EXCLUSIVE: The Culmination of Cornell’s Gaza Protests: Sexy Keffiyehs and Watermelons
(All images contained herein belong to the author and have been digitally-altered to provide anonymity to the pictured subjects.)
Cornell University’s pro-Palestinian protests may not have captured the same headlines as places like Columbia University in New York City, but they’ve had their fair share of vandalism, suspensions, and arrests — as well as heated debates over free speech, university policies, and campus safety.
Student protests began just weeks after the October 7, 2023 slaughter of innocents in Israel. That’s when the Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) rallied outside Day Hall, demanding Cornell divest from its partnership with Technion-Israel Institute of Technology and other companies that support Israel’s military. (Note: Cornell continued to partner with Technion-Israel, with that company aiding Cornell Tech in opening a new lab at their state-of-the-art campus on Roosevelt Island just this month.)
Later that same month, Professor Russell Rickford ignited a firestorm when he spoke at a rally saying he was “exhilarated” by Hamas brutality and described the attack as “energizing,” prompting backlash. After sowing the seeds of discord, he apologized and took a leave of absence. (He resumed his position last fall.)
Before October, 2023 ended, Cornell was making news around the world as graphically violent antisemitic threats against Jewish students began to appear online. One student, Patrick Dai, was charged with “posting threats to kill or injure another using interstate communications.” He was sentenced to nearly two years in prison.
Undaunted, the SJP organized a “die-in” the following month, with 200 students honoring Arab Palestinians killed in Gaza. Pro-Israel students attended too, distributing the names of hostages taken by Hamas during the initial invasion. SJP students said this made them feel “intimidated.”
In December, 2023, Cornell Coalition for Mutual Liberation (CML), occupied the administration building, the student union, and the Temple of Zeus Cafe, demanding divestment, anti-doxxing policies, and a revised definition of antisemitism. It’s interesting to note that the CML doesn’t just represent organizations on campus, but also includes groups from the “surrounding community,” some of whom choose to remain anonymous as they hide in the shadows, influencing campus life.
In February 2024, CML staged yet another die-in at the university library chanting, “Cornell is complicit in genocide.” This time, Cornell police collected IDs and referred students to the Office of Student Conduct for disrupting operations. On March 21, 24 keffiyeh-clad students and staff members were arrested for trespassing at another sit-in.
The following April saw a peak of activism. On April 25, CML established a “liberated zone” on the Arts Quad, joining Gaza protests nationwide. There were simultaneous pro-Israel rallies, with speakers like Cornell student Amanda Silberstein who had previously testified before the House Judiciary Committee detailing her firsthand experiences with antisemitism on campus. (Shockingly, as Silberstein was testifying about the threats to rape and kill Jewish students, she was interrupted by a protester shouting “Free Palestine!”)
I personally visited the spring semester encampment and wrote about it here — before the shanty town was voluntarily dismantled in mid-May to avoid arrests (though several students were suspended for their participation.) One of the students protesting at that time, Momodou Taal, later had his visa revoked by the Trump administration for “disregarding university policies and creating a hostile environment for Jewish students.” He has since voluntarily left the country.
August, 2024, demonstrators rallying for divestment were joined by UAW union representatives. (It was a case of strange bedfellows when UAW strike signs were seen mixed in with pro-Palestinian protests across the country last year.) The morning of the rally, the administration building had been spray-painted with the words, “Blood is on your hands” and “Israel bombs, Cornell pays,” prompting a police investigation. Later in September, CML led over 100 students to disrupt a career fair at The Statler Hotel, protesting the presence of Boeing and L3Harris who they said were “supporting the ongoing war in Gaza.” Cornell vowed to suspend all participants, though it’s unclear if they did.
In March 2025, 13 people, including nine students, were arrested for disrupting a “Pathways to Peace” panel featuring former Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and others. Protesters shouted down the panelists chanting, “Palestine will live forever, from the sea to the river,” and accused Livni of war crimes. The SJP protest organizers were said to have risked suspension as a registered campus organization, but there’s no evidence that ever happened either.
This spring, students pulled out their handy COVID face masks to chant “Free, free, Palestine” as they protested federal funding cuts and accused the university of enabling the “fascist Trump administration.”
Most recently, Cornell was “blasted for inviting ‘vile Jew-hater’ Kehlani” to perform on campus. A group called Cornellians for Israel launched a petition against the selection of Kehlani as the annual Slope Day campus concert headliner. They accumulated over 5,000 signatures. The R&B singer was eventually disinvited from the celebration due to her antisemitic and anti-Israel rhetoric. Some students praised the move as a stand against antisemitism, while pro-Palestinian activists criticized the college for succumbing to pro-Israel pressure. Most recently, Khelani’s Central Park concert was cancelled after pressure from Mayor Eric Adams who cited security concerns. For her part, Khelani says she is “not antisemitic or anti-Jew,” but that she is “anti-genocide” and “anti the actions of the Israeli government.”
(It seems that Khelani — like other American liberals — has mastered the art of using code words as dog whistles. As Grok will tell you, the use of “antigenocide” has “gained traction in discussions about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, where it often serves as a subtle or implicit critique of Israel’s actions, particularly in Gaza.” Like another code word in the news — “8647” — use of the term “antigenocide” allows social media users to mask their dark intent.
Pro-Palestinian Cornell students were so upset about Khelani being nixed that they urged their peers to boycott Slope Day, organizing an alternative “Community Slope Day” with concerts of their own. Their reasoning was that “people deserve a party, but not if that party is organized by fascists, not if it comes at the cost of suppressing Palestinian speech…” Their GoFundMe to pay for the alternative event only raised $6,000 of their $25,000 target.
And so it was that they gathered on a hill out in the country, at a venue called Stone Bend Farm in Newfield, NY. There, the gleeful owner told the crowd he supported them and took pictures as he mingled with students.
An employee boasted that as many as 200 people had been in the barn at its peak, with many more wandering the woods outside.
To this attendee, it looked like a wannabe Woodstock — there was booze, fields of mud, and flower crowns galore. But the item that took center stage was the sexy keffiyeh. Some women wore it as their only top, loosely draping it over their chests in a peekaboo fashion. Others wore it as a shawl, while men draped it as a loose cravat.
Another common sight was the watermelon — it appeared on colorful print shirts, pins, and even earrings. One crafty young woman had even crocheted her own watermelons. Use of the watermelon to show solidarity with Palestine first emerged in 1967 and has survived long enough to be embraced by the modern emoji.
Also at the event were people from the community urging the students to continue their activism. One gentleman, who identified himself as being with the downtown Ithaca arts community, told the group that it had been an honor to be arrested with them.
Just last week, students hung a 30-foot “Gaza” banner from the library tower at Cornell, and as I watched the pro-Palestinian crowd at the rural celebration, the irony was palpable to me. The scantily clad kaffiyeh women, the gays and trans students snapping selfies and dancing wildly in front of the Palestinian flag wouldn’t survive one day in Gaza. The freedoms they’ve experienced in America would be snuffed out in a culture of death that would tolerate none of it. Let us hope that age and wisdom will reveal the truth behind this dangerous fad that so many ignorantly embrace.
Jesus Christ is King
