Multiple leftist student groups across the 7Cs collaborated on a “Week of Action” from Oct. 5 to 9, organizing a series of events including teach-ins, poetry readings, a 10:07 a.m. walkout and additional programming. The events marked three years since the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel, with student organizers protesting Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza, as declared by the UN.
“This upcoming week not only marks the beginning of the most recent escalation of the genocide against the Palestinian people, it is a time for us to honor their struggle by remaining steadfast in our commitment to fight for Palestinian liberation and confront our institutions’ complicity in the ongoing genocide,” Claremont Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) wrote in a Sept. 30 Instagram post announcing the week’s events.
Amid tensions between the college administrations and certain student organizations advocating for Palestinian liberation, students raised concerns over some of the programming and questioned its choice of timing.
SJP’s initial Oct. 2 post about the walkout was co-sponsored by other leftist student groups including Claremont Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), 5C Critical Mass, Claremont Colleges Prison Abolition Collective (PrisAb) and The People’s Fund. The organizations “[called] for a GENERAL STRIKE FOR GAZA and a WALKOUT at 10:07 am! Don’t go to class! Don’t spend!”
Lina McRoberts PO ’27, 5C Critical Mass co-founder, explained that the group’s involvement, which included organizing a teach-in, stemmed from shared concerns about surveillance and policing. Similarly, Natalia Uslander SC ’27, a PrisAb steerer, told TSL that the organization’s work toward abolition extends beyond prisons in the United States to carcerality and geopolitical violence.
“When you think of a place like Palestine, and other places where there is a history of apartheid and genocide, [the state] employ[s] the same methods of surveillance, separation and violence,” Uslander said. “So to me, prison abolition is not just about prisons, but about abolishing carceral states globally.”
After the morning walkout, students and faculty gathered on the Pitzer Commencement Plaza for sign-making, speeches and readings, with some highlighting the college’s financial ties to organizations they say are complicit in the genocide in Gaza.
“Nobody should have to question whether their tuition money is going to fund genocide or whether our, as faculty, retirement savings are going to fund genocide, and we kind of know that they are at this point,” Pitzer College Associate Professor of Sculpture Sarah Gilbert said. “So I think it’s really important to speak up.”
Shortly after 11 a.m., students listened to speaker and current Arón Montenegro, a Pitzer Critical Global Studies professor. Montenegro spoke about his involvement in past organizing efforts and invited students to read works from Palestinian poet and author Mahmoud Darwish.
On Nov. 29, 2023, Claremont Police Department officers handcuffed and arrested Montenegro for trespassing at a student demonstration at Pomona College. At the time, he was a lecturer in Pomona’s Chicana/o-Latina/o Studies department. Montenegro stated that the legal case is ongoing.
In a speech, Montenegro said that he didn’t want his experience to distract from the larger cause.
“I’m going to keep this on Palestine — keep this on the journalists who continue to get killed, the schools that continue to get bombed, not just in Palestine, but all the pieces of conflict,” Montenegro said to the audience.
“I’m going to keep this on Palestine — keep this on the journalists who continue to get killed, the schools that continue to get bombed, not just in Palestine, but all the pieces of conflict,” Montenegro said.
Harry Curtis PZ ’27, a student in Montenegro’s Interdisciplinary Knowledge & Global Justice course who took part in the walkout, noted challenges in organizing demonstrations.
“I’ve always felt like more disruptive would probably be better for protests for many things, especially if you’re trying to convince an organization to change,” Curtis said. “But it’s a fine line to walk, not getting in legal trouble, and not having students being arrested.”
Students outlined SJP and JVP’s three key demands at both the Oct. 6 free wall takeover at Pitzer and the Oct. 7 sign-making table on Commencement Plaza: disclosure and divestment from Israel and weapons manufacturers, the creation of a scholarship fund for displaced Palestinian students and to “stop the repression against student organizers.”
Multiple senior attendees noted that there has been a significant change in student organizing around Palestine in recent years.
“It’s interesting to think back on 2023 and 2024 especially, when the occupation of Carnegie Hall happened, and the student arrests, and to think about how that’s changed,” McRoberts said. “Instead of having this really spectacular action, now what we have is something like vigils, in town halls and teach-ins.”
Sydney Fouch SC ‘27, who joined students at the plaza that morning, echoed McRoberts’ sentiment.
“I think that after the administration arrested students, the atmosphere around demonstrations for Palestine has been quieted,” Fouch said. “I feel like the administration doesn’t want student demonstrators for Palestine to be seen.”
Gilbert said she was happy to see students organizing the programming despite a “crackdown on student protests.”
“At this point, I feel like every tenured faculty member should really be out there … speaking up for what’s happening in Gaza and really trying to be there to support our students when we know they’re taking these kinds of risks,” she said.
