On Novermber 19th, Cornell University students were witness to a rally by the Students For Justice in Palestine (SJP) just one day after the brutal massacre of four innocent Jewish worshippers and one Druze police officer in Jerusalem. Through text messages, phone calls, and simply walking by and seeing what was going on, at least 30 of us came out to counter this rally in a strong example of solidarity within the Pro-Israel community. Sarene Shaked, a freshman at Cornell, was one of the first to join the counter-rally. Here is her story:

“November 19^th was a very upsetting day for the pro-Israel community at Cornell. The day before there had been an attack on a Jerusalem synagogue, where five innocent people were brutally murdered. The Israel Awareness Committee, a group that I am actively involved with on campus, had been running a booth at the Center for Student Life in the days prior to the rally. The goal was to spread non-political Israel positivity and raise money for a disabilities program in Israel. After my late morning shift that day, I ran to grab lunch only to return to a huge SJP rally blocking a central path on campus. In front of two giant banners that called for the boycott, divestment and sanction of Israel, there were three SJP members pretending to be IDF soldiers at a checkpoint harassing a Palestinian civilian. I was overcome anger and disgust due to the fact that they would have the audacity to stage a rally just one day after the Jerusalem synagogue attack. Instead of condemning the terrorists for killing innocent civilians, they were protesting a major defense mechanism Israel has instituted to stop these kinds of attacks from happening.

I spotted my friend standing alone and holding up a sign that read, “Israel is invested in peace.” The SJP protesters approached, their faces inches from his, and  verbally harassing him as he stood there quietly. Another friend and I decided to follow his example and ran into the Cornell Store to buy poster boards to make signs. When we returned, his poster had been crumpled up and stomped on by the SJP protestors and water had been splashed onto him (it was 20 degrees, you can imagine how that feels). We quickly made more signs and gathered a group of people to stand a few feet away from their rally. More and more people came until we outnumbered the members of SJP. As we peacefully held up our signs, they came over to us and tried to intimidate saying things like “F*** you Zionist scum” and “We will meet aggression with aggression.” They smeared ketchup on our signs to make them look like blood and they were so close to us that as they yelled, spit flew into my face. The police had to come to ensure that these threats would not escalate into violence. For the first time since I arrived at Cornell, I felt unsafe.

No matter how horrible it was standing out in the cold as my fingers froze holding up a sign that invited taunts and intimidation, I was grateful and proud that so many people joined our counter-rally. It felt amazing to stand for justice as a community. As uninformed students walked by that Wednesday, they were not fed a one-sided distorted perspective, but were able to acknowledge that there are two sides to the story. College is a time where people form their opinions and beliefs and it is extremely important to always be there to counter any anti-Israel or anti-Semitism around campus. As college advocates, we need to continue to be there for Israel in these crucial times and not allow ourselves to be bullied by SJP and other groups like it. If they want to protest the day after such a barbaric event they have to know that we, as pro-Israel students, will always be there to stand up for what is right.”