About 10 Ithaca College students and Ithaca community members were issued a noise warning by Rebecca Cogan Carroll, director of ICare and Student Support, while chanting with a bullhorn during a rally hosted by Ithaca College Students for a Free Palestine at 8 a.m. Aug. 28 outside of the Peggy Ryan Williams Center. The rally was in response to the cancellation of the Policy Breakfast at the college featuring local, state and federal members of government.

The breakfast was scheduled for 8 a.m. Aug. 28 in Emerson Suites. Josh Riley, United States Representative for the 19th Congressional District of New York; Lea Webb, State Senator for the 52nd District of New York; Assemblywoman Anna Kelles; and Tompkins County Legislative Chair Dan Klein were all scheduled to attend. 

Cogan Carroll issued the noise complaint along with Thomas Dunn, director and deputy chief of the Office of Public Safety and Emergency Management, at 8:47 a.m. to the protestors. She said the college received a noise complaint from a classroom. 

“Because we do have the code of conduct, we don’t want to have to go that direction,” Cogan Carroll said during the rally. “You can continue, we just can’t have the bullhorn. And if it does continue, it does risk a referral to conduct. So I just want to let you know that’s the situation because what I’m not looking to do is to make problems with conduct.” 

Despite Cogan Carroll’s warning, protestors continued to use the bullhorn and chanted “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” and “The more you try to silence us, the louder we will be.”

Dunn said via email to The Ithacan that OPS received a noise complaint at 8:25 a.m. regarding amplified sound, and the group was informed that the noise violated the Student Code of Conduct. Dunn also said via email that he could not confirm where or who the complaint came from.

Policy breakfast cancellation and prior protest plans

On Aug. 27, Peggy Coleman, Tompkins County Chamber president and CEO, released a statement that the policy breakfast was canceled due to safety concerns and multiple social media posts that included images of the planned participants and violent imagery. 

“We have spent months coordinating with federal, state, and local officials to develop a forum for open and constructive dialogue between levels of government to help create and advocate for policies to support our members, our partners and the Tompkins County community as a whole,” Coleman said in the statement. “It is disappointing that outside forces are restricting the exchange of ideas.”

The policy breakfast, hosted by the Tompkins County Chamber, was advertised as an intimate breakfast and discussion with government officials. The breakfast cost $25 to attend before cancellation and was not open to the public. 

ICSFP, Ithaca Committee for Justice in Palestine and The Coalition for Mutual Liberation at Cornell University shared a collaborative Instagram post Aug. 27, citing panelists’ statements, policy votes and actions regarding Israel with blood splatter behind the text and images of the panelists on the post. The groups also shared plans to protest the event in a separate Instagram post Aug. 25, sharing plans for a rally at the Peggy Ryan Williams Center to protest his presence on campus. 

The first image on the post claimed Riley receives donations from pro-Israel Political Action Committees, went to Israel, met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and voted in favor of H.R.23, a bill that condemns the arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court against Netanyahu and Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant.

Quincey Fireside, Ithaca College senior and president of ICSFP, said in an interview with The Ithacan that they are not surprised the policy breakfast was canceled and that the Instagram posts did not indicate any violence toward the panelists. 

“Josh Riley has blood on his hands and we were planning to hold him accountable for that [with the protest],” Fireside said. “We have never indicated that we would be violent or anything but peaceful; we have no history of being violent at this college.” 

Josh Riley’s actions regarding Israel and Palestine

According to OpenSecrets.org, Riley received a $5,000 donation from Democratic Majority for Israel and a $5,000 donation from the Joint Action Committee for Political Affairs during his 2024 congressional campaign. 

On Aug. 17, Riley shared a Facebook post detailing his trip to Israel he took with the American Israel Education Foundation, a charitable organization affiliated with the American Israel Political Action Committee, a bipartisan pro-Israel lobbying group that advocates for Israeli interests and raises money for American politicians, with 10 newly elected House Democrats. 

Riley said in the Facebook post that he attended the trip to see the situation in Israel himself and said there is a clear and undeniable humanitarian crisis in Gaza, and he demands that the United Nations and the Israeli government develop an operation to provide aid to civilians. Riley also said the terrorist group Hamas is inflicting unimaginable suffering in Gaza and unnecessarily prolonging the war. 

During his campaign, Riley spoke with The Ithacan Sept. 27, 2024, and said from a policy perspective, the American-Israeli alliance is critically important, but he has serious concerns about how the war has unfolded since Oct. 7, 2023.

“I have argued for many, many months now for a negotiated settlement that would provide for a ceasefire, a surge in humanitarian assistance and removing Hamas from leadership in the Palestinian areas so we can get back on a path for a two-state solution,” Riley said. 

Rally actions and campus reactions 

During the rally, Fireside read testimonies from multiple Palestinians living in Gaza and read the last will of Anas al-Sharif, a 28-year-old Palestinian Journalist who covered the frontline in Gaza and was killed in an Israeli attack on a tent that housed journalists in Gaza City. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, 197 journalists have been killed in Israel’s assault on Gaza since Oct. 7, 2023. 

Throughout the protest, participants shouted, “Josh Riley, you can’t hide, we charge you with genocide,” along with the other panelists who would have attended the policy breakfast, and to “globalize the intifada.”

Ben Epstein, a junior at the college and the president of Ithacans for Israel, said that when he hears chants like “globalize the intifada” from other students, he feels unsafe. 

“Chanting [globalize the intifada] has been our line, and that line has been crossed,” Epstein said in an interview with The Ithacan. 

Mona Sulzman, a member of the Party for Socialism and Liberation Finger Lakes Region, attended the rally and said it is disappointing to see colleges in the U.S. concede to a right-wing agenda.

“There is no difference between [Democrats], progressives [in office] and the right wing when it comes to Palestine,” Sulzman said. “We’re here to support the students who are our hope in a new generation and I just want a free Palestine and peace and dignity in the lives of all human beings.”

Sulzman said she has lived in Ithaca for the past 35 years and was in Ithaca during the Vietnam protests from 1969 to 1971. Sulzman said she encourages young people to use their voice to protest. 

“Young people, middle-aged people, old people need to come to stay in the streets and demand liberation in Palestine,” Sulzman said. “That’s why I’m here. To encourage you all to do this.”