At 10:07 a.m. on Monday, Oct. 7, over 400 5C students participated in a demonstration for Pomona College to divest from companies and manufacturers supporting the Israeli government. A group of protestors eventually moved to occupy Carnegie Hall, resulting in the building being closed and suffering extensive damage and vandalism.
The day of the walkout marked the one-year anniversary of Hamas’ targeted attack in Southern Israel, where 1,200 Israeli people were killed and 251 were taken hostage. Since then, Israel has launched a large-scale invasion of the Gaza Strip, and over 41,500 people have been killed.
Monday’s rally was announced on Oct. 4 through a joint Instagram post by Pomona Divest from Apartheid (PDfA), 5C Prison Abolition, Claremont Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and Mudders Against Murder.
“We know it can be intimidating to take a stand at these colleges but at this point in watching genocide unfold, we have no other choice,” the post reads. “Our numbers will bring us safety, not our silence.”
The post also details the plan that students followed to convene during Monday’s rally. Those who didn’t have a class to walk out of were asked to meet at various places across the Claremont Colleges, including the Bauer Center, the Nucleus, the Pit-Stop Café and the Studio Art Hall, among other locations.
At the scheduled start time of 10:07 a.m., masked protestors gathered outside of their selected locations and began moving towards the intersection of North College Avenue and East Sixth Street, all the while chanting sayings including, “Disclose, divest, we will not stop, we will not rest,” and “There is only one solution: Intifada revolution.”
The first group of students arrived at the intersection at 10:18 a.m. where they proceeded to block off traffic. By 10:33 a.m., students from all across the colleges had converged at the intersection and begun calling out “What do we want? Divestment / When do we want it? Now / If we don’t get it? Shut. It. Down!”
The chanting continued for about 20 minutes as protest organizers steered through the crowd and passed out water bottles and masks. Then, at 10:50 a.m., the assembly quieted down for a speech given by an unidentifiable speaker.
“We are here today because for the past year, most of us have had to wake up every morning and witness genocide between our eyes and our phone screens,” the speaker said. “That should not be normal.”
The speaker proceeded to condemn Israel for the bombardment of universities in Gaza and to grieve the rising death toll in Lebanon. They also brought up the recent shutdown of Scripps College’s Motley Coffeehouse following student employees’ pro-Palestinian political organizing, describing the suspension as “nothing short of disgusting.”
Then the speaker recounted the Pomona administration’s decision to call the police and arrest 20 students at a demonstration in Alexander Hall last April. The crowd yelled cries of “shame!” in response.
Meanwhile, about ten faculty members joined the procession.
“Injustice in any situation is injustice everywhere,” one anonymous faculty member said to TSL. “I don’t want to be any part of a system that actively participates in genocidal behaviors.”
Following the speech, at 11:06 a.m., the assembly passed through the intersection and moved into Pomona’s Carnegie Building, disrupting classes. Those inside the building who were not participating in the protests — including some high school participants in the college’s Perspectives on Pomona program — had to relocate.
Two unidentifiable protesters said that they “had no idea” why the group had chosen to occupy Carnegie, but an anonymous organizer later told TSL that it was because the building is one of the most historic and iconic on Pomona’s campus and is often used for branding.
PDfA added to this point in a communication with TSL later in the week.
“We reclaimed Carnegie Hall because it symbolizes Pomona College’s false image as a peaceful, tranquil institution,” they wrote. “While Pomona funds the bombs martyring Palestinians, it attempts to portray itself as an idyllic and serene institution. Our reclamation laid these contradictions bare.”
During Monday’s protest, as people continued to move into Carnegie, protestors repeated their chants and waved signs and banners reading “Israel Bombs, Pomona Pays,” “Long live the martyrs,”“F*** your land acknowledgement / Land Back,” “Jews 4 intifada,” and other similar messages.
At 11:40 a.m., protest leaders announced a blockade of the building. At this point, protestors restricted further entry into the building, securing its doors with zip-ties. The doors and windows at the front of the building were plastered with pro-Palestinian posters, poems and handmade signs.
