he added. “Last year when students and faculty members ran around dressed as jihadists and shouting 'Death to America,' 'Death to Western civilization,' death to everything but their cause, I had friends who were called infidels, and murderers and murderers of children. .”
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Students protest the war in Gaza on the anniversary of the Hamas attack on Israel at Columbia University in New York, New York, Monday, October 7, 2024. (Victor J. Blue for The Washington Post via Getty Images)
Nahins told the newspaper that the protests were “very harmful to the mental health of veterans,” citing the suicide of one of his best friends at school in the weeks after October 7 last year.
Brandon Christie, a US Marine Corps veteran, was working on a mathematics degree at a university when he stopped attending classes last fall. After leaving school and disappearing last September, she was found dead in a park in upstate New York.
Nahins, who has been the unofficial coordinator for the school's approximately 700 student veterans, expressed concern to administrators after hearing about the group's plans this week. He told the newspaper that he had an “important” phone call with Katrina Armstrong, Columbia's interim president.
Armstrong was named interim president in August after then-president Minouche Shafik resigned over his handling of anti-Israel protests that turned violent and led to the NYPD raiding the barricaded campus building in April.
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Columbia students are organizing commemorations and rallies for both Israel and Palestine on Oct. 7, 2024, New York City, one year after the Hamas attack. Columbia University made international headlines when student activists set up Palestinian solidarity camps on campus. (Photo by Alex Kent/Getty Images)
“When I told President Armstrong about what happened last year, he seemed very surprised by that,” said Nahins.
The university could not be reached for comment at press time.
“Columbia is proud of our students, faculty and veteran staff, and we are deeply grateful for their work and sacrifices and the important contributions they make to our community,” a spokeswoman for the institution told the Post on Sunday. “The university honors its veterans on Veterans Day once every day, and we are proud to participate in the New York Veterans Day Parade tomorrow, as we have for more than a decade.”
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“We know that a small group has requested a protest tomorrow, and our public security team is monitoring any disruption to the institution's work. As always, we are determined to maintain our main goal of teaching, creating, and improving knowledge,” said the spokesperson.
Queens Councilman Robert Holden told the media that “any attempt to disrespect our veterans is disgraceful and must be dealt with head on.”
“Columbia University cannot allow these un-American supporters of terrorism to insult the brave men and women who defended our freedom,” Holden said. “These lunatics will not bring back Veterans Day – not today, not ever.”
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