Columbia University Students Protest Veterans Day in Favor of Hamas Support

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The tension surrounding Veterans Day at Columbia University has reached new levels as a student activist group, Columbia University Apartheid Divest, organizes a protest aimed at reframing the holiday. The group has circulated flyers calling for “Martyrs Day” in place of Veterans Day, saying it intends to honor those who, according to the organizers, were martyred by what they describe as the “Israel-US war machine.” This message aligns with the group’s stance against U.S. military involvement and policies supporting Israel.

Campus veterans, meanwhile, are planning a counter-event to honor Veterans Day and to express their support for U.S. military service members.

For many in Columbia’s veterans community, this protest feels like an escalation of tensions that have been brewing on campus since the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Hamas and the subsequent outbreak of violence in Gaza. Veterans like Sam Nahins, an Air Force veteran and Columbia graduate student, describe the protest as a stark display of the disdain some activist groups show toward U.S. military members.

Nahins expressed that, while this isn’t the first time veterans have encountered negative sentiments on campus, the explicitness of this protest feels particularly confrontational. He pointed to past incidents where veterans were allegedly called “infidels” and “baby-killers” by other students.

For these veterans, this year’s Veterans Day protest may mark a difficult moment in campus dynamics, as both sides prepare for what could be a tense day of demonstrations and counter-demonstrations on Columbia’s campus.