For the next several hours, protest leaders provided students with lunch and held several trainings to teach them about skills that they could use in the “divestment fight.”
At 1:30 p.m., Dean of Students Avis Hinkson emailed Pomona’s student body to announce that Carnegie Hall was closed and that individuals should leave the building and surrounding area.
“We will not permit the presence of masked, unidentifiable individuals on our campus refusing to show identification when asked,” she wrote. “Nor will we stand for the takeover of buildings and the disruption of academic continuity.”
Soon afterward, Dean Brandon J. Jackson and Dean Tracy Arwari moved towards Carnegie’s back entrance, asking students who were leaving the building to take off their masks and identify themselves. Jackson also recorded people who entered the building.
Several hours later, protesters began to exit the building, with all students out by 3:52 p.m.
Following the protest’s conclusion, Vice President Jeff Roth announced in an email to the student body that Carnegie would be closed until further notice, citing damages incurred during the takeover.
Inside the building, some protestors had used red spray paint to write “F*** Pomona,” “Intifada,” “From the river to the sea” and “Free Palestine” on the walls and floors. Others destroyed AV equipment, printers, plaques and various materials, according to individuals who viewed the space the following day.
“The individuals responsible face sanctions that may include restitution, suspension, expulsion, as well as being banned from campus,” Roth wrote. “ We will not, however, be commenting on individual cases.”
Several days after the protest, Claudio Castillo PO ’26, vice president of academic affairs for the Associated Students of Pomona College, invited students to write letters of support for faculty and staff members impacted by the “extensive property damage” in Carnegie.
“In addition to damaging educational spaces, faculty members representing the academic disciplines housed in Carnegie Hall have lost access to their office spaces and teaching spaces,” they wrote. “Memorabilia of students past and present have been lost or destroyed. The physical damage is a great loss to our academic community.”
Pomona’s Faculty Executive Committee also commented on this damage via an Oct. 10 statement condemning the actions of the protestors who occupied and vandalized Carnegie. The committee said that Pomona serves as a place of learning where everyone plays a positive role and deserves to feel safe.
“The sudden occupation of the building, the expulsion of its legitimate inhabitants, and the wanton destruction that ensued, are antithetical to that communal project,” their statement reads. “The fact that this occupation took place on October 7, a day that should have inspired a very different kind of gathering, only added insult to injury.”
Lenny Fukshansky, a professor at Claremont McKenna College, also questioned the decision of protestors to host the occupation on Oct. 7. He added that many Jewish students on campus feel unsafe, and compared the anti-Zionist rhetoric of protestors with the Soviet Union propaganda that he grew up with.
“Perhaps [protestors] feel that their heart is in the right place, and maybe it is,” he said. “But I want to warn them. I want them to know that while their heart may be in the right place, they are using very hateful rhetoric, and they’re aligning themselves with some of the most evil, the most disgusting people in the world.”
Fernando Lozano, chair of Pomona’s Economics Department, said that events like Monday’s are “antithetical to our most sacred values” and have no place at a liberal arts college.
“Anonymous protestors hidden behind the invisibility of a mask shatter our common humanity, and eradicate the empathy and trust we have built throughout many years,” he said in an email to TSL. “The protests on Monday had a chilling effect to those of us who work at Carnegie.”
Still, PDfA said that it is committed to the movement calling for Pomona to fully divest from all institutions “complicit in the zionist genocide of Palestinians and from all weapons manufacturers.”
“Pomona College has threatened to punish students involved with Monday’s actions because the enemy knows they’re losing,” PDfA wrote in a statement to TSL. “Yet, the presence of hundreds of community members at our protest proves that our movement is unshaken. The student movement is not dead, they will never win against our collective strength. We will continue to resist until Pomona College divests. We continue to escalate until Palestine is free.”
Claremont SJP did not respond for comment.
Ansley Washburn, Ben Lauren and Anne Reardon contributed reporting.
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