Columbia University protesters are celebrating the “martyrs” of Gaza on Veterans Day in opposition to the “Israel-US war machine,” driving appalled campus veterans to honor the holiday at the same time as a counterprotest.
Columbia University Apartheid Divest, an unsanctioned group at the New York City school, rebranded Monday’s holiday as “Martyr’s Day” on flyers distributed around the Ivy League’s campus.
“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,” their literature reads.
“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.”
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A Columbia University anti-Israel group distributed flyers for “Martyrs Day” on Monday and advertised an on-campus event on their social media accounts. (Instagram / @cuapartheiddivest)
A post on the group’s Instagram account calls for students to “come read a martyr’s story and plant a poppy in their memory.”
A group called Military Veterans of Columbia University posted on Facebook that it was planning a Veterans Day celebration for Monday around the corner from campus.
Campus veterans also intend to celebrate the holiday at the same time in opposition to the Columbia University Apartheid Divest, students told the New York Post. One said that after protesters’ celebration of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks in Israel – much of which was directed at on-campus veterans – the group’s Veterans Day plans added insult to injury.
“That post really shook the hornet’s nest,” Sam Nahins, a 31-year-old Air Force veteran and Columbia graduate student who completed his undergraduate degree at the school in the spring, told the Post of the group’s online posts about their Veterans Day plans.
“They’ve never hid their disdain for veterans. But now it’s really out in the open,” he added. “Last year when students and faculty members were running around dressing up as jihadists and screaming ‘Death to America,’ ‘Death to Western civilization,’ death to everything but their cause, I had friends get called infidels, and murderers and baby-killers.”
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Students protest against the war in Gaza on the anniversary of the Hamas attack on Israel at Columbia University in New York City on Monday, Oct. 7, 2024. (Victor J. Blue for The Washington Post via Getty Images)
Nahins told the outlet that the protests have been “really detrimental towards the mental health of veterans,” citing the suicide of one of his best friends from school in the weeks after Oct. 7 last year.
Brandon Christie, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran, was working on a degree in mathematics-statistics at the university when he stopped attending classes last fall. After dropping out of the institution and disappearing last September, he was found dead in an upstate New York park.
Nahins, who has been acting as an unofficial liaison for the school’s veteran community of about 700 students, raised concerns to adminstrators after learning of the agitator group’s plans this week. He told the Post that he had a very “meaningful” call with Katrina Armstrong, Columbia’s interim president.
Armstrong was appointed interim president in August after then-President Minouche Shafik stepped down over her handling of anti-Israel protests that escalated violently and led the NYPD to raid a barricaded campus building in April.
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Columbia students organize dueling memorials and rallies on Oct. 7, 2024 in New York City one year after the Hamas attack. (Photo by Alex Kent/Getty Images)
“When I told President Armstrong about what happened last year, she really seemed to be very taken aback by it,” Nahins said.
The university could not be immediately reached for comment at press time.
“Columbia is proud of our students, faculty and staff who are veterans, and we are grateful for their service and sacrifice and the invaluable contributions they offer to our community,” a campus spokesperson told the Post on Sunday. “The University honors its veterans on Veterans Day and every day, and we are proud to be participating in the New York Veterans Day Parade tomorrow, as we have for more than a decade.”
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“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,” the spokesperson said.
Queens Councilman Robert Holden told the outlet that “any effort to dishonor our veterans is disgraceful and must be confronted head-on.”
“Columbia University cannot allow these un-American terrorist supporters to insult the brave men and women who defended our freedoms,” Holden said. “These lunatics will not reclaim Veterans Day — not today, not ever.”
