I listened to Prof. Russell Rickford say that we live in the rotting corpse of an empire that masquerades as a democracy on Nov. 8th to a crowd of (mostly) supportive onlookers in Ho Plaza who cheered him on after each statement. The oration continued as Rickford mentioned how those in America and western society pursuing “hawkish pro-Israel policies” in the Middle East are “morally depraved.” The accusation of moral depravity is surprising coming from someone who was “exhilarated” by the rape and murder of innocent civilians by Palestinian terrorists on Oct. 7th, 2023.
The majority of Rickford’s commentary had little to do with the recent presidential election the demonstration was purportedly about. Efforts had seemingly been made by rally organizers to obscure the true purpose of the the event which was sponsored by four Cornell student groups including the Cornell Progressives, Students for Justice in Palestine, Cornell Young Democratic Socialists of America and the typically more moderate Cornell Democrats — noticeably absent as a sponsor of the rally was the more radical Coalition for Mutual Liberation, the traditional ringleader of anti-Israel sentiment on campus.
Rickford’s presence, along with various keffiyehs and Palestinian flags gave away the fact that the rally was not actually meant to only be a “Stand Against Facism” or for “collective community processing [of] grief” as it was promoted. Positioning this “rally and march” as a response to the election of President Trump a few days prior was a dishonest attempt to broaden the tent of Cornell’s anti-Israel coalition to include all those who opposed the election of President Trump.
The sight of various signage with statements such as “f*ck Donald Trump” helped the facade, but the mirage was undermined when Rickford, the primary speaker, stated that he would not have much preferred Kamala Harris as president as “liberals [have] prepared the ground for facism by pursuing genocide abroad” and that “war profiteers” and “Boeing” would never allow themselves to lose an election.
He, like most of those listening to him, if the enthusiasm was any indication, did not care whether Trump or Vice President Harris gained power. The goal of those cheering seemed to be to weaponize the political climate to gather support for their anti-American and anti-Israel ideologies.
A further tell that this wasn’t a typical anti-Trump, pro-democracy rally was the decision by rally organizers to parade from Ho Plaza to Collegetown and the Commons shouting typical anti-Israel slogans such as “from the river to the sea.” This in a county that voted 75 percent for Harris, who, no matter what you might think of her, is a pro-American politician that nearly half the country voted for.
The efforts of these groups and their leaders, through their chanting of hate filled rhetoric, could ultimately create a political and social environment that allows atrocities to occur much like they did in Amsterdam on Nov. 7th, where a pre-planned pogrom broke out with few consequences. I certainly hope it is not the case, but some of the rhetoric makes one wonder if that was the intention of at least some of the speakers and rally organizers.
The leaders of the rally seemed to be trying to gain strength in numbers under the anti-Trump banner however some of the groups behind the rally could not have been happy with at least some of the messages being conveyed.
There were more than a few people proudly waving transgender flags throughout the rally. I can only wonder how they possibly justify standing in “solidarity” with people who openly support the actions of genocidal Islamic terrorist organizations like Hamas and Hezbollah, organizations that execute and torture their own members for accusations of homosexuality and have leaders who have declared “war” on deviance from traditional sexual norms. The same conditions that enabled the Amsterdam pogrom have over the last quarter-century caused a chilling of Amsterdam’s once thriving LGBTQ community.
Cornellians who support free speech, true liberalism and real discourse, like I imagine the majority of the Cornell Democrats do, need to stand up and point out these inconsistencies emanating from a rally they have co-sponsored and put their name behind.
How does a “pro-democracy,” anti-Trump rally turn into calls for the expulsion of Jews from the state of Israel? How do Rickford’s calls for the toppling of the political class of the “empire” align with the goals of the Cornell Democrats? Would the leaders of that group go so far as to call Vice President Harris a “genocidal person” like Professor Carlton Williams, law, did in the Commons on Friday? Do the rally’s sponsors support that extreme statement?
As Cornellians, we need to ask ourselves, what kind of community do we want? One guided by foundational American and Western values? Or one controlled by those who want to topple the current system and promote hate filled, inaccurateand indefensible arguments of genocide and occupation? In 1967, when Egypt ceded control of Gaza, the population of the coastal enclave was under 400,000. Today, there are well over 2,000,000 inhabitants, more than a five fold increase during a time when the world population has only increased 2.3 times. How can population growth at more than two times the rate of the world constitute genocide? Maybe someone from the math department can weigh in here.
I hope Cornellians find the strength to stand up to these hate filled groups actively seeking to confuse and obfuscate reality here on our campus to further their political goals. These goals stand in stark opposition to American and Western values of truth, freedom of expression and civil discourse, principles that have allowed Cornell to grow and thrive since its founding.
Noah Farb is a first year student in the College of Arts and Sciences. His fortnightly column Thinking Critically discusses politics and current events. He can be reached at nef36@cornell.edu.
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