Pro-Hamas Student Groups Plan Nationwide Protests on Oct. 7 Anniversary

If chaos erupts, universities’ reactions could provide a window into how they’ll handle anti-Semitism amid the Trump administration’s crackdown

Columbia protesters (Alex Kent/Getty Images), Harvard protesters (Reuters/Brian Snyder)

Anti-Israel student groups have started this semester with a whimper, keeping low profiles without major protests or unrest. That could change Tuesday as campus radicals plan to mark Oct. 7’s second anniversary with demonstrations planned across the country.

Should those demonstrations turn destructive, the response will provide a window into just how much the Trump administration’s crackdown on campus anti-Semitism has changed the behavior of college administrators.

Here’s a full accounting of the protests planned for top college campuses:

University of California, Los Angeles

UCLA Divest and the school’s Students for Justice in Palestine chapter announced their Oct. 7 protest by describing Hamas’s massacre as Palestinians “righteously engaged in decolonial struggle.” They also included a poem honoring “martyrs.”

The protest will involve “a floral procession to honor and remember the lives stolen by the Zionist state.” The groups urged attendees to wear masks.

University of Michigan

Students Allied for Freedom and Equality, an Ann Arbor SJP chapter, announced a Tuesday protest “against two years of genocide and the University of Michigan’s refusal to divest from the genocidal, apartheid state.” The group noted that Oct. 7 marked the beginning of “genocide at the hands of the israeli terrorist state and the iof” without mention of the 1,200 Israelis that were slaughtered.

Columbia University

Columbia may have dodged a bullet: Its anti-Israel groups are protesting off-campus.

The university’s chapter of Students for a Democratic Society and Columbia University Apartheid Divest promoted a rally outside Fox News’s headquarters organized by Within Our Lifetime (WOL). The flyer included a red upside-down triangle, a symbol Hamas uses to denote Israeli targets, and text reading “STRIKE MARCH RESIST.”

Several other anti-Israel groups, including Columbia Palestine Solidarity Coalition, the university’s Jewish Voice for Peace chapter, and the school’s Students for a Democratic Society chapter, also promoted an off-campus protest. It would, however, be just outside Columbia’s gates.

And while another group, Behind Enemy Lines, doesn’t identify with Columbia specifically, it’s also planning a protest outside the university’s gates. Other New York City “targets” listed on its flyer include the Israeli consulate, Trump Tower, the Jewish National Fund, the Anti-Defamation League, City College of New York, and Senate majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s home.

The caption for the group’s Instagram post with the flyer refers to Oct. 7 as “the Al-Aqsa flood,” Hamas’s name for the massacre. Behind Enemy Lines has also been coordinating additional Oct. 7 protests across the country, including in Chicago and Portland.

Columbia, in some ways, has been ground zero for campus anti-Semitism, having been home to several violent protests. Since Tuesday’s rallies are off university property, Columbia will likely aim to skirt responsibility for its students’ behavior.

City University of New York

CUNY’s anti-Israel students will also join WOL’s protest. CUNY4Palestine and CUNY Law Students for Justice in Palestine (SPJ) call for a school-wide walkout. Protesters will rally outside the law building and then march to Fox News.

University of Pennsylvania

Penn Students Against the Occupation is organizing an off-campus rally to “disrupt business as usual” alongside several other Philadelphia-based anti-Israel groups and coalitions. A flyer for the protest calls Oct. 7 a “valiant offensive.”

An earlier Instagram post promoting the protest called on participants to “RALLY, RAGE & RESIST!!!”

Yale University

Yalies4Palestine is also hosting its Oct. 7 protest off-campus with a pop-up “Palestine Museum” that allows attendees to “explore exhibits tracing over a center of displacement and resistance … through art, archives, and lived testimony.”

Tuesday’s event is part of the group’s “3 days of remembrance” that began Monday with a vigil to reaffirm their support for “the Palestinian people’s struggle for freedom” and will end Wednesday with a community gathering.

George Mason University

George Mason’s SJP chapter is planning a week of action to “BREAK THE BUTCHERS.” The group notes that “October 7th marks two years since the beginning of Israel’s devastating genocide on Gaza” with no mention of Hamas’s massacre.

Events include a “Paint The Rage” art workshop and another titled “Resisting and Reporting on the Front Lines,” though no details were included.

George Washington University

George Washington’s SJP chapter posted a flyer on Instagram for a Tuesday rally calling on protesters to join the group “in prayer and commemoration of our martyrs to honor their sacrifice as well as the Palestinian people’s ongoing resistance through this genocide.”

Stanford University

Stanford’s SJP chapter is also planning a “WEEK OF ACTION” in response to “2 YEARS OF GENOCIDE & ZIONIST TERROR.” It’s unclear where any events will be held or what they entail.