A disturbing video has surfaced on Instagram showing twisted anti-Israel protesters harassing Jewish Baruch College freshmen attending a welcome event this week. Cruelly taunting the students about the murder of six hostages by Hamas terrorists in Gaza, one protester yelled at them, referring to Israeli-American Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23, one of the six hostages killed by Hamas and found dead on August 31st in Gaza.
The new students were attending a welcome dinner held at the Mr. Broadway kosher restaurant in Midtown, where a mob of about a dozen screamed threats including, “You ain’t going home tonight,” according to a post from the student group. Baruch Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), which administrators say is not affiliated with the college, helped organize the protest, asking for “support” at the restaurant beforehand on Instagram, as reported by the Jewish Telegraphic agency.
The SJP chapter has called on CUNY to cut ties with Hillel International, which has 850 campus chapters, social media posts show. The cowardly protesters — most wore keffiyeh scarves covering their heads and faces — chanted “All Zionists are racists” and “CUNY, CUNY, you can’t hide, you support genocide,” repeating the left-wing lie that critics say ignores Hamas’ responsibility for starting the war. One even flashed an upside-down triangle symbol, which has been used by Hamas terrorists to identify Israeli military targets.
Ilya Bratman, what do you say? How many kids did you kill today?” the group also chanted, calling out Hillel’s executive director.
Hillel at Baruch, which serves nearly 2,000 Jewish students, said the ugly episode is “the reality Jewish students are facing today on American college campuses.” The group posted on Instagram, saying, “At what should have been a warm welcome for our new students at our annual Welcome Back Dinner … we were met with hate instead.
CUNY Chancellor Felix Matos Rodriguez said the university system is investigating the incident and will enforce disciplinary actions as appropriate. I was deeply disappointed to learn demonstrators disrupted a Hillel welcome dinner for students from CUNY and universities across the City, turning an event designed to help freshmen acclimate to college life into a disruptive hate-filled display that has no place in our city,” Rodriguez said in a statement. The safety of everyone in our community remains our top priority,” he added.
A Baruch spokesperson said in a statement, “We are outraged by the language used at the protest.” No arrests were made at the protest, which was dispersed by police, according to an NYPD spokesperson.
