Student activists at Columbia University are sparking controversy with plans to protest Veterans Day by reframing it as a day to honor Palestinian Arab casualties in Gaza, The New York Post reported on Sunday.
An unofficial student organization, named Columbia University Apartheid Divest, has distributed flyers announcing their intention to hold an unsanctioned event Monday on the university's Morningside Heights campus, according to the report.
The group's flyer explicitly states their opposition to the holiday and says, "Veterans Day is an American holiday to honor the patriotism, love of country, and sacrifice of veterans. We reject this holiday and refuse to celebrate it."
It continues, "The American war machine should not be honored for the horrors unleashed on others. Instead, we will celebrate Martyrs Day in honor of those martyred by the Israel-US war machine. A day to honor the patriotism, love of country, and sacrifice of those martyrs."
In response, campus veterans are organizing their own celebration to counter the protest, according to The New York Post. The tension comes amid already heightened emotions following Hamas' October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which led to increased hostility toward student-veterans on campus.
The university, which hosts the largest veterans community among Ivy League schools, responded through a spokesperson and said, "We are aware that a small group has called for a demonstration tomorrow, and our public safety team is monitoring for any disruptions to campus activity. As always, we are committed to preserving our core mission to teach, create, and advance knowledge."
Anti-Israel activities on Columbia’s campus have increased since October 7 of last year.
Pro-Palestinian Arab demonstrators at Columbia set up dozens of tents in April, demanding that the university divest from its Israeli assets. The university administration called in police to dismantle the encampments.
On April 30, at the request of university leaders, hundreds of officers with the New York Police Department stormed onto campus, gaining access to the building through a second-story window and making dozens of arrests of the pro-Palestinian Arab demonstrators who had taken over Hamilton Hall.
Before the anti-Israel encampment on campus, the Chabad rabbi of Columbia University and a group of Jewish students were forced to leave the university campus for their own safety during a pro-Hamas demonstration.
In August, three Columbia University deans resigned from the school, after it was discovered that they had exchanged “very troubling” texts that “disturbingly touched on ancient antisemitic tropes”.
Later that month, Columbia University President Dr. Minouche Shafik announced her resignation, following months of criticism for her handling of campus antisemitism.
The antisemitism has continued into the new school year. On the first day of classes, dozens of masked anti-Israel protesters gathered at the entrance to Columbia and at Barnard College.
Days later, pro-Palestinian Arab protesters at Columbia University staged a sit-in at the Institute of Global Politics in the School of International and Public Affairs, where former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is teaching a course.
The US House Committee on Education and the Workforce recently released a 122-page report which detailed what it termed "astonishing concessions" by officials at numerous schools, including Harvard, Columbia, Yale, MIT, UCLA, and Rutgers to antisemitic protesters who disrupted campuses and threatened Jewish students and staff.
At Columbia, the report found that the university actually considered bowing to protesters' demands to divest from all companies connected to Israel and to give all protesters complete amnesty for acts that violated school policy or were even illegal.