At 7 p.m. on Oct. 7, The People’s Fund hosted a virtual talk with Mohamed Abdou, a “self-identifying Muslim anarchist” and “interdisciplinary scholar,” according to his website.
Abdou has served as a lecturer at various universities, including Columbia University, where — after a New York representative singled out a few of his Facebook posts during a House Committee on Education and the Workforce hearing — his contract went unrenewed, with former Columbia president Minouche Shafik stating that Abdou would “never work at Columbia again.”
“Yes, I’m with the muqawamah (the resistance) be it Hamas and Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad but up to a point — given ultimate differences over our ethical political commitments,” Abdou wrote in an Oct. 11, 2023 post.
Abdou’s talk, and The People’s Fund, drew criticism from some students and faculty.
In a Sept. 30 press release, Laura Muna-Landa, assistant vice president for communications & community relations for The Claremont College Services, stated that the event was not “sponsored, approved or hosted by” the consortium, condemning the promotional materials.
“The imagery and descriptions shared on social media to promote this event, including the celebration and justification of violence, are abhorrent and run counter to our shared commitment to nurture a collegial community where every student, faculty and staff member is empowered to learn, grow and thrive,” Muna-Landa wrote.
Some students and 5C community members also questioned why programming during the “Week of Action” was centered around Oct. 7, given the Hamas-led attacks that resulted in approximately 1,200 deaths and 251 abducted hostages on the date in 2023. Last year, the Claremont Hillel executive director sent an email to the Hillel community criticizing the vigil’s timing.
“A vigil for them sends a hurtful message to Jewish students — that their pain and humanity are disregarded. Claremont Hillel refuses to add to this cycle of hurt,” she wrote.
Amy Reyes CG ’27, a member of CGU Intifada who clarified that her statement did not represent the group, framed the day as a reminder of the ongoing conflict.
“Oct. 7 is not a celebration but a commemoration because Oct. 7, 2023 was somewhat of a turning point in the already ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people since 1948,” Reyes said.
McRoberts characterized critiques of the programming’s timing as a “very reasonable concern.”
“I personally, as a student organizer, but also as a person in general … in regards to being in support of Palestinian liberation, [think] it probably is not the smartest thing to do, to have it be on Oct. 7,” McRoberts said. “I think that sort of suggests history starting on Oct. 7, or even it sort of sends the message of celebrating those who were killed in Israel.”
McRoberts additionally referenced 5C Nishmat, a self-described “Jewish spiritual collective reclaiming ritual and community in the name of joy, consciousness and liberation.”
“I really like what Nishmat did last year, which, I believe, they had black ribbons that people wore on the 6th and 8th. I look towards what Nishmat is doing [regarding] that.”
Some student organizers also criticized Pomona’s resolution agreement with the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights and Hillel International last year.
In the final hours of the Oct. 7 programming on the Plaza, JVP representatives distributed zines condemning the resolution.
“It is imperative that we understand this settlement is not committed to building community or ensuring our safety,” the JVP zine reads.
The agreement followed a spring 2024 complaint with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights that the Brandeis Center and ADL filed against Pomona for claims of violating Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 in “permitting severe discrimination and harassment of Jewish students.”
Pomona College President G. Gabrielle Starr announced the complaint’s resolution in December 2025. According to the college’s “Resolution Agreement” page, the agreement addresses increased antisemitism and other forms of shared-ancestry discrimination while “[reaffirming its] shared commitment to free speech and open inquiry.”
Nishmat representatives spoke at the vigil on Oct. 8 on Scripps’ Bowling Green Lawn, stating that they represent an anti-Zionist Jewish perspective.
“We recognize our common humanity and condemn our common oppressors,” they said to attendees. “We refuse to rely on fear, surveillance, distrust and harm as a form of control. Instead of shutting down and pushing our neighbors out from Palestine to Claremont, we vow to create communities with open doors, who choose to listen and learn from each other.”
TSL requested comments from each 5C regarding the events this week, noting in the request that multiple students cited a repressive environment regarding speech, discussion and organizing at their respective institutions.
“Pomona College believes that free speech is critical to its mission as an educational institution,” a Pomona spokesperson wrote in a statement to TSL. “As outlined in the College’s Speech Code, speech and other forms of expression are protected. Disciplinary policies are based on disruptive or intrusive conduct — not one’s viewpoint.”
Scripps College Senior Communications Manager Emily Peters wrote that “as an institution of higher education, Scripps recognizes and embraces its responsibility to foster civil dialogue across different perspectives. In alignment with our Principles of Community, we support everyone’s right to free speech and personal expression, subject only to regulation of time, place, and manner.”
Harvey Mudd College, Claremont McKenna College and Pitzer College did not respond to requests for comment before press time.
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