Approximately 40 students sat outside Textor Hall in a silent protest to boycott Uriel Abulof, instructor in the School of Continuing Education at Cornell University and an associate professor in the School of Political Science, Government and International Affairs at Tel Aviv University, for the Side-By-Side discussion Feb. 6.

Side-By-Side was a one-hour dialogue, followed by a Q&A session with Nizar Farsakh, chair of the board of the Museum of the Palestinian People, and Abulof. The purpose of the event was to share candid perspectives on the Israel-Hamas war from both Israeli and Palestinian point of views and personal experience. Both Farsakh and Abulof joined virtually via Zoom. At 5 p.m., approximately 25 students sat down in silence surrounding the flagpole outside of Textor Hall. Roughly 20 more students joined the silent boycott over the hour and a half that followed. The students sat in below 30-degree weather as the sun set with their signs in front of them until exactly 6:30 p.m. when they all dispersed and made their way inside.

Sophomore Quincey Fireside was one of the students who participated in the sit-in. Five days before the event, Fireside — president of Ithaca College Students For Palestine (ICSFP) — took to the ICSFP Instagram, sharing posts tweeted and retweeted by Abulof that they said, in an Instagram post, “downplay the reality of Israel’s genocide against the Palestinian people.”

ICSFP is not an official organization and has been functioning on Instagram since December 2023. It is separate from Students for Justice in Palestine, which is in the process of establishing a chapter at the college.

Fireside said Abulof expresses Zionist — a movement for the re-establishment, development and protection of a Jewish nation in what is now Israel — viewpoints and that he is dismissive of the killing of Palestinian people. Fireside said Abulof has a history of aligning himself with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the Israeli Defense Force and the Israeli Occupation Forces. 

“He talks about the genocide as if it’s caused by political zealotry, rather than by white supremacy and anti-Muslim sentiments,” Fireside said. 

Fireside said it is dangerous to have such a big platform for the Zionist community while they think there is little space for the Palestinian and anti-Zionist community on campus. 

“We’re boycotting the talk, his presence on campus and also the idea that Palestinian people on campus have to be accompanied by Israeli people to speak,” Fireside said. “I think we’ve had quite a lot of talking from the Zionist community on campus since Oct. 7, [2023], and I’m personally a little tired of hearing it. I’d like some more stage time for the Palestinian and anti-Zionist community on campus.”

In October, Hillel put on the event Chamsas For The Heart, a pop-up therapeutic art studio in response to the war, and has continued to host Shabbat services every Friday. The Jewish community has also been supported by President La Jerne Cornish in her letter to the campus community Oct. 10. 

“It was heart-wrenching to hear our students, staff and other members of our extended Jewish community express their grief, anger, pain and fear,” Cornish stated in the letter. “It is important to note that we are actively seeking ways to support both Jewish as well as Palestinian and Gazan community members during these difficult times.”

In a comment to The Ithacan, Dave Maley, director of public relations at the college, said Cornish has made it clear that the college values the open exchange of ideas and the promotion of a peace in which human rights are non-negotiable. 

“She has pledged the college’s support of Palestinian and Gazan as well as Jewish members of the community, and she has spoken out against both Islamophobia and antisemitism,” Maley said in an email to The Ithacan. “She and other administrators have also conveyed this in meetings they have held with Muslim and Palestinian students.”

Fireside said they think the reason Abulof was brought in for the discussion is because he has been very vocal about his opposition to Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister who has opposed any hostage-for-prisoner deals that would be necessary for a long-term cease-fire in Gaza.  

Lauren Goldberg, director of Hillel at Ithaca College, said to The Ithacan that the intent of the Side-By-Side program is not to position two people against each other, but rather how individuals can come together to work toward a better future.

“[The purpose of the event is] to show that two people can hold … these two truths at the same time and speak to each other about ways forward that hold up the human rights of all people,” Goldberg said. 

Goldberg said she recognizes that it is very difficult for students to listen across lines of difference and that it is often much easier to tune the other side out. She said the program is not trying to convince anybody of anything, but is built on mutual respect and honest conversations. 

“We really believe that this is critical toward a sustained peace for all people,” Goldberg said. “The entire hope of this program is that it will allow us to step out of our silos and to hear truly from the voices of people who live really, in this milieu, what it’s like to be in their skin and what it’s been like to be who they are over the course of their lifetime.”

Fireside said that while the Side-By-Side was a good idea in theory, bringing Abulof to a campus that, according to them, already has such a high favorability toward Zionism showed a lack of interest in student concerns. 

“Honestly, it felt like crumbs being thrown at the anti-Zionist community on campus, and there is mounting frustration,” Fireside said. “I think it felt like a ‘Please shut up’ moment from the administration.” 

A couple of hours before the boycott, a few ICSFP members met in the West Tower lobby to create signs for the sit-in. Sophomore Marshall Long, a politics major, came up with the idea to create the signs. Long said the boycott was not a protest of the event itself, but a protest of the invitation of Abulof to speak at the college. 

“We’re not going to be complicit in just allowing blatant genocide deniers or blatant Zionist rhetoric to be spread,” Long said. “The vast majority of the student body doesn’t agree with that sort of rhetoric.”

First-year student Cameron Miles created a sign for the boycott. He said he was unable to make it to the protest but still wished to show his support. 

“I don’t have a ton of money to go out and give donations to charities, but I still want to make it visible that I support Palestinian students,” Miles said. 

Fireside said they hoped the demonstration would be a wake-up call to the community and the administration. They said they hope the administration provides the same amount of support and resources that they have put out there for Israeli and Zionist students on campus to Palestinian or anti-Zionist students on campus. 

“I’ve spoken to a lot of Palestinian students on campus; I know they feel really isolated,” Fireside said. “I think that the administration has a lot of work to do in gaining back the trust of anti-Zionist and Palestinian students on campus.”