New Orleans, LA — About 50 students and community members rallied on Wednesday, April 15, in protest outside an event hosting two Israeli Defense Forces reservists. The event was called “Triggered: From Combat to Campus,” and was hosted on Tulane University’s main campus by Students Supporting Israel.

“I still remember that when Students for a Democratic Society demanded that Tulane end its overwhelming support for Israel, Tulane threw the book at those students,” said Silas Gillett of Student for a Democratic Society (SDS).

Gillett continued, “They suspended them, they kicked them out of their housing. Now they have the gall to bring these evil IDF war criminals on campus instead of their own students!”

The protest was organized by Together United Louisiana (TUL) SDS with support from over a dozen other student and community organizations to demand an end to Tulane’s support for Israel. At the event inside, IDF reservists Yossi Hertz and Lior Biran tried to defend Israel, but they could not speak without hearing the chants of “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” and “Lock them up” from the rally outside.

While organizers decried the genocide of Palestinians and the IDF’s attacks on Iran and Lebanon, a small group of students waved an Israeli flag at the protest. Sruly Heller, speaking for New Orleans Stop Helping Israel’s Ports, addressed them, saying, “You absolutely desecrate the memories of our ancestors when you hold up your Zionist flags like that. My Bubbe has no cousins, and they didn’t die for your Zionist bullshit. Shame on you!”

Addressing the crowd on behalf of the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM), Leila Abu-Orf said, “I’ve watched my family home, my birthright, the one that we built after we were kicked out of our ancestral village of Isdud, now Ashdod, be burnt to rubble.” Abu-Orf continued to address the soldiers directly, firing up the crowd, “You are a band of cowards who use an AI-powered program to track your targets for drones while you shit yourself from the comfort of your armored tank out of fear of the flip-flopped freedom fighter approaching you!”

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